The Subterraneans: Jack Kerouac (Penguin Modern Classics) - Softcover

Kerouac, Jack

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141184892 ISBN 13: 9780141184890

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2001

Synopsis

Regarded by many as Jack Kerouac's most touching works, The Subterraneans and Pic are an evocative and poignant pair of novels from the author of On the Road. This Penguin Modern Classics edition includes an introduction by Ann Douglas.

Leo Percepied, aspiring writer and self-styled free-wheeling bum, gravitates to the Subterraneans, impoverished intellectuals who haunt the bars and clubs of San Francisco, surviving on a diet of booze and benzedrine, Proust and Verlaine. Living among them is Mardou Fox, beautiful and a little crazy, whose dark eyes, full of suffering and sweetness, find recognition in Leo. But, afraid of his growing involvement, Leo sets out to destroy their love. Exuberant and melancholy, Kerouac's spontaneous prose flows across the pages. Written in three days, The Subterraneans is, like all Kerouac's work, closely related to his own life while encapsulating his great vision of America. Also included here is the novel Pic, the story of a young black boy who makes his own journey on the road.

Jack Kerouac (1922-69) was an American novelist, poet, artist and part of the Beat Generation. His first published novel, The Town and the City, appeared in 1950, but it was On the Road, published in 1957, that made Kerouac famous. Publication of his many other books followed, among them The Subterraneans, Big Sur, and The Dharma Bums. Kerouac died in Florida at the age of forty-seven.

If you enjoyed The Subterraneans and Pic, you might like Kerouac's Maggie Cassidy, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.

'The tender and achingly poetic account of a love affair'
Lester Bangs, Rolling Stone

About this title

Review:

"The first clear development of the American Romantic prose since Hemingway, Kerouac's writing is full of mad sex, comedy, widescreen travel writing, and long lyrical evocations of American childhood and adolescent memories.""The Times" (London)
"Kerouac's work represents the most extensive experiment in language and literary form undertaken by an American writer of his generation."Ann Douglas
"Each book by Kerouac is unique, a telepathic discord. Such rich, natural writing is nonpareil in the later twentieth century."Allen Ginsberg
"An outsider in America, Jack Kerouac was a true original."Ann Charters
"
"The first clear development of the American Romantic prose since Hemingway, Kerouac's writing is full of mad sex, comedy, widescreen travel writing, and long lyrical evocations of American childhood and adolescent memories."--The Times (London)

"Kerouac's work represents the most extensive experiment in language and literary form undertaken by an American writer of his generation."--Ann Douglas

"Each book by Kerouac is unique, a telepathic discord. Such rich, natural writing is nonpareil in the later twentieth century."--Allen Ginsberg

"An outsider in America, Jack Kerouac was a true original."--Ann Charters

From the Back Cover:

'THE SUBTERRANEANS' WITH A PREFACE BY HENRY MILLER

'THEY ARE HIP WITHOUT BEING SLICK, THEY ARE INTELLIGENT WITHOUT BEING CORNY, THEY ARE INTELLECTUAL AS HELL WITHOUT BEING PRETENTIOUS, THEY ARE VERY QUIET, THEY ARE VERY CHRISTLIKE.'

The Subterraneans haunt the bars and clubs of San Francisco, surviving on a diet of booze and benzedrine, Proust and Verlaine. Living amongst them is Leo, an aspiring writer, and Mardou, half-Indian, half-Negro, beautiful and neurotic. Their bitter-sweet and ill-starred love affair sees Kerouac at his most evocative.

“Some say 'The Subterraneans' is Kerouac's best novel, it's so touching and tender. The love story of Leo and Mardou, sad and sweet, furious, implacable, inevitable – many writers have since tried to imitate it and failed.”
SUNDAY TIMES

'PIC'

On the road but not yet overawed, ten-year-old Pic tells his story in the beautiful Negro dialect of the North Carolina farm country. Concise, original and moving, it stands as one of Kerouac's finest achievements.

“Kerouac's energy is contagious, his compassion and concern are the genuine homespun article.”
GUARDIAN

Many of Kerouac's works are available in Flamingo, including 'Big Sur, Doctor Sax' and 'Lonesome Traveler'.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0141184892
• ISBN 13: 9780141184890
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 218