Considered by critics to be Barth's most distinguished masterpiece, The Sot-Weed Factor has acquired the status of a modern classic. Set in the late 1600s, it recounts the widely chaotic odyssey of hapless, ungainly Ebenezer Cooke, sent to the New World to look after his father's tobacco business and to record the struggles of the Maryland colony in an epic poem. On his mission, Cooke experiences capture by pirates and Indians; the loss of his father's estate to roguish impostors; love for a former prostitute; stealthy efforts to rob him of his virginity, which he is (almost) determined to protect; and an extraordinary gallery of treacherous characters who continually switch identities. A hilarious, 'bawdy tribute to all the most insidious human vices, The Sot-Weed Factor has lasting relevance for readers of all times.
- ISBN10 0586092161
- ISBN13 9780586092163
- Publish Date 13 September 1993 (first published December 1961)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 9 October 1997
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher HarperCollins Publishers
- Imprint Flamingo
- Edition New edition
- Format Paperback
- Pages 800
- Language English
- URL http://harpercollins.co.uk