IN THIS ACIDIC, provocative, and-for its time-daring novel, Dawn Powell set out to write the story of the bachelors of New York in the Satyricon style. The time is the late 1930s, and the young taciturn playwright, Jefferson Abbott, arrives in New York by bus from Silver City, Ohio and looks up his childhood sweetheart, Prudence Bly, who has since become a celebrated nightclub singer. When his play flops, the upright and uptight Abbott is undaunted, eventually returning to Ohio and persuading Prudence to join him there to ...
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IN THIS ACIDIC, provocative, and-for its time-daring novel, Dawn Powell set out to write the story of the bachelors of New York in the Satyricon style. The time is the late 1930s, and the young taciturn playwright, Jefferson Abbott, arrives in New York by bus from Silver City, Ohio and looks up his childhood sweetheart, Prudence Bly, who has since become a celebrated nightclub singer. When his play flops, the upright and uptight Abbott is undaunted, eventually returning to Ohio and persuading Prudence to join him there to take up a life of drudgery as mate to this always self-serious artist. Prudence, needless to say, finally escapes back to the city and her circle of friends, the disparate characters who give the book its true texture and, wrote one reviewer at the time, are involved in such a series of promiscuities, adulteries, double-crossings, neo-perversions and Krafft-Ebbing exercises as would make the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah seem like mere suburbs of li'l old New York. The Happy Island has had its admirers over the years (Gore Vidal called this one of his favorite Powell novels), and to be found here are surely some of Powell's most biting one-liners. But the book may not be for every taste, and the succinct notice that appeared in The New Yorker upon first publication might stand as a warning to some readers: Night-club life of New York. Plenty of heavy drinking, perfumed love affairs, and in general the doings of a pretty worthless and ornery lot of people. Miss Powell serves it up with a dash of wit and for good measure throws in a couple of boys named Bert and Willy, who nearly steal the show from the main characters.
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Seller's Description:
Good. Good condition. A copy that has been read but remains intact. May contain markings such as bookplates, stamps, limited notes and highlighting, or a few light stains.
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Seller's Description:
Very good book with no dust jacket. Inscribed by the author. 299 pages. First edition, first printing. Inscribed on the first sheet to Ann Honeycutt (1902-1989). Honeycutt was an American author who wrote for the New Yorker. She also includes her address and nickname of her apartment "Peabody Hills". Her 8th book. A young woman comes to New York and becomes a celebrated night club singer. Very good+ book with the spine faded and very slight wear to the corners. A rare and very nice copy!
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Seller's Description:
Good. No Dust Jacket. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1938. First edition, with publisher's seal on copyright page. Good to Very Good condition. Full green cloth with black lettering front and spine. Spine slightly sunned. No ownership or other markings. A few small, dark spots to lower page fore edges. Mild foxing internally to some pages. 299pp. First Edition. Hardcover. Good/No Dust Jacket. 8vo-8"-9" Tall.
