Vidal writes with ease and grace, and roams through many subjects and genres. He is a master of the historical novel, in which he has explored American history, ancient history, and the history of religion. He has developed his own style of science fiction combined with satire, and in the books he refers to as his 'inventions' he writes cautionary tales about sex, politics, art, and philosophy. He is at once a contrarion, a wise man, and a romantic. He is also wickedly funny, and often outrageous. This collection (the only single volume that includes Vidal's fiction and his essays) contains two complete works - MYRA BRECKINRIDGE, his most famous novel, and THE BEST MAN, a play about the American presidency. There are selections from THE CITY AND THE PILLAR, his early, controversial novel about homosexual love, and excerpts from later works as JULIAN, DULUTH, and LIVE FROM GOLGOTHA. Selections from the American history novels - BURR, LINCOLN, 1876, EMPIRE, and WASHINGTON, D.C. - have been woven together to provide a continuous narrative.
Vidal writes with ease and grace, and roams through many subjects and genres. He is a master of the historical novel, in which he has explored American history, ancient history, and the history of religion. He has developed his own style of science fiction combined with satire, and in the books he refers to as his 'inventions' he writes cautionary tales about sex, politics, art, and philosophy. He is at once a contrarion, a wise man, and a romantic. He is also wickedly funny, and often outrageous. This collection (the only single volume that includes Vidal's fiction and his essays) contains two complete works - MYRA BRECKINRIDGE, his most famous novel, and THE BEST MAN, a play about the American presidency. There are selections from THE CITY AND THE PILLAR, his early, controversial novel about homosexual love, and excerpts from later works as JULIAN, DULUTH, and LIVE FROM GOLGOTHA. Selections from the American history novels - BURR, LINCOLN, 1876, EMPIRE, and WASHINGTON, D.C. - have been woven together to provide a continuous narrative.
* Gore Vidal continues to attract review coverage and interest in a wide range of literary publications.
Gore Vidal is one of the greatest living American novelists and essayists. He has written numerous Hollywood screenplays, including BEN HUR, and ran as a Democratic candidate for Congress. He appeared with Tim Robbins in the film BOB ROBERTS.
'Falling somewhere between the realms of Henry Adams and all of Monty Python, Gore Vidal has for many years served as America's own Tiresias - a seer and a scourge as well as an entertainer of the highest order' JAY McINERNEY 'Vidal's combination of learning, wit and disdain gets into your blood. He can change the way you think - the only definition of a great writer which makes sense' OBSERVER
'Falling somewhere between the realms of Henry Adams and all of Monty Python, Gore Vidal has for many years served as America's own Tiresias - a seer and a scourge as well as an entertainer of the highest order' JAY McINERNEY 'Vidal's combination of learning, wit and disdain gets into your blood. He can change the way you think - the only definition of a great writer which makes sense' OBSERVER
Readers interested in the "essential" Gore Vidal would be much better off with the complete books rather than with these truncated samples prepared by the writer's authorized biographer. Four previously uncollected essays provide far too little novelty for such a long volume comprised mainly of fairly random excerpts from 12 of Vidal's 23 novels. The collection also includes the novel Myra Breckinridge in its entirety and 21 essays more usefully collected in Vidal's United States: Essays 1952-1992, itself a 1000-plus-page volume that won the NBA in 1993 and provides a far more distinguished demonstation of Vidal's wide-ranging intellect. Kaplan's dutiful selections show that Vidal's unique blend of erudition and wit is not well served by abbreviation, a limitation reinforced by Kaplan's laborious introductions, which help neither the reader nor Vidal ("Religion is another recurrent subject in Vidal's oeuvre"; the plots of Vidal's historical novels "adhere to the laws of causality and representation associated with the realistic novel from Tom Jones to Gone With the Wind"). Try though he does to weave the pieces into a larger tapestry that reflects Vidal's long career, Kaplan actually deadens the pleasure of Vidal's prose by constant interruptions that didactically guide readers through a disparate body of work. Readers could acquire most of Vidal's best work, still in print in paperback, for the same price as this collection. (Jan.)
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