Forty of the greatest fictional festivities as seen through the eyes of the world´s greatest writers. People love to party. And writers love to attend and document these occasions. The party is a useful literary device, not only for social commentary and satire but also as an occasion where characters can meet, fall in and out of love, or even get murdered. A Curious Invitation is a humorous and informative guide to literature´s most memorable parties. Some of these parties are depictions of real events, like the Duchess of Richmond´s ball on the eve of battle with Napoleon in Thackeray´s Vanity Fair; others draw on the authors´ experience of the society they lived in, such as Lady Metroland´s party in Evelyn Waugh´s Vile Bodies; while others come straight from the writer´s bizarre imagination, like Douglas Adams´ flying party above an unknown planet from The Hitchhiker´s Guide to the Galaxy. Witty, entertaining, and full of fabulous detail, A Curious Invitation offers readers the chance to crash some of the great parties in literary history.