BUtterfield 8

by John O'Hara, Lorin Stein (Introduction)

Overview

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.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143107088
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/21/2013
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	1,060,292
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

John O’Hara (1905–1970) (1905-1970) was one of the most prominent American writers of the twentieth century. Championed by Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Dorothy Parker, he wrote seventeen novels, including Appointment in Samarra, his first; BUtterfield 8, which was made into a film starring Elizabeth Taylor; Pal Joey, which was adapted into a Broadway musical as well as a film starring Frank Sinatra; and Ten North Frederick, which won the National Book Award. He has had more stories published in The New Yorker than anyone else in the history of the magazine. Born in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, he lived for many years in New York and in Princeton, New Jersey, where he died.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Winner of the 2012 Fifty Books/Fifty Covers show, organized by Design Observer in association with AIGA and Designers & Books

Winner of the 2014 Type Directors Club Communication Design Award

Praise for Penguin Drop Caps:

"[Penguin Drop Caps] convey a sense of nostalgia for the tactility and aesthetic power of a physical book and for a centuries-old tradition of beautiful lettering."
—Fast Company

“Vibrant, minimalist new typographic covers…. Bonus points for the heartening gender balance of the initial selections.”
—Maria Popova, Brain Pickings

"The Penguin Drop Caps series is a great example of the power of design. Why buy these particular classics when there are less expensive, even free editions of Great Expectations? Because they’re beautiful objects. Paul Buckley and Jessica Hische’s fresh approach to the literary classics reduces the design down to typography and color. Each cover is foil-stamped with a cleverly illustrated letterform that reveals an element of the story. Jane Austen’s A (Pride and Prejudice) is formed by opulent peacock feathers and Charlotte Bronte’s B (Jane Eyre) is surrounded by flames. The complete set forms a rainbow spectrum prettier than anything else on your bookshelf."
—Rex Bonomelli, The New York Times

"Drool-inducing."
—Flavorwire

"Classic reads in stunning covers—your book club will be dying."
—Redbook

Editorial Reviews

A man who knows exactly what he is writing about and has written it marvelously well.” —Ernest Hemingway

“Like Henry James, O’Hara could create a world where class and social structures are all-important but not openly discussed.” —The Village Voice

“O’Hara 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 Lebowitz

"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

“An author I love is John O’Hara. . . . I think he’s been forgotten by time, but for dialogue lovers, he’s a goldmine of inspiration.” —Douglas Coupland, Shelf Awareness

“One of the great novels of New York in the Depression . . . [O’Hara’s] 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

From the Publisher

It’s a pleasure to encounter BUTTERFIELD 8 in this new audio version, especially if your most recent memory of it is the image of a young Elizabeth Taylor in high heels and a slip. The 1935 novel is dated but no less entertaining for that, and narrator Gretchen Mol inhabits this time capsule with ease. She deftly distinguishes between male and female voices with just a subtle shift of tone. Making the young women sound distinct, however, is less successful. Mol’s men also sound much alike, and you can’t always hear that one scene has ended and entirely different characters are speaking. Nevertheless, Mol’s pacing and dialogue are effective, and this tale of a beautiful doomed club kid of the Prohibition era is engaging. B.G. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

JUNE 2014 - AudioFile

It’s a pleasure to encounter BUTTERFIELD 8 in this new audio version, especially if your most recent memory of it is the image of a young Elizabeth Taylor in high heels and a slip. The 1935 novel is dated but no less entertaining for that, and narrator Gretchen Mol inhabits this time capsule with ease. She deftly distinguishes between male and female voices with just a subtle shift of tone. Making the young women sound distinct, however, is less successful. Mol’s men also sound much alike, and you can’t always hear that one scene has ended and entirely different characters are speaking. Nevertheless, Mol’s pacing and dialogue are effective, and this tale of a beautiful doomed club kid of the Prohibition era is engaging. B.G. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

JUNE 2014 - AudioFile