Iain Banks' momentous first novel, published in 1984 is being reissued with a new cover alongside other classic titles from the Abacus list in our 40th Anniversary year.
Iain Banks came to widespread and controversial public notice with the publication of his first novel, THE WASP FACTORY, in 1984. He has since gained enormous popular and critical acclaim for both his mainstream and his science fiction novels.
I discovered The Wasp Factory in the early 1990s and was stunned by
its original story and dark humour. I'd not read anything like it
before and haven't since. It wielded that raw energy of a first
novel but at the same time was confident and accomplished, carving
a tricky line between gritty reality and surreal comedy. It gave me
a sense of unease over whether I was immersed in truth or fantasy,
while at the same time knowing I was being guided by a masterly
storyteller... most of all this book floored me with its astounding
twists - that feeling of not having seen something that was there
all along has never left me
*Guardian*
A gothic horror story of quite exceptional quality... macabre,
bizarre and... quite impossible to put down. There is a control and
assurance in the book, an originality rare in established writers
twice the author's age. This is an outstandingly good read
*Financial Times*
Iain Banks has written one of the most brilliant first novels I
have come across for some time. His study of an obsessive
personality is extraordinary, written with a clarity and attention
to detail that is most impressive. One can only admire a truly
remarkable novel
*Daily Telegraph*
If you are squeamish or easily frightened, then leave The Wasp
Factory severely alone. The novel is saved from sheer beastliness
by its black humour and its message. Read it if you dare
*Daily Express*
If a nastier, more vicious or distasteful novel appears this
spring, I shall be surprised. But there is unlikely to be a better
one either. You can hardly breathe for fear of missing a symbol, or
a fine phrase, or a horror so chilling that your hair stands on
end. Infinitely painful to read, grotesque but human, these pages
have a total reality rare in fiction. A mighty imagination has
arrived on the scene
*Mail on Sunday*
One of the top 100 novels of the century
*Independent*
A brilliant book, barmy and barnacled with the grotesque
*New Statesman*
Brilliant... irresistible... compelling
*New York Times*
A first novel of such curdling power and originality that whether
you like it or not - and you may hate it - the arrival of its
author Iain Banks must mark the literary debut of the year. It's
astonishing, unsettling and brilliantly written
*Cosmopolitan*
A first novel not only of tremendous promise, but also of
achievement, a minor masterpiece, perhaps. There is no label. It is
an obsessive novel, a bad dream of a book. Death and blood and gore
fill the pages, lightened only by the dark humour, the surreal
touches, and the poetry of the thing. There is something foreign
and nasty here, an amazing new talent
*Punch*
There is no denying the bizarre fertility of the author's
imagination: his brilliant dialogue, his cruel humour, his
repellent inventiveness. The majority of the literate public,
however, will be relieved that only reviewers are obliged to look
at any of it
*Irish Times*
As a piece of writing, The Wasp Factory soars to the level of
mediocrity. Maybe the crassly explicit language, the obscenity of
the plot, were thought to strike an agreeably avant-garde note.
Perhaps it is all a joke, meant to fool literary London into
respect for rubbish
*The Times*
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