Flowers For Algernon - Softcover

N/A

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1474605737 ISBN 13: 9781474605731

Publisher: The Dramatic Publishing Company, 1966

'A masterpiece of poignant brilliance . . . heartbreaking' Guardian Charlie Gordon, a floor sweeper born with an unusually low IQ, has been chosen as the perfect subject for an experimental surgery that doctors hope will increase his intelligence - a procedure that has been highly successful when tested on a lab mouse named Algernon. All Charlie wants is to be smart and have friends, but the treatement turns him into a genius. Then Algernon begins to fade. What will become of Charlie?

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

From the Publisher:

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!

"A tale that is convincing, suspectful and touching..." -- The New York Times.
"Fascinating, agonizing... Superb." --Birmingham News.
"This novel should be on your 'must read' list." -- Palm Beach Post-Times.
"Strikingly original..." -- Publishers' Weekly.
"Absorbing... Immensely original... Going to be read for a long time to come." -- Library Journal.

• Publisher: The Dramatic Publishing Company
• Publication date: 1966
• ISBN 10: 1474605737
• ISBN 13: 9781474605731
• Binding: Paperback