The Wild Body: A Soldier of Humour and Other Stories

This collection of stories recounts the adventures of Ker-Orr, a self-termed ‘soldier of humour’, and his travels in the Breton countryside shortly before the First World War. Through his experiences, along with other tales that range from comic depictions of fellow travellers to vivid portrayals of circus clowns, Wyndham Lewis depicts a weary, run-down pre-war culture that was, in Ezra Pound’s words, ‘gone in the teeth’. Vivid, evocative and meticulous, these works, at once mocking and aggressive, form a brilliant reflection on the ludicrous in humankind. For here, in these rich and vigorous early pieces by a key modernist writer and artist, the laughter never loses its edge.