A tragi-comedy of manners acted out almost entirely within the walls of a small pension or boarding house in late 19th century Paris, which is run by an appalling Dutch couple. The novel consists of a series of cameo scenes that are both funny and cruel.

Villa des Roses (20th Century Classics)

Literature & Fiction

Elsschot, Willem

Dramas & Plays

Penguin Classics

When the ambitious but inept clerk Frans Laarmans is offered a job managing an Edam distribution company in Antwerp, he jumps at the chance, despite his professed dislike for cheese in all its forms. He soon finds himself submerged in a bureaucratic nightmare as his complete incompetence becomes apparent. Meanwhile, his offices fill up with a seemingly infinite supply of the distinctive red-skinned cheeses, which he has no idea how to sell.
Skewering the pomposity of big business while revealing how an entrepreneurial spirit can often be a mask for buffoonery, Willem Elsschot's Cheese combines comedy and pathos in its depiction of a man trying to progress beyond his limited skill set. As poignant as it is funny, Cheese will appeal to anyone who has suffered the endless indignities of office life.

Cheese: Newly Translated and Annotated

Humor & Satire

Alma Books

The new chief agent in Belgium and Luxembourg for the Edam cheese company, a clerk in Antwerp struggles with his lack of business and selling experience, his dislike of cheese, the rigid class divisions of the 1930s, and his obsession with status.

Cheese

Vincent, Paul

Granta Books

Cheese is a gentle, satirical fable of capitalism and wealth. A clerk in Antwerp suddenly becomes the chief agent in Belgium and Luxembourg for Edam cheese and is saddled with 10,000 wheels of the red-rinded delight. But he has no idea how to run a business or how to sell his goods, and what’s more, he doesn’t even like cheese. Steeped in the atmosphere of the 1930s, an era of smart operators and failed businessmen, Cheese gracefully portrays the rigid class divisions of the time and a man’s obsession with status. This comic masterpiece about the perils of upward mobility is as relevant in the age of Internet investors and dot-com failures as it was when it was written.

Granta UK

The gilt-lettered advertisement outside Madame Brulot's pension in the shabby rue d'Armaille promises a "first-class family boardinghouse." But only one thing is certain about this so-called reputable Parisian pension—few guests emerge from their stay unscathed. First published in 1913, this comic novella helped establish Willem Elsschot—the pseudonym of Alfons de Ridder—as one of the great Dutch writers of the 20th century.

Villa Des Roses

Queso (Spanish Edition)

LOSADA

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Elsschot, Willem. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Elsschot, Willem

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Elsschot, Willem. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Villa des Roses (20th Century Classics)

Cheese: Newly Translated and Annotated

Cheese

Cheese

Villa Des Roses

Queso (Spanish Edition)