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    Topper
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    Topper
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    Topper
    Ebook271 pages3 hours

    Topper

    By Thorne Smith

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Elegant, fun-loving George and Marion Kerby are the toast of the town, until they wreck their flashy car and discover they've become, well, ghosts. Making the best of a bad situation, they decide that being dead is the perfect opportunity to liven up staid, stuffy Cosmo Topper. Naturally, much hilarity ensues.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBooklassic
    Release dateJun 12, 2015
    ISBN9789635223770
    Unavailable
    Topper
    Author

    Thorne Smith

    Thorne Smith was an American writer of humorous supernatural fantasy fiction. He is best known for his two Topper novels, which are racy comic fantasies involving much drinking and ghosts. He penned twenty-six literary works in a span of seventeen years, including nine fantasy novels, a volume of poetry, a children’s book, and two screenplays. He was also a talented copywriter and spent time writing for the New Yorker, as well as a short stint writing for MGM in Hollywood.

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    Reviews for Topper

    3.5/5

    83 ratings6 reviews

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    • 3/5
      very funny whimsica fantasy.
    • 5/5
      Absolutely delightful. Must read the rest of these. While in some ways this was considered scandalous, it certainly seems innocent today, and what man hasn't fallen in love with a ghost? This modern era farce has a sweetness and innocence lacking in a post-modern era characterized by violence and overt sex. Smith uses an interesting motif in this book that he did not use in "Gods". Keep your eyes open for it.
    • 4/5
      Barrett Whitener did a good job narrating this 1920s satire.I have long loved the Cary Grant film version of this book but this is my first time reading it. While the characters and basic premise is the same, the novel is much more about the title character of Topper. Topper, a stodgy New York banker, is suffering through a mid-life crisis aggravated by the intrusion of some ghosts (including one of a dog who only partially materializes). While less farcical than the film, it is a better story.
    • 3/5
      Cosmo Topper is an odd duck and his story is an even goofier one. After hearing about a young couple tragically killed in a car accident he sets out to buy their automobile from a mechanic. He has never driven a car and so obviously he doesn't have a license. Despite all that, something prompts him to hide the purchase of the car from Mrs. Topper as well as keep secret the subsequent driving lessons he needs in order to operate the motor vehicle. But the trouble really begins when the ghosts of George and Marion Kirby, the couple killed in the accident, start haunting Mr. Topper and their old vehicle. For lack of a better word they are troublemakers, materializing at will and causing general mayhem. Things turn scandalous when Mr. Kirby leaves his wife. Vixen Marion is left to haunt Mr. Topper by her playful self.
    • 3/5
      Coming of age or mid life crisis story about a middle aged man "Topper". Through drink his soul was reclaimed. I first came across the story as a kid watching Leo G. Carroll as Cosmo Topper in the TV series, then when I was a little older the movie with Cary Grant quickly became a favorite. An early example of urban fantasy with a humorous twist.
    • 4/5
      Cosmo, a banker stuck in a rut, buys a car on a whim, despite being the car in which a young couple died in a few months before after crashing into a tree.

      Little does he know, but the car is haunted by the dead couple, and soon the three are having a whale of a time. Topper escapes from his humdrum life (and wife), spends most of his time excessively drunk, getting into trouble and hanging around with a lot of dead people - and Oscar the dog.

      I do vaguely remember the film with Cary Grant and I can just imagine the special effects being created for this - such as when Oscar can only (back) half appears.

      Think the book would best be described as "screwball" which is a type of book - and film - which has fallen out of fashion, especially in early 21st century England. We like our humour different now I think. Whilst mildly amusing, this is not the funniest book I've read