by Anthony Burgess
From birth beds to coffins, this picture book offers reproductions in color of all life's resting places. There are great beds with canopies, Queen Victoria's headboard, bunks and compartments on ships and trains, a Caribbean native hammock, Napoleon's camp bed, the beds in fairy tales (such as Grandmother's bed in Little Red Riding Hood). The essay that accompanies these lively, entertaining pictures is by the author of such tense novels as A Clockwork Orange, but here he is totally relaxed, tossing off bons mots and having fun. "The world is for the most part so puritanical that it will not accept the conjunction of bed and work. When the postman comes... at eleven in the morning, he says reprovingly: 'Ah, well, some of us have to work.' This is because he is in uniform and has been up for hours. I myself, though in bed, may well have completed a thousand words of prose by that time." The handsome design is a delight, making this a perfect gift for a friend who loves to lie in bed and enjoy a pretty book. (Abbeville Press, $12.95)
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