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Peyton Place
by Grace Metalious

Published: 1999-03-04
Paperback : 384 pages
2 members reading this now
11 clubs reading this now
6 members have read this book
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 ...
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Introduction

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.

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Member Reviews

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by arlene b. (see profile) 04/17/19

 
by Rebecca D. (see profile) 01/12/18

 
  "Great read about small-town life."by Jill S. (see profile) 05/22/07

I really enjoyed this book full of quirky characters. Initially I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to remember all of the characters, but it didn't seem to be a problem. The stories of these townspeople... (read more)

 
  "A great view of small town life from the inside out"by Jennifer E. (see profile) 05/20/07

This book is a great read my only complaint was the amount of characters and trying to keep them all straight. I liked how the author really brought us into the lives of the different characters and exposed... (read more)

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