Letters

John Barth

ISBN 10: 039912425X / ISBN 13: 9780399124259

Published by G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1979

About this Item

Near fine in very good slipcase. One of 500 numbered copies signed by Barth. Seller Inventory # 016128

Bibliographic Details

Title: Letters

Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York

Publication Date: 1979

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Fine

Dust Jacket Condition: Very good slipcase

Signed: Signed by Author(s)

Edition: First Edition

About this title

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

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.