The Eve of Saint Venus

First edition (publ. Sidgwick & Jackson)

The Eve of Saint Venus is a story or, as author Anthony Burgess (pen-name of John Burgess Wilson) put it, an "opusculum",[1] on the theme of marriage. Originally conceived as a play in three acts in 1952, it was re-written as a novella after the author initially failed to find a theatre willing to stage the play. The novella was first published in 1964.[2][3] The play version of the work premiered in 1979.

  1. ^ "The Eve of Saint Venus (review)". Choice: 1229–1230. November 1970.
  2. ^ Boytinck, Paul W. (1985). Anthony Burgess: An Annotated Bibliography and Reference Guide. Garland Pub. pp. 62–64. ISBN 978-0-8240-9135-4.
  3. ^ Clarke, Jim (2017). The Aesthetics of Anthony Burgess: Fire of Words. Springer. p. 85. ISBN 978-3-319-66411-8.