Homage To Qwert Yuiop

Homage to Qwert Yuiop (1986) — published in the United States as But Do Blondes Prefer Gentlemen? — is a collection of essays by Anthony Burgess.

Book reviews form the bulk of the content, though there are various essays and an interview Burgess conducted with Graham Greene.

Large tracts deal with the written word, especially a variety of linguistic reviews and papers, as well as a great many dictionaries, phrase books, books of quotations, etc. Burgess was widely known as a polyglot, and frequently includes linguistic anecdotes (etymology and so forth), from English, Russian, Greek, Latin and Malay.

A section of the book deals with the movie business, including histories of a variety of film stars and early Hollywood producers, about many of whom Burgess had strong opinions.

Another section is devoted to reviews of biographies of authors, including Dickens, Beckett and Hemingway. The book finishes with reviews of literature by novelists including H. G. Wells and Kingsley Amis.

The book displays the tremendous amount of knowledge Burgess had accumulated by the age of 66, especially concerning geography, travel, cultures, languages and literature.

The title of the collection is a reference to the urban legend of an Hungarian man named Qwert Yuiop, who supposedly invented the modern English keyboard layout and left his name lightly hidden in it ('qwert yuiop' are the ten letters that make up the top row of letters on a standard QWERTY keyboard).

  • (1986) ISBN 0-349-10440-9
Works of Anthony Burgess
Novels
  • The Malayan Trilogy
  • Time for a Tiger
  • The Enemy in the Blanket
  • Beds in the East
  • The Right to an Answer
  • The Doctor is Sick
  • The Worm and the Ring
  • Devil of a State
  • One Hand Clapping
  • A Clockwork Orange
  • The Wanting Seed
  • Honey for the Bears
  • Inside Mr. Enderby
  • The Eve of St. Venus
  • Nothing Like the Sun
  • A Vision of Battlements
  • Tremor of Intent
  • Enderby Outside
  • M/F
  • Napoleon Symphony
  • The Clockwork Testament
  • Beard's Roman Women
  • Abba Abba
  • 1985
  • Man of Nazareth
  • Earthly Powers
  • The End of the World News
  • Enderby's Dark Lady
  • The Kingdom of the Wicked
  • The Pianoplayers
  • Any Old Iron
  • Mozart and the Wolf Gang
  • A Dead Man in Deptford
  • Byrne
Short story collections
  • The Devil's Mode
Poetry
  • Moses: A Narrative
  • Revolutionary Sonnets
Essays
  • An Essay on Censorship
  • Homage to Qwert Yuiop
  • One Man's Chorus
Critical works
  • Shakespeare
  • Joysprick
  • Ninety-Nine Novels
  • A Mouthful of Air
Operettas
  • Blooms of Dublin
Symphonies
  • Sinfoni Melayu
Autobiography
  • Little Wilson and Big God
  • You've Had Your Time

Famous quotes containing the words homage to and/or homage:

    “In the genuine hope that this peace will be permanent, we take the opportunity to pay homage to all our fighters, commandos and volunteers who have paid the supreme sacrifice. They did not die in vain. The union is safe.”
    —Combined Loyalist Military Command. New York Times, p. A12 (October 14, 1994)

    “Your business is not to catch men with show,
    With homage to the perishable clay,
    But lift them over it, ignore it all,
    Make them forget there’s such a thing as flesh.
    Your business is to paint the souls of men—”
    —Robert Browning (1812–1889)