A wily American driving his psychiatrist crazy in Vienna. Prey of a wealthy countess who wants him comfortable and secure — and her very own. Master of his domain — his sealed, darkened, disheveled apartment on a dank Vienna sidestreet. Abigail was not the girl for Sam. She was a brash, sexy American coed with only men on her mind. And se had Sam very much on her mind at the moment..."Zany...comic...brilliant" — The New York Times "Extremely funny yet bittersweet... handled with such grace that even its outright sex is captivating" — Chicago American. "Donleavy's best work since The Ginger Man" — The National Observer. "In this short novel J.P. Donleavy writes of the tiny battle waged for survival of the spirit in bedrooms and hearts the world over. Samuel S, hero of lonely principles, holds out in his bereft lighthouse in Vienna. Abigail, an American college girl on the prowl In Europe, drawn by the beacon of this strange out-post, seeks in her own emancipation the seduction of Samuel S, the last of the world's solemn failures. Samuel S is the liveliest of loonies." — TIME