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Master Snickup's Cloak
A parody involving childhood love in the Middle Ages.
40 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1979
160 people want to read
About the author
Alexander Theroux
51Ìýbooks182ÌýfollowersAlexander Theroux is a novelist, poet, and essayist. The most apt description of the novels of Theroux was given by Anthony Burgess in praise of Theroux's Darconville's Cat: Theroux is 'word drunk', filling his novels with a torrent of words archaic and neologic, always striving for originality, while drawing from the traditions of Rolfe, Rabelais, Sterne, and Nabokov.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
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April 8, 2023Switched to this book to read the corresponding fable in
. Brian Froud's muted grotesqueries illuminate Alaric's fable as told to Isabel.
August 11, 2016
One of the most brilliantly illustrated and slyly cynical children's books I have ever read. Doomed love! Medieval hijinks! Ascetic privations! With a stunning guest performance from none other than the Black Death!
I cannot believe I owned this book and lost it in a move. So many brilliant books from childhood, gone... But honestly, with books like this, is it any wonder I became an illustrator?
I cannot believe I owned this book and lost it in a move. So many brilliant books from childhood, gone... But honestly, with books like this, is it any wonder I became an illustrator?
April 2, 2023
This is a strange little book - one of the latest additions to my Paper Tiger collection. The Story is from Alexander Theroux while the artwork is from one of my favourite artists Brian Froud the creative genius behind the creatures of the Labyrinth and the Dark Crystal.
The story is rather a sad one and does not go where you expect it to - but for me it is the illustrations (come on it is a Paper Tiger after all) that make the book and bring it so much to life for me. Its as a brilliant if short (30 odd pages) tale that each time I open it I find something new to enjoy.
One thing that surprised me about this edition is that it is from 1979 and has survived so well - and the images so fresh and new. It always surprises me how long some of the creative geniuses have been active and working. I guess I worry what will come along to take their place - I guess I will have to keep looking since Paper Tiger is no more.
The story is rather a sad one and does not go where you expect it to - but for me it is the illustrations (come on it is a Paper Tiger after all) that make the book and bring it so much to life for me. Its as a brilliant if short (30 odd pages) tale that each time I open it I find something new to enjoy.
One thing that surprised me about this edition is that it is from 1979 and has survived so well - and the images so fresh and new. It always surprises me how long some of the creative geniuses have been active and working. I guess I worry what will come along to take their place - I guess I will have to keep looking since Paper Tiger is no more.
March 17, 2022
A wonderfully whimsical and delightfully bawdy tale of medieval plague and high jinks masterfully illustrated by Brian Froud by way of Bosch and Bruegel.
January 21, 2025
5 stars for Brian Froud’s (artist for Labyrinth/Dark Crystal)artwork. Odd to see peoples collection of this guy and never have this children’s book included. Artwork is really well done.
I’m surprised Theroux didn’t keep going with Froud. Comics/graphic novels were on the rise. Possibly too early (before Darconvilles Cat and after Three Wogs). Maybe a falling out or just a passing by.
Would recommend if you enjoy iconic “illuminations� but a fantasy legend. Otherwise, this story can be found in Darconvilles Cat paperback (pages 140-144) or much cheaper in Theroux’s “Fables� collection (pages 21-27) that also has cover art but Froud.
It seems to work best in the former due to this one sentence that is otherwise, out of place:
“To reach eventually the Black Sea where, living alone on a shale island, he chastised himself with thongs and subsisted only on air and dew. Rain fell on his blue cloak, which he sucked, supplying himself with vitamin B12.� What lol.
I’m surprised Theroux didn’t keep going with Froud. Comics/graphic novels were on the rise. Possibly too early (before Darconvilles Cat and after Three Wogs). Maybe a falling out or just a passing by.
Would recommend if you enjoy iconic “illuminations� but a fantasy legend. Otherwise, this story can be found in Darconvilles Cat paperback (pages 140-144) or much cheaper in Theroux’s “Fables� collection (pages 21-27) that also has cover art but Froud.
It seems to work best in the former due to this one sentence that is otherwise, out of place:
“To reach eventually the Black Sea where, living alone on a shale island, he chastised himself with thongs and subsisted only on air and dew. Rain fell on his blue cloak, which he sucked, supplying himself with vitamin B12.� What lol.
March 6, 2009
Love knows no bounds, nor sacrifice ,don't waste it, its too precious.
February 7, 2020
A Medieval tale of the Black Death. Interesting.
March 1, 2023
Pisces season wouldn’t be complete without a foray into the fantastical realms illustrated by Brian Froud, so I’m glad I scooped this strange little book by Alexander Theroux a while back and saved it until now. Ironically, the story is far less filled with faeries than I am used to from a Froud book, but it still holds a certain fey quality. Theroux tells a tale of a pair of star-crossed lovers that centres around the titular cloak given from one to the other, which later becomes a symbol for the plagues that wracked Europe during the Middle Ages. For all that the characters of the story contain a certain amount of comedy (quietly ridiculous names and funny turns of language abound), the tale of Master Snickup and his love Superfecta is darkly grounded in the harshness of the real world. Froud’s limited palette of naturalist colours suffuses the story with a grounded tone that carries our protagonists through their love affair, Superfecta’s forced marriage, and Snickup’s monastic exile with an essence that feels borderline Biblical. Mirrored by Theroux’s bardic voice that pushes together antiquated rhythms with the occasional modernist vocabulary, the resulting narrative is an exercise in strangeness that is still surprisingly successful. We are drawn in to the majesty of Master Snickup’s cloak and beguiled by the fey creatures who come to call him neighbour, and are left wondering at the fate of the now almost-invisible Superfecta as her place in the narrative is taken by her bombastic husband. The tale concludes in an epic fashion, with an inventive set of compositions by Froud, as Snickup’s death brings the Black Death to Europe and the village that he left is in turn brought to its knees. Is this the faerie story that I expected Froud to have helmed: no; but, the mythical overtones of Theroux’s carefully wrought morality tale that keep us one step away from reality were a strange delight, nonetheless.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 2, 2025
Not for children, but I love the artwork.
August 8, 2015
Read this with my kids long ago. Only realized part way through that it was not child appropriate but by then the kids were into it and loved it. So did I. As with all children's books, we read it many times together.
Pulled it out recently in preparation for my now four-and-a-half year old granddaughter. I'm hoping that she'll read it to her brother born five days ago when he's five.
Pulled it out recently in preparation for my now four-and-a-half year old granddaughter. I'm hoping that she'll read it to her brother born five days ago when he's five.
March 7, 2009
Read this when I was a kid and having been looking for a copy ever since.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
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