Nightwood
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| Nightwood | |
 Cover of the 2006 edition |
|
| Author | Djuna Barnes |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Sigrid Rothe |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Lesbian |
| Publisher | Harcourt Trade Publishers |
| Publication date | 1936 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 180 |
| ISBN | 978-0811216715 (New Directions Paperback Reprinted) |
Nightwood is a 1936 novel by Djuna Barnes first published in London by Faber and Faber. An edition published in the United States in 1937 by Harcourt, Brace included an introduction by T. S. Eliot. Author Charles Henri Ford typed an early version of the manuscript for Barnes during the summer of 1932, and it took Barnes several years to find a publisher.
Nightwood is one of the first lesbian novels (or, for that matter, homosexual novels) to be published.
It is also notable for the highly florid style in which it is written. Some may find this style pretentious. Others, however, may enjoy moments of great verbal brilliance, as T.S. Eliot suggests in his introduction to the book. He claims that though it is not "poetic prose" - because, despite its language, it has a rhythm and musical pattern which are not those of verse - it "will appeal primarily to readers of poetry" and "is so good a novel that only sensibilities trained on poetry can wholly appreciate it".
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
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Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (June 2008) |
The novel, set in Paris in the 1920s, revolves around the lives of five characters, two of whom are based on Barnes and Wood, and it reflects the circumstances surrounding the ending of their relationship.
[edit] Characters
The major characters are:
- Felix
- Nora
- Dr. O'Connor
- Jenny
- Robin
and the Nightwood Band
[edit] Reception and Critical Analysis
Nightwood is considered by Anthony Slide, a modern scholar, to be one of only four familiar gay novels of the first half of the twentieth century. The other three novels include Gore Vidal's The City and the Pillar, Carson McCullers' Reflections in a Golden Eye, and Truman Capote's Other Voices, Other Rooms.[1]
Due to concerns about censorship, Eliot edited Nightwood to soften some language relating to sexuality and religion. An edition restoring these changes, edited by Cheryl J. Plumb, was published by Dalkey Archive Press in 1995.
Dylan Thomas described Nightwood as "one of the three great prose books ever written by a woman," while William Burroughs called it "one of the great books of the twentieth century." It was number 12 on a list of the top 100 gay books compiled by The Publishing Triangle in 1999.[2]
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Slide, Anthony. Lost Gay Novels: A Reference Guide to Fifty Works from the First Half of the Twentieth Century, (Binghamton, NY: Harrington Park Press), page 2.
- ^ The Publishing Triangle's list of the 100 best lesbian and gay novels
[edit] References
- Slide, Anthony (2003). Lost Gay Novels: A Reference Guide to Fifty Works from the First Half of the Twentieth Century, 1st ed., Binghamton, NY: Harrington Park Press. ISBN 978-156023413X.
