Giovanni's Room (Penguin Modern Classics)
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Product Description
Product Description
Considered an 'audacious' second novel, GIOVANNI'S ROOM is set in the 1950s Paris of American expatriates, liaisons, and violence. This now-classic story of a fated love triangle explores, with uncompromising clarity, the conflicts between desire, conventional morality and sexual identity.
About the Author
Born in Harlem in 1924, Baldwin had an early career as a teenage preacher. He lived in Paris from 1948-1956 and his first novels, the autobiographical GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN and GIOVANNI'S ROOM established him as a promising novelist and anticipated some of the themes of his later works, such as racism and sexuality. He became a prominent spokesperson for racial equality, especially during the civil rights movement. He lived in France during his last years. Baldwin died in 1987.
Inside This Book
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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
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
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A powerful novel about human relationships.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Giovanni's Room (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.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant, and painful,
By Andrea Pontiroli (Rome, Italy) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Giovanni's Room (Penguin Modern Classics) (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.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A powerful novel rich in emotion and symbolism,
By A Customer
This review is from: Giovanni's Room (Penguin Modern Classics) (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.
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