The Melancholy Korean

τίς δὲ βίος, τί δὲ τερπνὸν ἄτερ χρυσῆς ᾿Αφροδίτης;

Table of Contents

Dramatis Personae

Please note that characters are added as they reveal themselves and become part of the story.

The Melancholy Korean is a writer and former derivatives trader living in New York. He loves Dante, James Joyce and Flaubert. He loves Henry James, Anton Chekhov, Edith Wharton, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Cavafy, Ezra Pound, Nabokov, Leopardi, Chesterton, Hazlitt, De Quincey, Capote, Anthony Powell. He knows Greek, Latin, and Italian. He has studied French, German, Japanese, Sanskrit, and Hebrew, but of these languages, he remembers only, "avez-vous un cendrier?" Yes, he smokes. No, he doesn't know Korean.

Leon Badges is a painter, illustrator, draftsman, and cartoonist. A visual artist extraordinaire, lover of women, and all-around madman, he is Melancholy's oldest friend. They met in fourth grade and have been accomplices ever since.

Felicity

Barbara, Felicity's Mother

Harry Best

Prune

Dr. Ken Coffin

Broker Bill and his wife Kate

Nicky, the Greek

Blue Stocking

Rev Hezekiah Bartholomew Smith

Kitty

Marco

The Critic