Giovanni's Room (Penguin Modern Classics) and over 1.5 million other books are available for Amazon Kindle . Learn more


or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Sorry, this item is not available in
Image not available for
Colour:
Image not available

 
See 1 customer image
Share your own customer images
Search inside another edition of this book
Start reading Giovanni's Room (Penguin Modern Classics) on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Giovanni's Room (Penguin Great Loves) [Paperback]

James Baldwin (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
RRP: £4.99
Price: £3.74 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £1.25 (25%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
Only 11 left in stock (more on the way).
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon. Gift-wrap available.
Want it Friday, 21 June? Choose Express delivery at checkout. Details

Formats

 Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition £8.99   -- --
Hardcover --   -- --
Paperback £3.74   -- --
Audio, CD, Audiobook £14.87   -- --
Unknown Binding --   -- --
Books Trade-In
Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. Special Offer until June 30, 2013: Receive an additional £5 promotional Gift Certificate, when you trade-in at least £10 worth of books. Learn more.

Book Description

Publication Date: 2 Aug 2007 | ISBN-10: 0141032944 | ISBN-13: 978-0141032948 | Edition: Reprint

When David meets the sensual Giovanni in a bohemian bar, he is swept into a passionate love affair. But his girlfriend’s return to Paris destroys everything. Unable to admit to the truth, David pretends the liaison never happened – while Giovanni’s life descends into tragedy.

United by the theme of love, the writings in the Great Loves series span over two thousand years and vastly different worlds. Readers will be introduced to love’s endlessly fascinating possibilities and extremities: romantic love, platonic love, erotic love, gay love, virginal love, adulterous love, parental love, filial love, nostalgic love, unrequited love, illicit love, not to mention lost love, twisted and obsessional love…

Frequently Bought Together

Giovanni's Room (Penguin Great Loves) + Go Tell it on the Mountain (Penguin Modern Classics)
Price For Both: £10.63

Buy the selected items together

Product details

  • Paperback: 160 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Classics; Reprint edition (2 Aug 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0141032944
  • ISBN-13: 978-0141032948
  • Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 0.9 x 18.1 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,152 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

More About the Author

› Visit Amazon's James Baldwin Page
James Baldwin
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.

Product Description

About the Author

James Baldwin (1924-1987) was born and educated in New York. Go Tell It on the Mountain, his first novel, was published in 1953. Evoking brilliantly his experiences as a boy preacher in Harlem, it was an immediate success and was followed by Giovanni’s Room, which explores the theme of gay love. His novels are notable for the personal way in which they explore questions of sexual and racial identity.
Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence
I stand at the window of this great house in the south of France as night falls, the night which is leading me to the most terrible morning of my life. Read the first page
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

Customer Reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
39 reviews
4.7 out of 5 stars
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars A powerful novel rich in emotion and symbolism 15 Oct 2001
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
In this novel, Baldwin captures the torment faced by a young man in a foreign city with desires he dare not admit to himself. David spends his life running from his sexuality with the result that he denies and destroys his lover Giovanni. Giovanni's chaotic and shambolic room provides a powerful symbolic back drop to the events which unfold within. The novel leaves a bitter taste - you can't run forever and be happy. However this is a message to society and not the individual - David and Giovanni were constrained by an era where homosexuality was synonymous with inferiority and perversion. Within these constraints they could not be happy as a couple.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A powerful novel about human relationships. 27 Oct 2000
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Not often does one encounter a novel that changes the way one thinks, that touches one deeply with its powerful story and realistic characters. 'Giovanni's Room' is one of these novels. It is written beautifully, like a long-lost tale but the pain in the novel reflects real life and human relationships. The selfishness, uncertainty, fears, love and passion of human beings are portrayed here for the reader to identify with them. The poignant way in which Baldwin describes Giovanni trying to better his 'room' for his ungrateful American lover is breath-taking. This novel is not only about sexuality, it digs deep into rifts of culture and class.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition. 9 April 2009
By Alessandra F.
Format:Paperback
I don't even know where to begin from in reviewing this short little book. Well, maybe a good start would certainly be: read it. It's an amazing novel, which contains much more than what is only superficially summarized on its cover, that is a love triangle involving the striking discovery, for the main character, to be gay. That would really mean to be unfair. "Giovanni's Room" is a book about love and about feelings, but also about loneliness, homelessness and the burden of our own choices. And above all it's a book about how really difficult is to live and enjoy freedom, without feeling always wrong and always in need of an escape.
I'd like to quote a passage that stroke me particularly, a passage which complete the title I gave to this review (another quote from the book itself of course). I think it can give you an idea of the beautiful "painful" logic of this book.

He smiled, 'Why, you will go home and then you will find that home is not home any more. Then you will really be in trouble. As long as you stay here, you can always think: One day I will go home.' He played with my thumb and grinned. 'N'est-ce pas?'
'Beautiful logic' I said. 'You mean I have a home to go to as long as I don't go there?'
He laughed. 'Well, isn't it true? You don't have a home until you leave it and then, when you have left it, you never go back.'
'I seem,' I said, 'to have heard this song before.'
'Ah, yes,' said Giovanni, 'and you will certainly hear it again. It is one of those songs that somebody, somewhere, will always be singing.'
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful work 5 Oct 2001
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This novel is achingly beautiful. It is the sort of book that gets you in the gut. David's rejection of Giovanni is ultimately a rejection of himself. It warns ultimately that if you are not true to yourself a sad fate awaits.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, and painful 25 May 2007
By Andrea Pontiroli
Format:Paperback
This is an excellent novel, I could not put it down, in spite of the fact that, knowing that it would all go terribly bad, I was always scared of what could happen. It is a sad story, and yet so true, in the way it portrays a city, a historical period, and the realisation (and denial) of one's homosexuality. Yes, the main character is a coward, and yet Baldwin does not push the reader into hating him. We don't like him, we would not behave like him, still we can understand.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Powerful, moving and very, very honest. 1 Oct 2000
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
In 'Giovanni's Room', James Baldwin tells a moving story about a man confused by the contrast between what he feels and what he thinks he should feel. In a sense, it tells the story of the conflict all homosexual men must go through, because of the values society has forced on them, and their own inhibitions. This is a powerful, intense piece of writing, that should be read by all!
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterpiece 29 April 1999
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This literary masterpiece is by far the strongest, most emotional gay novel of all time. The characters, particularly Giovanni, are written very well. The plot is gripping. Once you start it, you won't put it down. Baldwin shows in Giovanni's Room his capabilities of portraying evil, and love, so strikingly it is like a spell.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
20 of 22 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars My all time favorite book 26 Sep 2002
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
If you've never read any James Baldwin before I urge you do so. He is a writer of great power, able to take you into the world of the characers and able to empathise with those characters and understand how they would react to the circumstances in which he places them. As a gay black man in America at the time of the black rights movement he was victimised on both fronts, hence his characters are often black, or gay, or both.

Giovanni's Room remains the best book I have ever read. I have recommended it to many friends, all have whom have loved it, many have been moved by it. If you read this I strongly suspect you will want to read more by this man.

Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?   Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars giovanni's room comment
brilliantly written. really moving and a great insight into homosexuality and althgough i am heterosexual i found the the text brilliantlly descriptive and quite erotic
Published 22 days ago by Jeremy Field
5.0 out of 5 stars Timelessness
One of my favourite books of all time. This is a beautiful and compelling meditation on the nature of love, regardless of who it is you fall in love with. Read more
Published 1 month ago by D. B. Train
5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT READ
Not what I was expecting which was good. Very well written and found it difficult to put down as wanted to know what the outcome would be. Don't want to give any more away...
Published 1 month ago by 13annette13
4.0 out of 5 stars An very sad young American in Paris.
It takes place in Paris in the 1950s. And, surprisingly, we consider the contemporary French writer Patrick Modiano: the streets of Paris, cafes, bars, inactivity, wandering of a... Read more
Published 1 month ago by french reader
5.0 out of 5 stars Classic
This is a book that is able to set the scene with no fluffy description. It is able to formulate images in the mind without actually describing the images. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mrs. A. Painter
5.0 out of 5 stars Giovanni's Room
This book is a little jem, written beautifully and I would recommend it to everyone, absolutely. It is the best book I have ever read.
Published 5 months ago by kim ely
5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning
I have arrived very late to either know about James Baldwin or read any of his books. This is simply stunning and is now in my all time top ten of books! Read more
Published 5 months ago by Daweale
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent read
A gripping story which is easy to read and draws you into the characters thoughts and dreams. Well worth reading.
Published 5 months ago by bobertuk
4.0 out of 5 stars Heartbreaking
This is more than just a story of two men who fall in love. In the middle of it all they're conflicted and unsure facing a hostile world each character hopes that one day in their... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Rami Shetty
4.0 out of 5 stars sad story
beautifully written, and terribly tragic, a sign of the times the book was written in..like Brokeback Mountain, so many of the gay love stories are un-happy(rather... Read more
Published 6 months ago by M. Ronald Jewell
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

There's a problem loading this menu at the moment.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.

    Your Shopping Basket is empty.

    Give it purpose -- fill it with books, DVDs, clothes, electronics and more.

    If you already have an account, sign in.

    There's a problem previewing your shopping basket at the moment.

    Check your Internet connection and go to your cart, or try again.

    View Shopping Basket (0 items)

      Customer Discussions

      This product's forum
      Discussion Replies Latest Post
      No discussions yet

      Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
      Start a new discussion
      Topic:
      First post:
      Prompts for sign-in
       


      Active discussions in related forums
      Discussion Replies Latest Post
      fiction discussion forum
      Come on - why don't we write our own book right here in the fiction forum ? I'll do the first sentence, and then jump in....hold on, here we go...       		7213 12 minutes ago
      fiction discussion forum
      Nobody reads on the loo do they ? not really - and yet so many people have books in the loo !       		19 1 hour ago
      fiction discussion forum
      Self-published books: pain or gain?       		6126 1 hour ago
      romance discussion forum
      Looking for books like Slammed, Beautiful Disaster, Easy,       		9371 2 hours ago
      fiction discussion forum
      Spend an erotic night of BDSM, Domination/submission, and exhibition with Jim and Kay this weekend..       		47 2 hours ago
      fiction discussion forum
      What is the POINT of zombie novels, exactly?       		135 2 hours ago
      romance discussion forum
      Any romance books without a pathetic heroine?       		9 2 hours ago
      fiction discussion forum
      Can anyone recommend a good book       		108 3 hours ago
      Search Customer Discussions
      Search all Amazon discussions
         
      Related forums

      Listmania!

      Create a Listmania! list

      Look for similar items by category

      Feedback


      Amazon.co.uk Privacy Statement Amazon.co.uk Delivery Information Amazon.co.uk Returns & Exchanges