About The Book

Originally written in 1950, then revised and first published in 1992, The Dwarfs is Harold Pinter’s only novel. Set in postwar Britain, The Dwarfs describes the intertwined lives and concerns of four young Londoners: Len, working at the Euston train station but fascinated by abstract mathematics; Mark, a sometime actor; and Virginia and Pete, a young couple trying to define their relationship amid the powerful, sometimes destructive forces at work among the four.

In the evolution of this quadrilateral friendship and the strains it creates, Harold Pinter explores how ordinary lives are molded by the limitations and boundaries of sexuality, intimacy, and mortality. It is a world populated by dwarfs—young people who have departed, only to leave emptiness. Funny, vivid, and haunting, The Dwarfs is a brilliantly intriguing and chillingly perceptive novel by a writer whose imagination has shaped our lives.

Praise

“Like a pungent, virile brandy and therefore to be savored carefully and enjoyed thoughtfully . . . [The Dwarfs] embodies the characteristics of Pinter’s early plays shaped by the spare, chiseled taste of a balanced literary eye.” —Gene Saxe, Rocky Mountain News

“A fascinating work . . . possessing extraordinary power. Masterful.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“Brilliant, cranky, and eccentric, and the narrative passages are some of the most thrilling ever written.” —Library Journal

“Some of the author’s most enduring themes—notably, sexual jealousy and betrayal—are present. . . . The narration shows traces of writers as various as Joyce and Beckett, e.e. cummings and J.P. Donleavy.” —The Washington Post

“The Abbott and Costello meet Samuel Beckett dialogue . . . makes you laugh out loud.” —The Village Voice

Awards

Winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature