Synopses & Reviews
The writer whom Fran Lebowitz compared to the author of The Great Gatsby, calling him the real F. Scott Fitzgerald,” makes his Penguin Classics debut with this beautiful deluxe edition of his best-loved book.
One of the great novels of small-town American life, Appointment in Samarra is John OHaras crowning achievement. In December 1930, just before Christmas, the Gibbsville, Pennsylvania, social circuit is electrified with parties and dances. At the center of the social elite stand Julian and Caroline English. But in one rash moment born inside a highball glass, Julian breaks with polite society and begins a rapid descent toward self-destruction.
Brimming with wealth and privilege, jealousy and infidelity, OHaras iconic first novel is an unflinching look at the dark side of the American dreamand a lasting testament to the keen social intelligence if a major American writer.
For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Review
"A man who knows exactly what he is writing about and has written it marvelously well." Ernest Hemingway
Review
"Like Henry James, O'Hara could create a world where class and social strictures are all-important but not openly discussed." The Village Voice
Review
“A man who knows exactly what he is writing about and has written it marvelously well.” —Ernest Hemingway
Review
“Like Henry James, OHara could create a world where class and social structures are all-important but not openly discussed.” —The Village Voice Review
“OHara understood better than any other American writer how class can both reveal and shape character.... [His] genius was in his unerring precision in capturing the speech and the milieus of his characters, whether the setting was Pennsylvania, Hollywood, or New York.”
—Fran LebowitzReview
"O'Hara occupies a unique position in our contemporary literature... He is the only American writer to whom America presents itself as a social scene in the way it once presented itself to Henry James, or France to Proust." —Lionel Trilling, The New York Times
Review
“OHara is one of the great underrated writers of the last century. . . . [
BUtterfield 8 is] a definitive picture of speakeasy culture at the start of the Depression.”
—Lorin Stein, editor of The Paris Review, from the Introduction
Review
“If you want to read a book by a man who knows exactly what he is writing about and has written it marvelously well, read
Appointment in Samarra.” —
Ernest Hemingway “Appointment in Samarra lives frighteningly in the mind.” —John Updike
Review
"Among the greatest short-story writers in English, or in any other language... [He helped] to invent what the world came to call
The New Yorker short story."
—Brendan Gill, Here at The New Yorker
"O'Hara occupies a unique position in our contemporary literature.... He is the only American writer to whom America presents itself as a social scene in the way it once presented itself to Henry James, or France to Proust." —Lionel Trilling, The New York Times
"This is fiction, but it has, for me, the clang of truth." —John Updike
“OHaras eyes and ears have been spared nothing.” —Dorothy Parker
“A writer of dream-sharp tales, crisp yet dense.” —Los Angeles Times
“OHara practices the classic form of the modern short story developed by Joyce and perfected by Hemingway. . . . His coverage is worthy of a Balzac.” —E. L. Doctorow, from the Foreword
“You can binge on his collections, the way some people binge on Mad Men, and for some of the same reasons.” —Lorin Stein, editor of The Paris Review
Review
“An author I love is John OHara. . . . I think hes been forgotten by time, but for dialogue lovers, hes a goldmine of inspiration.” —
Douglas Coupland, Shelf Awareness
“One of the great novels of New York in the Depression . . . [OHaras] novels of the mid-thirties are his classics, and they deserve to be much more famous than they are.” —Lorin Stein, editor of The Paris Review, from the Introduction
Review
“With a dazzling new cover and smart new introduction, one of my favorite novels,
Appointment in Samarra by John O'Hara, is reborn. . . . This novel about class, drinking and sex is fun—and incredibly smart.” —
Elizabeth Taylor, Chicago Tribune
“[A] gorgeous new edition . . . Appointment in Samarra still astonishes and amazes; and [OHaras] style and themes—a bridge, if you will, between F. Scott Fitzgerald and John Updike—remain painfully and beautifully relevant today.” —Huffington Post
“Suspenseful, character-driven—it deserves to be read more.” —Joshua Ferris, Details
“Transfixing . . . A Jazz Age novel set amidst the early throes of the Depression . . . A striking antidote to contemporary novels like Nathanael Wests Miss Lonelyhearts and Erskine Caldwells Tobacco Road, which remain startling for their implacably cynical view of humanity. OHara offers a more nuanced, and more subversive view of the national mood at the cusp of the Depression.” —Nathaniel Rich, The Daily Beast
“Nobody whos read it ever forgets Appointment in Samarra.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“An attractive new edition of Samarra, with deckled edges and a jazzy cover.” —The Philadelphia Review of Books
“If you want to read a book by a man who knows exactly what he is writing about and has written it marvelously well, read Appointment in Samarra.” —Ernest Hemingway
“Appointment in Samarra lives frighteningly in the mind.” —John Updike
“It is alive with compelling characters and OHaras dead-on dialogue and sharp observations.” —Chicago Tribunes Printers Row
“[OHara] was as acute a social observer as Fitzgerald, as spare a stylist as Hemingway, and in his creation of Gibbsville, in western Pennsylvania, he invented a kind of small-bore variation on Faulkners Yoknapatawpha County.” —Los Angeles Times
“An author I love is John OHara. . . . I think hes been forgotten by time, but for dialogue lovers, hes a goldmine of inspiration.” —Douglas Coupland, Shelf Awareness
“OHara was one of Moms favorite authors. . . . ‘So I finally read Appointment in Samarra, I told her. ‘I'd always thought that book had something to do with Iraq. . . . ‘It does apply to Iraq, even if thats not at all what its about. Its a book about setting things in motion and then being too proud and stubborn to apologize and to change course. ” —from The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe
Review
“You can binge on his collections, the way some people binge on
Mad Men, and for some of the same reasons.” —
Lorin Stein, editor of The Paris Review
“Don Draper is an OHara character if ever there was one. . . . The stories have the tang of genuine observation and reporting. . . . Youre aware of how brilliantly OHara uses dialogue to convey exposition, and of how often his people, like Hemingways, leave unsaid what is really on their minds. . . . OHara [was] a master of the short story . . . The New York anthology . . . is part of a welcome Penguin effort to reissue his work in paperback.” —Charles McGrath, The New York Times Book Review
“An author I love is John OHara. . . . I think hes been forgotten by time, but for dialogue lovers, hes a goldmine of inspiration.” —Douglas Coupland, Shelf Awareness
"Among the greatest short-story writers in English, or in any other language... [He helped] to invent what the world came to call The New Yorker short story." —Brendan Gill, Here at The New Yorker
"O'Hara occupies a unique position in our contemporary literature.... He is the only American writer to whom America presents itself as a social scene in the way it once presented itself to Henry James, or France to Proust." —Lionel Trilling, The New York Times
"This is fiction, but it has, for me, the clang of truth." —John Updike
“OHaras eyes and ears have been spared nothing.” —Dorothy Parker
“A writer of dream-sharp tales, crisp yet dense.” —Los Angeles Times
“OHara practices the classic form of the modern short story developed by Joyce and perfected by Hemingway. . . . His coverage is worthy of a Balzac.” —E. L. Doctorow, from the Foreword
“Superb . . . The 32 stories inhabit the Technicolor vernaculars of taxi drivers, barbers, paper pushers and society matrons. . . . Undoubtedly, between the 1930s and the 1970s, [OHara] was American fictions greatest eavesdropper, recording the everyday speech and tone of all strata of midcentury society. . . . What elevates OHara above slice-of-life portraitists like Damon Runyon and Ring Lardner is the turmoil glimpsed beneath the vibrant surfaces.” —The Wall Street Journal
“His short stories are gorgeous broken scenes of American life . . . and his style and themes—a bridge, if you will, between F. Scott Fitzgerald and John Updike—remain painfully and beautifully relevant today.” —Huffington Post
Synopsis
A bestseller upon its publication in 1935,
Butterfield 8 was inspired by a news account of the discovery of the body of a beautiful young woman washed up on a Long Island beach. Was it an accident, a murder, a suicide? The circumstances of her death were never resolved, but O'Hara seized upon the tragedy to imagine the woman's down-and-out life in New York City in the early 1930s.
O'Hara understood better than any other American writer how class can both reveal and shape character, Fran Lebowitz writes in her Introduction. With brash honesty and a flair for the unconventional, Butterfield 8 lays bare the unspoken and often shocking truths that lurked beneath the surface of a society still reeling from the effects of the Great Depression. The result is a masterpiece of American fiction.
Synopsis
The writer Fran Lebowitz called “the real F. Scott Fitzgerald” makes his Penguin Classics debut with this beautiful deluxe edition of his best-loved book One of the great novels of small-town American life,
Appointment in Samarra is John O’Hara’s crowning achievement. In December 1930, just before Christmas, the Gibbsville, Pennsylvania, social circuit is electrified with parties and dances. At the center of the social elite stand Julian and Caroline English. But in one rash moment born inside a highball glass, Julian breaks with polite society and begins a rapid descent toward self-destruction.
Brimming with wealth and privilege, jealousy and infidelity, O’Hara’s iconic first novel is an unflinching look at the dark side of the American dream—and a lasting testament to the keen social intelligence if a major American writer.
Synopsis
The bestselling novel that became an Oscar-winning film starring Elizabeth Taylor about New York's speakeasy generation
A masterpiece of American fiction and a bestseller upon its publication in 1935, BUtterfield 8 lays bare with brash honesty the unspoken and often shocking truths that lurked beneath the surface of a society still reeling from the effects of the Great Depression. One Sunday morning, Gloria wakes up in a stranger's apartment with nothing but a torn evening dress, stockings, and panties. When she steals a fur coat from the wardrobe to wear home, she unleashes a series of events that can only end in tragedy. Inspired by true events, this novel caused a sensation on its publication for its frank depiction of the relationship between a wild and beautiful young woman and a respectable, married man.
Synopsis
Collected for the first time, the New York stories of John O'Hara, "among the greatest short story writers in English, or in any other language" (Brendan Gill, Here at The New Yorker)
Collected for the first time, here are the New York stories of one of the twentieth centurys definitive chroniclers of the citythe speakeasies and highballs, social climbers and cinema stars, mistresses and powerbrokers, unsparingly observed by a popular American master of realism. Spanning his four-decade career, these more than thirty refreshingly frank, sparely written stories are among John OHaras finest work, exploring the materialist aspirations and sexual exploits of flawed, prodigally human characters and showcasing the snappy dialogue, telling details and ironic narrative twists that made him the most-published short story writer in the history of the New Yorker.
Synopsis
The writer Fran Lebowitz called the real F. Scott Fitzgerald” makes his Penguin Classics debut with this beautiful deluxe edition of his best-loved book.
One of the great novels of small-town American life, Appointment in Samarra is John OHaras crowning achievement. In December 1930, just before Christmas, the Gibbsville, Pennsylvania, social circuit is electrified with parties and dances. At the center of the social elite stand Julian and Caroline English. But in one rash moment born inside a highball glass, Julian breaks with polite society and begins a rapid descent toward self-destruction.
Brimming with wealth and privilege, jealousy and infidelity, OHaras iconic first novel is an unflinching look at the dark side of the American dreamand a lasting testament to the keen social intelligence if a major American writer.
Synopsis
The writer whom Fran Lebowitz called the real F. Scott Fitzgerald” makes his Penguin Classics debut with this beautiful deluxe edition of his best-loved book.
One of the great novels of small-town American life, Appointment in Samarra is John OHaras crowning achievement. In December 1930, just before Christmas, the Gibbsville, Pennsylvania, social circuit is electrified with parties and dances. At the center of the social elite stand Julian and Caroline English. But in one rash moment born inside a highball glass, Julian breaks with polite society and begins a rapid descent toward self-destruction.
Brimming with wealth and privilege, jealousy and infidelity, OHaras iconic first novel is an unflinching look at the dark side of the American dreamand a lasting testament to the keen social intelligence if a major American writer.
Synopsis
The writer whom Fran Lebowitz compared to the author of The Great Gatsby, calling him the real F. Scott Fitzgerald,” makes his Penguin Classics debut with this beautiful deluxe edition of his best-loved book.
One of the great novels of small-town American life, Appointment in Samarra is John OHaras crowning achievement. In December 1930, just before Christmas, the Gibbsville, Pennsylvania, social circuit is electrified with parties and dances. At the center of the social elite stand Julian and Caroline English. But in one rash moment born inside a highball glass, Julian breaks with polite society and begins a rapid descent toward self-destruction.
Brimming with wealth and privilege, jealousy and infidelity, OHaras iconic first novel is an unflinching look at the dark side of the American dreamand a lasting testament to the keen social intelligence if a major American writer.
About the Author
John OHara (19051970) was among the most prominent American writers of the twentieth century. Championed by Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Dorothy Parker, he wrote fourteen novels, including
BUtterfield 8, which was made into a film starring Elizabeth Taylor, and had more stories published in the
New Yorker than anyone in the history of the magazine.
Steven Goldleaf is a professor of English literature at Pace University and the author of John OHara: A Study of Short Fiction. He lives in New York City.
E. L. Doctorow, one of Americas most acclaimed living writers, is the author of such novels as Ragtime, The March, and Homer and Langley and is the recipient of the National Book Award, three National Book Critics Circle Awards, two PEN/Faulkner Awards, and the National Humanities Medal. He lives in New York City.