| The Laughter of Carthage | |
| Author: | Michael Moorcock |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
| Series: | Pyat Quartet |
| Genre: | Literary Fiction |
| Publisher: | Secker & Warburg |
| Release Date: | 1984 |
| Media Type: | Print (hardback) |
| Pages: | 602 pp |
| Isbn: | 0-436-28460-X |
| Oclc: | 59237630 |
| Preceded By: | Byzantium Endures |
| Followed By: | Jerusalem Commands |
The Laughter of Carthage is a historical fiction novel by English author Michael Moorcock published by Secker & Warburg in 1984. It is the second in the Pyat Quartet tetralogy, preceded by Byzantium Endures and followed by Jerusalem Commands.[1] It was written in tandem, one during the day, and one at night, with the second novel in the Von Bek series, The City in the Autumn Stars.[2]
Kirkus Reviews criticized the novel, saying: "...though Moorcock may want all the ugly rhetoric to be read as the ravings of a self-deluding liar and knave, the ironies--e.g., Pyat's own secret Jewishness--aren't as clear here as they were in Byzantium Endures. So this 600-page novel, for all its scene-by-scene skill, soon becomes a cold, tedious exercise--short on genuine character or charm, basically shapeless, faintly unpleasant".[3]