The Subterraneans

by Jack Kerouac

Overview

From the most famous of the Beat writers and the author of On the Road and The Dharma Bums, Kerouac’s intoxicating love story of two young bohemians

Written over the course of three days and three nights, The Subterraneans was generated out of the same kind of ecstatic flash of inspiration that produced another one of Kerouac’s early classics, On the Road. Centering around the tempestuous romance and breakup of Leo Percepied and Mardou Fox—two denizens of the 1950s San Francisco underground—The Subterraneans is a tale of dark alleys and smoky rooms, of artists, visionaries, and adventurers existing outside mainstream America’s field of vision. Loosely based on Kerouac’s own life, and peopled with analogues of real-life friends, including William S. Burroughs, Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg, and Neal Cassady, The Subterraneans is a vivid and breathless masterwork of Beat literature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798212234085
Publisher:	Blackstone Publishing
Publication date:	11/26/2024
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 5.70(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) was an American novelist and poet who influenced generations of writers. He is recognized for his spontaneous prose style and for being a pioneer of the Beat Generation.

What People are Saying About This

Ann Douglas

"Kerouac's work represents the most extensive experiment in language and literary form undertaken by an American writer of his generation."

Ann Charters

"An outsider i America, Jack Kerouac was a true original."

Allen Ginsberg

"Each book by Kerouac is unique, a telepathic discord. Such rich, natural writing is nonpareil in the later twentieth century."

Editorial Reviews

"The first clear development of the American romantic prose since Hemingway, Kerouac's writing is full of mad sex, comedy, wide-screen travel writing, and longlyrical evocatins of American childhood and adolescent memories."

The Times (London)

Praise for Jack Kerouac and The Subterraneans:

“Kerouac’s work represents the most extensive experiment in language and literary form undertaken by an American writer of his generation.”—Ann Douglas

“A book of raw power and awesome beauty.”—San Francisco Examiner

“Each book by Kerouac is unique, a telepathic discord. Such rich, natural writing is nonpareil in the later twentieth century.”—Allen Ginsberg

“An outsider in America, Jack Kerouac was a true original.”—Ann Charters

“There is no doubt about [Kerouac’s] great sensitivity to language. His sentences frequently move into tempestuous sweeps and whorls and sometimes they have something of the rich music of Gerard Manley Hopkins or Dylan Thomas.”—New York Herald Tribune

“The first clear development of the American Romantic prose since Hemingway, Kerouac’s writing is full of mad sex, comedy, wide-screen travel writing, and long lyrical evocations of American childhood and adolescent memories.”—Times (UK)

From the Publisher