Comprising more than 100 of Vidal's inimitable pieces, this National Book Award winner features the author's choice of the essays that he has written over a period of 40 years--a definitive guide to post-war America.
Gore Vidal Books
October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012
Gore Vidal was a celebrated American author whose work was characterized by sharp intellect and a keen satirical eye on American society. Through his novels, essays, and plays, he frequently explored themes of power, decadence, and critiques of U.S. foreign policy. His distinctive style, often described as aphoristic and aristocratic, reflected a penchant for paradox and irony. Vidal left an indelible mark on American literature as both an astute observer and a formidable critic of his era.
Juilian, fourth-century Emperor who tried to reinstate pagan worship. Williwaw-a tale of a US patrol boat WWII. The Judgement of Paris-Entertaining account of travels and affairs in Italy, Egypt & Paris. The City and the Pillar-Tragedy -homosexual underground.
Gore Vidal again demonstrates in these seven stories the maturity of craftsmanship and individuality which has gained him an important place among writers. He has wit; he has variety; he has a style. Of the hundreds of new writers to come out of the Second World War, only a handful have continued to develop, to grow. He has survived notoriety and early success to achieve a career of letters that is unique, a body of work that is substantial, a perception of reality which is precise and illuminating. After reading 'A Moment of Green Laurel,' published here for the first time, one appreciates the comment of The Times Literary Supplement: 'It is quite possible for a successful young novelist like Mr. Gore Vidal to live in America and prevent anything he does not want from impinging on his consciousness and, as he matures, a correlation between his standards and those he does not follow. From the fusion a peculiarly American literature develops.'
The author offers his personal impressions of Venice, recounts its long history, and describes the paintings, sculpture, and architecture of the city
Recreates the milieux Williams knew and chronicled so movingly--from his gypsy youth in St. Louis and New Orleans to his days of celebrity in Hollywood and New York.
In this sequel to PALIMPSEST, the celebrated novelist Gore Vidal ranges freely over his remarkable life with the signature wit and literary elegance that is uniquely his.
Lincoln
- 657 pages
- 23 hours of reading
"The portrait is reasoned, judicious, straightforward and utterly convincing." THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW In this profoundly moving work of epic proportion and intense human sympathy, Abraham Lincoln is observed by his loved ones, his rivals, and his future assassins. In this brilliantly realized, vividly imagined work of fiction, Gore Vidal gives us a portrait of America's great president that is at once intimate and public, stark and complex, and that will become for future generations the living Lincoln, the definitive Lincoln. "Richly entertaining....For the general reader the elegant explication of the issues of the day gives hearty satisfaction: history lessons with the blood still hot." THE WASHINGTON POST
Kalki
- 288 pages
- 11 hours of reading
Julian
- 528 pages
- 19 hours of reading
The remarkable bestseller about the fourth-century Roman emperor who famously tried to halt the spread of Christianity, Julian is widely regarded as one of Gore Vidal’s finest historical novels. Julian the Apostate, nephew of Constantine the Great, was one of the brightest yet briefest lights in the history of the Roman Empire. A military genius on the level of Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great, a graceful and persuasive essayist, and a philosopher devoted to worshipping the gods of Hellenism, he became embroiled in a fierce intellectual war with Christianity that provoked his murder at the age of thirty-two, only four years into his brilliantly humane and compassionate reign. A marvelously imaginative and insightful novel of classical antiquity, Julian captures the religious and political ferment of a desperate age and restores with blazing wit and vigor the legacy of an impassioned ruler.
Creation
- 592 pages
- 21 hours of reading
A sweeping novel of politics, war, philosophy, and adventure–in a restored edition, featuring never-before-published material from Gore Vidal’s original manuscript–Creation offers a captivating grand tour of the ancient world. Cyrus Spitama, grandson of the prophet Zoroaster and lifelong friend of Xerxes, spent most of his life as Persian ambassador for the great king Darius. He traveled to India, where he discussed nirvana with Buddha, and to the warring states of Cathay, where he learned of Tao from Master Li and fished on the riverbank with Confucius. Now blind and aged in Athens–the Athens of Pericles, Sophocles, Thucydides, Herodotus, and Socrates–Cyrus recounts his days as he strives to resolve the fundamental questions that have guided his life’s journeys: how the universe was created, and why evil was created with good. In revisiting the fifth century b.c.–one of the most spectacular periods in history–Gore Vidal illuminates the ideas that have shaped civilizations for millennia.
