The Night Life of the Gods

Thorne Smith

In Night Life of the Gods, we meet Hunter Hawk, wealthy eccentric scientist in 1920s America, who, after numerous explosions, manages to invent an atomic ray that turns living beings into statues, and a second ray that restores them to their original state. With the help of Megaera, a fetching nine-hundred-year-old lady leprechaun he meets one night in the woods, he masters the art of transforming statues into people. Together, the two are invincible, especially when they get to New York City, where there are museums full of statues of Greek and Roman gods and goddesses, waiting to come back to life... Author Thorne Smith puts his seemingly boundless imagination to good work in The Night Life of the Gods, a rip-roaring novel that postulates about what would happen if ancient deities were revived and allowed to run wild in the streets of Depression-era New York City.

The Stray Lamb

Thorne Smith

In The Stray Lamb, author Thorne Smith draws inspiration from his most famous works, the beloved Topper series. It follows mild-mannered investment banker, cuckold, ordinary, faithful, and dipsomaniac T. Lawrence Lamb. He is given a new perspective on life through the eyes of many different animals as he assumes the shape of many including a stallion, goldfish, dog, lion and many others. Mr. Lamb gains wisdom, fresh insight, and a new much needed exuberance for life as he exchanges the mundane for the slightly insane. Thorne Smith again shows his mastery of the comic fantasy tale as Lamb lurches from one mishap to another, reeling from his wifes abandonment and the actions of his headstrong daughter and reveling in the new opportunities that his excursions into animal form provide.

Topper

Thorne Smith

Thorne Smith best-remembered for humorous novels, many turning on some fantastic plot device which thrusts the protagonist into grotesque predicaments, often via unwitting transformation. The 1926 publication of Topper brought the author immediate acclaim. Elegant, fun-loving George and Marion Kerby are the toast of the town, until they wreck their flashy car and discover theyve become, well, ghosts. Making the best of a bad situation, they decide that being dead is the perfect opportunity to liven up stuffy Cosmo Topper. The capricious ghosts make it their mission to rescue the law-abiding, mild-mannered bank manager from the staid summer of suburban Sundays that is his life. With their ectoplasmic reappearances and whimsically insane actions, they leave Topper, and anyone else who crosses their path, in a whirlwind of discomfiture and delight.

Topper Takes a Trip

Thorne Smith

Cosmo Topper is an average American bank executive on holiday in the French Riveria. Feckless, fun-loving and totally uncontrollable ghosts, George and Marion Kerby and friends the tortuously crooked Colonel Scott and his companion, the disreputable Mrs. Hart return to bring chaos and merriment into the life of mild-mannered, stuffy, and somewhat plump, Topper. One of Thorne Smiths best-loved comedies, it proves once again that he is the undisputed master of urbane wit and sophisticated repartee. His witty takes on modern life, sex, and the supernatural makes his unique style. Written in 1932 as a sequel to the enormously popular Topper novel, Topper Takes a Trip takes the reader for another a walk on the wild side. Come join the fun. Youll be glad you did.

Turnabout

Thorne Smith

Another magical, mischievous Thorne Smith classic. Though Thorne Smiths most popular works involve elements of fantasy and science fiction, the clever novel Turnabout takes his penchant for incorporating supernatural and magical themes in his work and puts one such plot twist to use as a comedic tool. A classic battle of the sexes, it was published in 1931 and follows a married couple who fall prey to the tricks of an Egyptian idol who grows weary of the seemingly never-ending spats between the Willows and causes them to switch bodies. As you might expect, hilarious hijinks ensue. The novel also inspired the last episode of the original series Star Trek, Turnabout Intruder.