Leila: Further in the Life and Destinies of Darcy Dancer Gentleman

By J. P. Donleavy

A liltingly moving piece of writing from a wonderfully fruity romancer' - Financial Times Where Darcy departing Dublin descends on his darkly decrepit desmesne, skint as a boiled bone. There to ponder his leaking, bat-ridden birthright, devilishly diverted by sexy Miss von B and readily rolled up by Ronald Rashers. And Sees Leila. Lovely, lissome Leila - who tells him no. A definite negative. So Darcy is back to Dublin and the noisome stews to dream of the one bright star in his eternal darkness … As There's fool's gold at the end of every Irish rainbow, and tarnished silver linings in every cloud, so there's a shimmer on the far horizon for this particular broth of a boy. His future is disastrous, his present indecent, his past divine. He is Darcy Dancer, youthful squire of Andromeda Park, the great gray stone mansion inhabited by Crooks, the cross eyed butler, and the sexy, aristocratic Miss Von B. This sequel to The Destinies of Darcy Dancer, Gentleman finds our hero falling in with decidedly low company — like the dissolute Dublin poet, Foxy Slattery, and Ronald Rashers, who absconds with the family silver — before falling head over heels in love with the lissome Leila.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Lilliput Press
• Release date: Oct 23, 2013
• ISBN: 9781843515869

J. P. Donleavy

J.P. ‘Mike’ Donleavy has written more than twenty books since The Ginger Man, including The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B, Meet My Maker the Mad Molecule, A Fairy Tale of New York, The Onion Eaters and Schultz (all available as eBooks from Lilliput), along with several works of non-fiction such as The Unexpurgated Code: A Complete Manual of Survival and Manners. He lives along the shores of Lough Owel near Mullingar in County Westmeath.

Reviews for Leila

[naggedman · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A great read, including some laugh-out-loud passages - one wants to know more about Darcy Dancer, ie to read another of Donleavy's books!

[hagelstein_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In this sequel to The Destinies of Darcy Dancer, Gentleman, Darcy Dancer returns from Dublin to his ancestral home, the “mouldering” Andromeda Park, filled with his beloved insolent, thieving, lackluster staff, eating him destitute and “all going mad together.” He finds a new and captivating member of the staff, Leila, who remains at arms-length despite their eventual shared profession of love.Darcy suffers through the usual riotous fox hunts, the drunken savagery of which leave outsiders stunned out of their senses. He returns to Dublin for a short period of more savage debauched drunkenness, this time in the catacombs, and for intense disappointment at the track with the con-man Ronnie Rashers, now masquerading as the Earl of Ronald Ronald. Leila is rife with strife, sadness, loneliness, and profane humor. Darcy is land-rich but perpetually cash poor, as he is well-sexed but loveless, without “all anyone really wants in this world, is just each other. One body enfolding another in comfort when it carries so much pain.”