Presenting Ouida Sebestyen

the long version

In Presenting Ouida Sebestyen, author Virginia R. Monseau provides a critical analysis of Sebestyen's six novels and her work in drama and short fiction, and includes the first detailed examination of the new book, Out of Nowhere. From the vivid opening pages in which she recounts a hiking trip she took with Sebestyen, Monseau provides a richly detailed study. Informed by interviews with both the author and her longtime editor, Monseau reveals Sebestyen's thoroughness and commitment to relatively unorthodox writing methods - such as working outdoors, writing in longhand, and compiling lists of slang, common pastimes, and even jokes from the 1920s as background material. This study, a true portrait of the author, her methods, and beliefs, uncovers those elements that readers have found so rewarding in Sebestyen's work, and in examining her richest characters and themes, we see that her fictional creations mirror her philosophy of living.