Seventy-Two Virgins
{{Short description|2004 comic political novel by Boris Johnson}}
{{About|the novel by Boris Johnson|other uses|72 Virgins (disambiguation){{!}}72 virgins}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2021}}
{{Infobox book
| italic title =
| name = Seventy-Two Virgins: A Comedy of Errors
| image = Seventy-Two_Virgins,_A_Comedy_of_Errors_(first_edition_cover).jpeg
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| caption = First edition cover
| author = Boris Johnson
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| orig_lang_code = en
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| country = United Kingdom
| language = English
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| genre = Political satire
| set_in = London
| publisher = HarperCollins
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| pub_date = September 2004
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| media_type = Print: Hardback octavo
| pages = 326
| awards =
| isbn = 9780007195909
| isbn_note =
| oclc = 056649301
| dewey = 823.92
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Seventy-Two Virgins: A Comedy of Errors is a 2004 novel by Boris Johnson.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qoXsv1DLZb0C&q=%22SEVENTY+TWO+VIRGINS%22+2004|title=Seventy-two Virgins|first=Boris|last=Johnson|date=July 17, 2005|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=9780007198054|via=Google Books}} It received mixed reviews on original release.
Plot
{{Quote box|"To a man like Roger Barlow, the whole world just seemed to be a complicated joke ... everything was always up for grabs, capable of dispute; and religion, laws, principle, custom – these were nothing but sticks from the wayside to support our faltering steps."|Seventy-Two Virgins: A Comedy of Errors| width = 500px}}
The President of the United States plans to visit the Palace of Westminster. A Lebanese-born terrorist aims to assassinate him; Roger Barlow, a hapless, bicycle-riding, tousled-haired MP aims to foil the attack in order to distract from a scandal involving his financial entanglement in a lingerie shop named Eulalie.
Reception
Seventy-Two Virgins received mixed reviews on original release. David Smith, writing for The Observer, said "despite the pacy narration, there is a sense of going nowhere fast", but praised the humour, saying "Yet while Johnson is a heroic failure as a novelist, he scores in his comic handling of those most sensitive issues: the ideological motives of Muslim suicide bombers (whence the title) and the mixed blessings of the American empire. The playing of these as pantomime risks causing offence, but, as in person, Johnson succeeds in being charming and sincere."{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/oct/03/fiction.features1|title=Observer review: Seventy Two Virgins by Boris Johnson|first=David|last=Smith|date=October 2, 2004|work=The Observer|access-date=17 July 2019|archive-date=17 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190717204535/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/oct/03/fiction.features1|url-status=live}}
The Spectator (which Johnson was editing at the time) gave it a positive review, Douglas Hurd comparing it to P. G. Wodehouse (the plot device of a character being threatened by potential scandal regarding his involvement in a lingerie business named 'Eulalie' is lifted directly from Wodehouse's The Code of the Woosters) and praising the "rollicking pace and continuous outpouring of comic invention"; however, he also said that it read like it had been written in three days. (Hurd also accurately described Johnson as "the next prime minister but three".){{Cite web|url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/2004/09/ketchup-and-thunder/|title=Ketchup and thunder|date=September 18, 2004|website=The Spectator}}
In the Literary Review, Philip Oakes said that the "Thrills [were] muffled by relentless jokiness and inordinate length of book."{{Cite web|url=https://literaryreview.co.uk/crime-round-up-oct-2004|title=Crime Round Up Oct 2004|website=Literary Review|access-date=17 July 2019|archive-date=17 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190717204540/https://literaryreview.co.uk/crime-round-up-oct-2004|url-status=live}}
Attention was refocused on Seventy-Two Virgins in 2019, with Johnson poised to win the Conservative Party leadership election and become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.{{cite web|url=https://www.jpost.com/International/Boris-Johnsons-novel-Seventy-Two-Virgins-A-glimpse-into-his-inner-world-596646|title=Boris Johnson's Novel, Seventy-Two Virgins: A Glimpse into his Inner World|first1=Hannah|last1=Brown|access-date=2019-09-11|date=2019-07-05|work=The Jerusalem Post|archive-date=9 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190809165727/https://www.jpost.com/International/Boris-Johnsons-novel-Seventy-Two-Virgins-A-glimpse-into-his-inner-world-596646|url-status=live}} In The Guardian, Mark Lawson noted that "it's striking that Barlow's view – that public value should make private conduct irrelevant – is one the writer has continued to embrace through domestic troubles." He noted the anti-French and anti-American tone, and pointed out the use of offensive language: "references to 'Islamic headcases' and 'Islamic nutcases'. Arabs are casually noted to have 'hook noses' and 'slanty eyes'; a mixed-race Briton is called 'coffee-coloured'; and there are mentions of 'pikeys' and people who are 'half-caste'." Sexist content was also noted. More sinister was that "the suggestion – from both an external observer, and the protagonist's inner voice – that Barlow {{bracket|the author surrogate}} may be a fraud. His assistant worries that, under the jaunty vaudeville act, there are no real core ideals, values or beliefs."{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jul/17/boris-johnson-seventy-two-virgins-novel|title=What does Boris Johnson's terrible novel Seventy-Two Virgins tell us about him?|first=Mark|last=Lawson|date=July 17, 2019|via=www.theguardian.com|access-date=17 July 2019|archive-date=24 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190724005625/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jul/17/boris-johnson-seventy-two-virgins-novel|url-status=live}} The novel was also criticised for depicting Jews as "controlling the media" and being able to "fiddle" elections, an evidently antisemitic trope.{{Cite journal|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-book-jews-control-media-general-election-a9239346.html|first=Jon|last=Stone|title=Boris Johnson book depicts Jews as controlling the media|date=9 December 2019|journal=The Independent|access-date=9 December 2019|archive-date=9 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191209204711/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-book-jews-control-media-general-election-a9239346.html|url-status=live}} During the 2019 general election campaign, Catherine Bennett similarly argued that the novel "amounts to a compelling case for character reappraisal" and that its perceived tendency to evaluate women's worth "according to their fuckability on the – sometimes eccentric – Johnson scale" indicates a lack of "interest in addressing, for instance, sex discrimination, harassment, [or] the gender pay gap".{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/16/want-to-know-real-boris-johnson-all-there-in-his-novel-in-graphic-and-horrific-detail|title=Want to know the real Boris Johnson? Well, it's all there in his novel, in graphic and horrific detail|first=Catherine|last=Bennett|authorlink=Catherine Bennett (journalist)|work=The Guardian|date=16 November 2019|accessdate=17 November 2019|archive-date=17 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191117003304/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/16/want-to-know-real-boris-johnson-all-there-in-his-novel-in-graphic-and-horrific-detail|url-status=live}}
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Boris Johnson}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Antisemitism in England
Category:Books by Boris Johnson
Category:British political novels
Category:British satirical novels