When Grace Metalious's debut novel about the dark underside of a small, respectable New England town was published in 1956, it quickly soared to the top of the bestseller lists. A landmark in twentieth-century American popular culture, Peyton Place spawned a successful feature film and a long-running television series-the first prime-time soap opera.
Contemporary readers of Peyton Place will be captivated by its vivid characters, earthy prose, and shocking incidents. Through her riveting, uninhibited narrative, Metalious skillfully exposes the intricate social anatomy of a small community, examining the lives of its people -- their passions and vices, their ambitions and defeats, their passivity or violence, their secret hopes and kindnesses, their cohesiveness and rigidity, their struggles, and often their courage.
This new paperback edition of Peyton Place features an insightful introduction by Ardis Cameron that thoroughly examines the novel's treatment of class, gender, race, ethnicity, and power, and considers the book's influential place in American and New England literary history.
Industry Reviews
"a rip-roaring good yarn. If the term "page turner" has any complimentary meaning, it applies here...�Grace� Metalious has lasted as a force in American life."--Washington Times Washington Times" Vanity Fair" Courier-Gazette (ME)" The Independent" "a rip-roaring good yarn. If the term 'page turner' has any complimentary meaning, it applies here...[Grace] Metalious has lasted as a force in American life."-- "Washington Times" "Ten years ago, Ardis Cameron, a professor at the University of Southern Maine, was astonished to discover the title was out of print, and mounted a one-woman campaign to resurrect it. She eventually persuaded Northeastern University Press to reissue the novel, and wrote a Camille Paglia-worthy introduction that casts Grace as a literary Joan of Arc, sword drawn, swinging at the oppressive social conventions of the 50s. The book, says Cameron, spoke about things that were not discussed in polite society, and allowed people to talk about all sorts of issues -- but particularly their own sense of being different in the 1950s."-- "Vanity Fair" The most pointful thing about rereading this book is the fact that what was clear and present and shocking in those benighted days--hasn't gone away. Sure, the questions are being dealt with instead of shoved under a rug--but they're still around. And debated.-- "Courier-Gazette (ME)" "Metalious is well on her way to academic respectability, too. Ardis Cameron, an English professor at the University of Southern Maine, helped get Peyton Place back between soft covers a few years ago with an introduction describing it as America's first blockbuster and a key to understanding both the stifling cultural conformity of the 1950s and the first stirrings of rebellion against it."-- "The Independent" "More than perhaps any other New England novel, Peyton Place entered the American lexicon . . . Peyton Place is now being acknowledged as a book that destroyed Northern New England's facade of moral uprightness while simultaneously reinventing book publishing . . . Peyton Place is as relevant now as it was 50 years ago."--Valley News "Grace Metalious' 1956 novel book brings themes of class privilege, sexual desire and hypocrisy. In revealing the hidden secrets behind the straight-laced facade of a quaint New England town, the book rocked the region's stuffy reputation."--Associated Press "It's the perfect . . . sit back and relax read."--The Courier Gazette (ME) "Peyton Place is hot, even by today's standards. Everything, including the trees, seem to heave with sexuality."--Sunday (Concord) Monitor "Peyton Place, six decades on. In 1999 Northeastern University Press reissued it in its Hardscrabble Books line of novels devoted to New England. It remains in print today, ever reproachful--and ever steamy."--Kirkus "The most pointful thing about rereading this book is the fact that what was clear and present and shocking in those benighted days--hasn't gone away. Sure, the questions are being dealt with instead of shoved under a rug--but they're still around. And debated." --Courier-Gazette (ME) "It's the perfect . . . sit back and relax read." The Courier Gazette (ME)" Peyton Place is hot, even by today's standards. Everything, including the trees, seem to heave with sexuality. Sunday (Concord) Monitor" Peyton Place, six decades on. In 1999 Northeastern University Press reissued it in its Hardscrabble Books line of novels devoted to New England. It remains in print today, ever reproachful and ever steamy. Kirkus" Metalious is well on her way to academic respectability, too. Ardis Cameron, an English professor at the University of Southern Maine, helped get Peyton Place back between soft covers a few years ago with an introduction describing it as "America's first blockbuster" and a key to understanding both the stifling cultural conformity of the 1950s and the first stirrings of rebellion against it. The Independent" Ten years ago, Ardis Cameron, a professor at the University of Southern Maine, was astonished to discover the title was out of print, and mounted a one-woman campaign to resurrect it. She eventually persuaded Northeastern University Press to reissue the novel, and wrote a Camille Paglia-worthy introduction that casts Grace as a literary Joan of Arc, sword drawn, swinging at the oppressive social conventions of the 50s. The book, says Cameron, "spoke about things that were not discussed in polite society, and allowed people to talk about all sorts of issues -- but particularly their own sense of being different in the 1950s. Vanity Fair" a rip-roaring good yarn. If the term page turner has any complimentary meaning, it applies here...[Grace] Metalious has lasted as a force in American life. Washington Times"
