Letters - Hardcover

Barth, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 039912425X ISBN 13: 9780399124259

Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1979

Synopsis

The letters of seven people, including a British gentlewoman who finds herself pregnant by her young American lover and a bachelor lawyer who enjoys incest on his final cruise in preparation for suicide, take readers on a journey through history

About this title

From the Back Cover:

A landmark of postmodern American fiction, Letters is (as the subtitle genially informs us) "an old time epistolary novel by seven fictitious drolls & dreamers each of which imagines himself factual". Seven characters (including the Author himself) exchange a novel's worth of letters during a 7-month period in 1969, a time of revolution that recalls the U.S.'s first revolution in the 18th century - the heyday of the epistolary novel. Recapitulating American history as well as the plots of his first six novels, Barth's seventh novel is a witty and profound exploration of the nature of revolution and renewal, rebellion and reenactment, at both the private and public levels. It is also an ingenious meditation on the genre of the novel itself, recycling an older form to explore new directions, new possibilities for the novel.

About the Author:

JOHN BARTH's fiction has won the National Book Award, the PEN/Malamud Award, and the Lannan Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. For many years he taught in the writing seminars at John Hopkins University. He is the author of such seminal works as "The Sot-Weed Factor, Chimera" (for which he won the NBA), and "Giles Goat-Boy".

About this edition

• Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons
• Publication date: 1979
• ISBN 10: 039912425X
• ISBN 13: 9780399124259
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 772