The Marquise de Saint-Euverte’s Musical Soirée
From Swann’s Way (1913) by Marcel Proust

Wealthy art collector and man about town Charles Swann attends a private music recital in the vain hope of finding a distraction from the cause of his most wretched suffering, his jilted love affair with Odette de Crecy. The music of Gluck, Liszt and Chopin provide a backdrop to a conversation on the subject of how “life is a dreadful thing” with the Princesse des Laumes, who tells him “what’s so nice about being with you is that you’re not cheerful”. Swann perks up at this compliment, until the violinist starts to play the theme from the sonata by Vinteuil that was the 'national anthem' of his and Odette’s love.

The Feddens’ 25th Wedding Anniversary party
From The Line of Beauty (2004) by Alan Hollinghurst

Tory MP Gerald Fedden and his wife Rachel celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary with an ‘at home’ in Kensington in 1986. The guest of honour is the Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who arrives dressed in a “wide-shouldered white and gold jacket, amazingly embroidered, like a Ruritanian uniform.” The Feddens’ lodger, Nick Guest, off his face on coke and booze, boldly asks the PM for a dance and surprisingly she obliges. They take to the dance floor “to the thump of Get off My Cloud” and, to Gerald's horror, the Iron Lady starts “getting down rather sexily with Nick.

Lady Metroland’s party
From Vile Bodies (1930) by Evelyn Waugh

South American procuress-made-good, Margot Metroland gives a society soirée in honour of visiting American evangelist Mrs Melrose Ape. The Bright Young Things of inter-war London are desperate not to miss the debut of Mrs Ape and the occasion serves as an excuse for Evelyn Waugh to bring together some of his silliest names characters, including Mr Outrage, Miss Mouse, Mr Malpractice, Lady Circumference and Lady Throbbing. One person excluded from the guest list is Lord Simon Balcairn (aka gossip columnist Mr Chatterbox from the Daily Excess) and, desperate for a story, he infiltrates the party in disguise.

The Symposium
From The Symposium (c 385 - 380 BC) by Plato


The ancient Greek tragedian Agathon hosts a symposium (drinking party) to celebrate his victory at the annual festivity of Dionysus. Such Athenian luminaries as the philosopher Socrates and the playwright Aristophanes are among the guests at this all-male gathering. The purpose of the evening is a philosophical discussion on the nature of the god Eros in which each guest debates in turn on the topic of which form of love is the greatest. All is proceeding in a sedate and appropriately intellectual manner until the drunken arrival of Alcibiades, a young handsome playboy politician with a crush on Socrates.

Jay Gatsby’s Saturday Night Parties
From The Great Gatsby (1925) by F Scott Fitzgerald

Jay Gatsby has risen from mysterious origins to become Long Island's most glamorous host. His parties in the summer of 1922 epitomise the spirit of prohibition era decadence, with a full orchestra, chorus girls, a prodigal banquet of food and endless cocktails. Scores of people Gatsby doesn't know turn up to these revels and speculate on whether he's a bootlegger, spy or 'second cousin to the Devil'. However, Gatsby's motives go beyond either altruism or egotism. His hope is that Daisy Buchanan, the girl he loved and lost before the Great War, will happen to drop in one day and they can be reunited.

The Blossom Viewing Party
From The Tale of Genji (c 1008) by Murasaki Shikibu

The annual party to view the appearance of the blossom on the cherry tree which stands in the gardens of the Imperial Palace in Kyoto is an important event in the court calendar of 11th Century Japan. In attendance are the Emperor himself, along with his Empress, various other consorts and concubines, courtiers, academics and the Emperor’s favourite son, the twenty-year-old Genji. Other features of the ceremonial entertainment include Bugaku dancing and a Chinese poetry-writing competition, at which Genji is the hot favourite.

Mr Hosokawa’s 53rd Birthday Party
From Bel Canto (2001) by Ann Patchett  

Katsumi Hosokawa, opera fanatic and president of Japanese electronics corporation Nansei, travels to an unidentified South American country to attend a birthday party being thrown for him, attracted by the fact that lyric soprano Roxane Coss, with whom he is obsessed, has been booked to perform. But the party is marred by the unexpected arrival of eighteen terrorists who plan to kidnap the host country’s President. When it transpires that the President has skipped the party to catch the latest edition of his favourite soap opera, the other guests are held hostage instead. 

Dick Hawk-Monitor’s 21st Birthday Party
From Cold Comfort Farm (1932) by Stella Gibbons

Flora Poste, a recently orphaned London socialite, is on a self-appointed mission to rural Sussex to sort out the lives of her eccentric relatives: the Starkadders of Cold Comfort Farm, which is ruled over by eccentric matriarch Aunt Ada Doom with her matra 'I saw something nasty in the woodshed'. One of Flora's tasks is to matchmake her cousin, 17-year-old child of nature Elfine, with local nob Richard Hawk-Monitor, and with this in mind she manages to cadge them both invitations to his twenty-first birthday party at the imposing Assembly Rooms in the town of Godmere.

Don Alejo's Election Victory Party
From Hell Has No Limits (1966) by José Donoso 

Don Alejandro Cruz is “like God” in Estación El Olivo, the small Chilean town which he founded and whose parliamentary deputy he has recently been elected. A party to celebrate his victory is arranged and the venue is to be his informal campaign headquarters - the local brothel, which is run by his ex-lover La Japonesa. All the dignitaries of the town are invited (sans wives) and additional whores are shipped in from the neighbouring town of Talca. The highlight of the evening’s entertainment is to be a performance by drag queen flamenco dancer La Manuela.

The Flying Party
From Life, the Universe and Everything (1982) by Douglas Adams  

Inadvertent galactic traveller Arthur Dent finds himself an uninvited guest at an unearthly cocktail party hovering over the surface of an alien planet. Proceedings have now been in swing for several generations and the current batch of revellers are the descendants of the original party goers. Interstellar researcher Ford Prefect dances with an exotic alien whose head resembles the Sydney Opera House. Arthur finds fellow earthperson Trillian (on whom he nurtures a small crush) being chatted up by Norse god Thor, and has no option but to challenge the thunder deity to a fight.

McMurphy’s Ward Party
From One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962) by Ken Kesey

Nurse Ratched rules over her ward of a psychiatric hospital in Oregon with iron discipline, until the arrival of a new inmate - Randle McMurpy a 35-year-old, red-headed, Irish American drinker, gambler, brawler and womaniser with psychopathic tendencies. McMurphy manages to introduce changes to the ward’s rigid schedule, including regular card games, a fishing trip excursion and, in a final act of defiance to the Combine - the all-pervading establishment authority - he invites a couple of hookers over for an after-hours party to help fellow patient Billy Bibbit lose his virginity.

The Beverly Hills party
From Hollywood Wives (1983) by Jackie Collins  

Ross Conti is an ageing and faded movie star, desperate to kickstart his career, who needs to land the lead role in “Street People”, tipped to be the next blockbuster. He and his pushy wife Elaine, an upwardly mobile ex-shoplifter from the Bronx, decide to throw a party in their lavish Beverly Hills mansion. The guest list is a roll call of the Hollywood A List (including various cameos from real life movie stars), but things start to go wrong when the director of “Street People” is preventing from attending by the pressing prior engagement of a bunk-up with his leading lady and a Eurasian geisha.

a POOH party
From Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) by A. A. Milne 

Nature is just getting back to normal after a flood in the Forest and five-year-old Christopher Robin decides to throw a party for his friend, Pooh bear.  "And it’s to be a special sort of party, because it’s because of what Pooh did when he did what he did to save Piglet from the flood.” All the soft toys who make up the cast of Winnie-the-Pooh are invited including Eeyore, Owl, Kanga, Roo, and Rabbit with his ubiquitous rag tag of 'friends and relations'.    Pooh worries the guests will forget in whose honour the party is being held and his worst fears are realised when  Eeyore rises to make a speech of thanks.