Flowers for Algernon - Softcover

Daniel Keyes

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0553236903 ISBN 13: 9780553236903

Publisher: BANTAM, 1981

Synopsis

Flowers For Algernon made its  first appearance as a short story which was  rapidly and widely anthologized, and translated  internationally. It received further acclaim as a  moderated television drama, and as a motional picture  production. Now, full bodied and richly-peopled,  Flowers For Algernon is the daring  novel of a starling human experiment!  

About this title

Review

Daniel Keyes wrote little SF but is highly regarded for one classic, Flowers for Algernon. As a 1959 novella it won a Hugo Award; the 1966 novel-length expansion won a Nebula. The Oscar-winning movie adaptation Charly (1968) also spawned a 1980 Broadway musical.

Following his doctor's instructions, engaging simpleton Charlie Gordon tells his own story in semi-literate "progris riports." He dimly wants to better himself, but with an IQ of 68 can't even beat the laboratory mouse Algernon at maze-solving:

I dint feel bad because I watched Algernon and I lernd how to finish the amaze even if it takes me along time.

I dint know mice were so smart.

Algernon is extra-clever thanks to an experimental brain operation so far tried only on animals. Charlie eagerly volunteers as the first human subject. After frustrating delays and agonies of concentration, the effects begin to show and the reports steadily improve: "Punctuation, is? fun!" But getting smarter brings cruel shocks, as Charlie realizes that his merry "friends" at the bakery where he sweeps the floor have all along been laughing at him, never with him. The IQ rise continues, taking him steadily past the human average to genius level and beyond, until he's as intellectually alone as the old, foolish Charlie ever was--and now painfully aware of it. Then, ominously, the smart mouse Algernon begins to deteriorate...

Flowers for Algernon is a timeless tear-jerker with a terrific emotional impact. --David Langford

Book Description

Published in hardcover by Harcourt, 1967, (reissued 1995), 0-15-100163-4
Published in paperback by Bantam, 1968, (reissued 1984), 0553274503

Edition details

• Publisher: BANTAM
• Publication date: 1981
• ISBN 10: 0553236903
• ISBN 13: 9780553236903
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English