The Early Stories of Truman Capote (Penguin Modern Classics) - Softcover

Capote, Truman

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0241202426 ISBN 13: 9780241202425

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2017

Synopsis

'Breathtaking ... The stories are special. They stand in their own right as lovely vignettes of the lives of the lonely, broken and troubled' Andrew Johnson, Independent

Written when Truman Capote was in his teens and twenties, these recently-discovered short stories give a rare insight into an American icon. Tales of disappointed lovers, ageing spinsters, hoboes and murderous housewives, of yearning, poverty, despair, compassion, wit and wonder, they show us the boy from Alabama who became one of the twentieth century's most celebrated literary voices.

'An intriguing glimpse of Capote as a boy: precocious, provocative, spirited and strange, a "pocket Merlin" spinning tall tales' Olivia Laing, New Statesman

About this title

Review:

"[The Early Stories of Truman Capote] succeeds at conveying the writer's youthful rawness. . . . These stories capture a moment when Capote was hungry to capture the rural South, the big city, and the subtle emotions that so many around him were determined to keep unspoken."--USA Today

"A window on the young writer's emerging voice and creativity . . . Capote's ability to conjure a time, place and mood with just a few sentences is remarkable."--Associated Press

"Blueprints of the august, confident, and delightfully acerbic writer-to-come."--The Los Angeles Review of Books

"Dazzling."--The Columbus Dispatch

"[Capote's early] stories are special. Not just because they give a glimpse of an author finding his voice; or for the traces of his masterpieces. But also because they stand in their own right as lovely vignettes of the lives of the lonely, broken and troubled. . . . If you consider they were written when he was a child--aged between eleven and nineteen--then they become breathtaking in their precocity, craftsmanship, simplicity and the tenderness he became renowned for."--The Independent (U.K.)

"These ten-plus stories were written when Capote was a teenager and young man and will shed light on his subsequent work while remaining sharply observed pleasures in their own right."--Library Journal

"[A] gathering of the great American prose stylist's earliest pieces, published for the first time . . . Students of both Capote and the short story will find this instructive and entertaining."--Kirkus Reviews

From the Hardcover edition.

From the Back Cover:

'She was very happy here, with the wind blowing in her hair and Death around the corner'

Written when Truman Capote was in his teens and twenties, these recently-discovered short stories give a rare insight into an American icon. Tales of disappointed lovers, ageing spinsters, hoboes and murderous housewives, of yearning, poverty, despair, compassion, wit and wonder, they show us the boy from Alabama who became one of the twentieth century's most celebrated literary voices.

'Breathtaking ... The stories are special. They stand in their own right as lovely vignettes of the lives of the lonely, broken and troubled' Andrew Johnson, Independent

'An intriguing glimpse of Capote as a boy: precocious, provocative, spirited and strange, a "pocket Merlin" spinning tall tales' Olivia Laing, New Statesman

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0241202426
• ISBN 13: 9780241202425
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192