Lord Malquist and Mr. Moon

Tom Stoppards first novel, originally published in 1966 just before the premiere of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, is an uproarious fantasy set in modern London. The cast includes a penniless, dandified Malquist with a liveried coach; Malquists Boswellian biographer, Moon, who frantically scribbles as a bomb ticks in his pocket; a couple of cowboys, one being named Jasper Jones; a lion whos banned from the Ritz; an Irishman on a donkey claiming to be the Risen Christ; and three irresistible women.