The 40 Greatest Literary Parties

[Ecurb]

I just took Suzette Field's "A Curious Invitation: The Forty Greatest Parties in Fiction" out of the library. I won't list them all, but here are a few:

1) Gatsby's Saturday night parties.
2) Belsazzar's Feast.
3) The Duchess of Richmond's Ball (It's in Vanity Fair, and I think I remember Becky Sharpe and Amelia retiring to their rooms after the ball to "abuse the company".)
4) Queen Alice's Feast.
5) Bilbo Baggins Eleventy-first birthday.
6) The Panteleone Ball (The Leopard).
7)Satan's Rout (Master and Margarita)
8)The College Summer Ball (Lucky Jim).
9) McMurphy's Ward Party. (Cuckoo's nest)
10) The Warrior Feast (The Prose Edda).

Of the remaining 30, I've read only half (or fewer) of the novels. Here are my questions:

Which parties are left out (I'll let you know if they are listed by Field)?

Which parties would you most like to attend?

[Seasider]

Trimalchio's dinner party from Satyricon by the Roman author Petronius. Gross!!

[PeterL]

Dildo Bugger's 110th birthday party in Bored of the Rings.

[sandy14]

The party that never ends in Life, the Universe and almost Everything by Douglas Adams.

The Xmas party at the end of Charles Dickens' Scrooge.

[Ecurb]

The book lists the Adams party and the Satyricon party among the top 40. From Dickens, Fields lists Mrs. Hunter's costume breakfast party from Pickwick. No mention is made (possibly due to a simple oversight) of Dildo Bugger or any of his birthday parties.

[PeterL]

The book lists the Adams party and the Satyricon party among the top 40. From Dickens, Fields lists Mrs. Hunter's costume breakfast party from Pickwick. No mention is made (possibly due to a simple oversight) of Dildo Bugger or any of his birthday parties.

How tasteless!

[JBI]

The orchid pAvilion gathering on Lushan. By far the most significant literary party in history, made better because it is somewhat factual, featuring some of the best poets and the greatest of Chinese calligraphers, Wang xizhi.

[mal4mac]

Sebastian's dinner party in Brideshead revisited, after which he is sick through Charles Ryder's window. Not sure I'd want to attend that, too like many bad student parties I attended.

Plato's Symposium has to be in that list, surely.

[Ecurb]

Plato's Symposium is on the list -- but Sebastian's dinner party is not. The only East Asian party on the list is the Blossom Viewing party from The Tale of Genji.

[Scheherazade]

The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield

Mrs Dalloway's dinner party

[Ecurb]

Good ones (although neither is on Field's list). Field "was born and raised in Los Angeles. She moved to England to continue her education, and never got around to going home. She is now Tribune of the Last Tuesday Society, one of London's premier evnets promoters....."

In other words, she's a professional partier -- so she should know whereof she speaks.

She lists Fanny's coming-out ball at Mansfield Park among the top 40. Maria and Jullia did not attend, so we would be denied the pleasure of watching Henry Crawford flirt with both sisters at once. What's the point (true: we'd get to see Pug)? I can think of several Austen parties I would prefer, including the Ball at Netherfied, at which Darcy fails to flirt with Elizabeth. Any number of entertainments from Emma would suffice: the dinner party at Netherfield, the Box Hill Expedition, or, of course the Cole's ball at The Crown, where Knightley gallantly dances with the snubbed Harriet Smith (to Emma's delight). Emma then suggests that now that he has proven that he CAN dance, they are not so much brother and sister as to excuse him from dancing with her (their siblings are married). "Brother and sister?" says Knightley. "No, indeed."

If I could attend one, however, it would be the impromptu dance at the Great House in Persuasion. Louisa and Henrietta dance the night away with Captain Wentworth, while heartbroken Anne, always good natured and eager to please, plays the piano forte with her usual skill. I'd love to attend that one, just to flirt with Anne and see if I could make Captain Wentworth jealous. Henrietta and Louisa Musgrove? What was he thinking!?!?

[Lokasenna]

10) The Warrior Feast (The Prose Edda).


I wonder which one of the innumerable feasts attended by warriors in the Prose Edda she is talking about? Curious...

Also, does she include my namesake, the poem Lokasenna? That features a pretty explosive party!

[mal4mac]

The wrestling party in Chinua Achebe's "Things fall apart". I would definitely like to have been there, at least before the missionaries & imperialists had made white men persona non grata. Where can I buy some yams?

[kelby_lake]

The one in Titus Andronicus >:)

[Seasider]

The one in Titus Andronicus >:)
Definitely not for vegetarians!

[mal4mac]

Macbeth's banquet, when Banquo's ghost walk in in ... party pooper :)

Final scene in Hamlet - a warning not to mix drinks & swords!

[cacian]

what? no one mentioned the mad's hatter tea party?!!
Alice wont be happy ;)

[kelby_lake]

What about the party Nick Carraway goes to- I think it's Myrtle's party? I suppose there's some good balls in Austen and Bronte as well.

Then drama-wise, there's The Birthday Party, Cat on A Hot Tin Roof...lots of plays centre around parties actually.