The novel “I Served as King’s Servant” tells the story of a short-order waiter who becomes curious about the world. He searches for beauty in a brothel, in the job of serving the English king—or the Ethiopian emperor—in eroticism, in wealth... The entire novel is steeped in irony. The hero, Grabal, like Goethe’s Faust, finds peace and freedom, but not happiness—and is ready again to set off for further adventures in search of beauty.