Moab Is My Washpot

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Moab Is My Washpot: An Autobiography
Written by: Stephen Fry
Central Theme:
Synopsis: The first 20 years of Stephen Fry's life, as told by Stephen Fry.
Genre(s): Autobiography
First published: 1997
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Moab Is My Washpot is a 1997 autobiographical novel by Stephen Fry, documenting the first 20 years of his life.

From The Other Wiki:

In the book, Fry is candid about his many weaknesses, including stealing, cheating and lying. The book covers some of the same ground as in Fry’s first novel, The Liar, published in 1991. In that work, public schoolboy Adrian Healey falls in love with a boy called Hugo Cartwright; in the autobiography, 14-year-old Fry becomes besotted with 13-year-old "Matthew Osborne".

Fry also writes about his older brother, Roger; Bunce, the new boy at his prep school, Stouts Hill; Jo Wood, his best friend at Uppingham, and Oliver Derwent, a prefect who "seduces" Fry.


Tropes used in Moab Is My Washpot include:
  • The Dulcinea Effect: Stephen's first sighting of 'Matthew' didn't exactly trigger heroic deeds, but we are led to believe it was a very powerful one-sided Love At First Sight.
  • Saw Star Wars 27 Times: Stephen confesses that in his schoolboy days, he and a few friends went to movie theaters to see A Clockwork Orange, The Godfather and Cabaret over and over again, each film having different elements that appealed to him at the time. He ended up cutting a lot of school to do it, however, and was eventually expelled.