Ian McEwan, “My Purple Scented Novel”

Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Tweet Report an Error

Ian McEwan’s “My Purple Scented Novel” is a short story of 4,300 words published in the New Yorker in March 2016. It was commissioned by curator Thomas Demand for inclusion in the printed catalogue of the exhibition “L’Image Volée” (The Stolen Image), a group show (Milan, Mar-Aug 2016). A tale of betrayal and deceit which revolves around literary theft and artistic antagonism, the story is narrated in the first person, reminiscent of the stories in First Love, Last Rights (1975), the collection which established McEwan’s literary reputation.

Thematising, as Demand requested, “unrepentant or guiltless theft”, the story was the product of a creative …

1334 words

Citation: Logotheti, Anastasia. "“My Purple Scented Novel”". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 07 November 2017 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=38807, accessed 08 October 2024.]

38807 “My Purple Scented Novel” 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.