One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143105027 ISBN 13: 9780143105022

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2007

A Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition of a counterculture classic with a foreword by Chuck Palahniuk

Boisterous, ribald, and ultimately shattering, Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel has left an indelible mark on the literature of our time. Now in a new deluxe edition with a foreword by Chuck Palahniuk and cover by Joe Sacco, here is the unforgettable story of a mental ward and its inhabitants, especially the tyrannical Big Nurse Ratched and Randle Patrick McMurphy, the brawling, fun-loving new inmate who resolves to oppose her. We see the struggle through the eyes of Chief Bromden, the seemingly mute half-Indian patient who witnesses and understands McMurphy’s heroic attempt to do battle with the powers that keep them all imprisoned.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

From the Inside Flap:

An international bestseller, Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest defined the 1960s era of ever-widening perspectives and ominous repressive forces. Full of mischief, insight, and pathos, Kesey's powerful story of a mental ward and its inhabitants probes the meaning of madness, often turning conventional notions of sanity and insanity on their heads.

The tale is chronicled by the seemingly mute Indian patient, Chief Bromden; its hero is Randle Patrick McMurphy, the boisterous, brawling, fun-loving rebel who encourages gambling, drinking, and sex in the ward, and rallies the other patients around him by challenging the dictatorial rule of Big Nurse. McMurphy's defiance -- which begins as a sport -- develops into a grim struggle with the awesome power of the "Combine", concluding with shattering, tragic results. In its unforgettable portrait of a man teaching the value of self-reliance and laughter destroyed by forces of hatred and fear, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a classic parable that has left an indelible mark on the literature of our time.

About the Author:

Ken Kesey (1935-2001) was raised in Oregon, graduated from the University of Oregon, and later studied at Stanford University. He was the author of four novels, two children's books, and several works of nonfiction.

Chuck Palahniuk, whose latest novel is Haunted, is the author of the best-selling and critically praised novels Invisible Monsters, Diary, Lullaby, Choke, and Survivor. He lives in Washington State. Robert Faggen teaches at Claremont McKenna College.