New Releases by Thorne Smith

This early work by Thorne Smith was originally published in 1942 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. ''The Passionate Witch'' was James Thorne Smith Jr.''s last novel and was left unfinished at the time of his death in 1934, it was finally finished by Norman Matson. Mr. T. Wallace Wooly is a rich, sober, upstanding member of the community who lives a calm, frugal life after the death of his wife. This comfortable existence is ruined by a meeting with Jennifer Broome, Wooly is spellbound to the mysterious women with " a great glory of lustrous dark hair....and a mouth curved in a short cat like smile" and gravity defying cloths. What follows is a whirlwind romance, a string of disastrous ''accidents'' and the uttering of a fateful curse.

Thorne Smith pits two thoroughly modern married people in a classic battle of the sexes. After listening to the nearly endless bickering and childish jealousy of a young man and wife (Tim and Sally Willows), an ancient Egyptian idol decides to play a trick on the two by causing them to switch bodies. Like Thorne Smith, Tim works in an advertising agency, and several scenes are set there, drawing on the author''s experience. After the wife forcefully impregnates her husband, things take a decided turn for the worse as they separately try to deal with the object of the former wife''s affections-a deplorably predictable square-jawed philanderer by the name of Carl Bently.

Mad, Hilarious, Degenerate, or simply Fun Fantasy? Only the reader can decide. Mad escapades of a young executive, his fiancee, his secretary who''s not given up, a pickpocket, a bishop, and Aspirin Liz, which lead from one mishap to another and even as prisoners in a nudist colony. Enjoy!