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Flowers For Algernon (S.F. Masterworks) (Paperback)

by Daniel Keyes (Author)
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Gollancz; New Ed edition (13 Jan 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1857989384
  • ISBN-13: 978-1857989380
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 1.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 9,440 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

Daniel Keyes wrote little SF but is highly regarded for one classic, Flowers for Algernon. As a 1959 novella it won a Hugo award; the 1966 novel-length expansion won a Nebula. The Oscar-winning movie adaptation Charly (1968) also spawned a 1980 Broadway musical.

Following his doctor's instructions, engaging simpleton Charlie Gordon tells his own story in a semi-literate "progris riports". He dimly wants to better himself but with an IQ of 68 can't even beat the laboratory mouse Algernon at maze-solving:

I dint feel bad because I watched Algernon and I lernd how to finish the amaze even if it takes me along time.
I dint know mice were so smart.

Algernon is extra-clever thanks to an experimental brain operation so far tried only on animals. Charlie eagerly volunteers as the first human subject. After frustrating delays and agonies of concentration, the effects begin to show and the reports steadily improve: "Punctuation, is fun!" But getting smarter brings cruel shocks, as Charlie realises that his merry "friends" at the bakery where he sweeps the floor have all along been laughing at him, never with him. The IQ rise continues, taking him steadily past the human average to genius level and beyond, until he's as intellectually alone as the old, foolish Charlie ever was--and now painfully aware of it. Then, ominously, the smart mouse Algernon begins to deteriorate ...

A timeless tear-jerker with a terrific emotional impact, Flowers for Algernon is the 25th choice in the millennium SF Masterworks series. --David Langford



Product Description

Charlie Gordon, IQ 68, is a floor sweeper, and the gentle butt of everyone's jokes, until an experiment in the enhancement of human intelligence turns him into a genius. But then Algernon, the mouse whose triumphal experimental tranformation preceded his, fades and dies, and Charlie has to face the possibility that his salvation was only temporary.
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Customer Reviews

40 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (40 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Sublime, 16 Jan 2006
By A. Morley (Ripley, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Charlie Gordon, IQ 68, is a toilet cleaner at a bakery. After an experiment is done on him by the local University his IQ gradually increases in parallel with the test mouse, Algernon. However Algernon starts to display erratic behaviour which leads the super-intelligent Charlie to suggest both their intelligences will start to drop back to their previous levels.

Flowers for Algernon is in my opinion one of the greatest stories ever written. It is superbly told through Charlie’s diary entries which catalogue his days just before the experiment and the following months after it. We see the gradual improvement in his grammar, his spelling and punctuation and learn of his life through his dreams which he is instructed to write down. What is most compelling about the novel is the moral dilemma that is presented to the reader when Charlie becomes intelligent. In the beginning of the book he believes he has friends at the bakery whereas in actual fact they are gently mocking him. By the time he becomes intelligent however he is aloof and has no friends (make-believe or real). He also is incapable of certain emotions at this stage which poses the question at the end of the novel – at which stage was he better off?

This is rightly in the SF Masterwork series, it is my favourite book and has won the Hugo Award (as a short story) and Nebula award (as the full length novel).

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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars great, 13 April 2007
By P. Davie - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Could have been mawkish and over-sentimental. Could have been overly simplistic in its message. Could easily be seen as an "ignorance is bliss" fable with little more to commend it than the fact that it asks us to be sympathetic toward those less fortunate than ourselves. It, to my mind, is none of those things.

Its genius lies in its narrative structure - at each dramatic turn it outwits any second-guessing you may have entered into regarding revelations about Charlie's past as well as any thoughts as to how his intelligence may progress. Charlie's progress is neither predictable nor ridiculously sentimental. Especially since - regardless of his eventual self-awareness - there is an all-pervasive naivety that (I can only imagine) must have been incredibly difficult for Keyes to convey as brilliantly as he does.

What's perhaps more important is not the emotional investment we get in the main character, but the depth and resonance found in the other key players - especially when this is given to us, at all times, by the (first) mentally challenged (then) emotionally awkward Charlie. It is perhaps best just to say that there are no real villains in the novel - just people being people. (I could write more here but it would spoil the plot).

Overall, it is a book that should make you think about your own mental and emotional development. Again, I don't want to plot-spoil but, if you ask me, one of the final comments regarding self-effacement is by far the most poignant and intelligent in the whole book.

Compulsive reading.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A touching, intelligent story, 17 May 2006

This award-winning novel by Daniel Keyes is nearly perfect in its execution, with perhaps the minor quibble of some dated slang that's a slight detraction. But that alone is not enough to prevent the book from receiving a well-deserved five stars. Keyes doesn't hit a false note in his story of the rise and fall of Charlie, a mentally retarded custodian at a bakery who briefly becomes a towering genius thanks to an experimental brain operation, only to loose it all as the effects turn out to be temporary. Worse, Charlie's deterioration is beyond even his advanced abilities to stop or reverse it; he has to bear the slow terror of sliding back down to his previous diminished mental capacity, with the hint that he- like Algernon, the lab mouse of the book title that was first to benefit from the operation- might die too. Although considered by some to be a "just" a sentimental story with a tearjerk ending, Charlie is a fully realized character from start to finish, one whose plight keeps you turning the pages, which is why this novel rates so highly. If you're a new fan of science fiction, or just want to sample what the genre has to offer, Flowers for Algernon should be high on your "must read" list. A newer novel with a similar theme is An Audience for Einstein, another book with an emotionally charged ending.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb
I read the SF Masterworks edition of this book, but it's another work that I'm really not certain is science fiction. Read more
Published 2 days ago by Sulkyblue

5.0 out of 5 stars Timeless & gripping
I've read this novel a while back and I can still remember the impact it had on me. This isn't your alien-invasion, space-battle or universal-conquer sci-fi novel, but a very... Read more
Published 14 days ago by Stefan Vunckx

5.0 out of 5 stars Not your usual Science Fiction
I'd been meaning to read this for a couple of years and as it was one of the books in Surrey Libraries 'Big Science Read' promotion I thought I'd go for it. Read more
Published 20 days ago by GG in GB

5.0 out of 5 stars Well deserves its SF Masterworks status
Although I say that this book deserves its status in the SF Masterworks collection, I don't really consider it to be a sci-fi story, so please don't be put off if you're not... Read more
Published 1 month ago by A. Phillips

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling and thought-provoking
Brilliant and well-written book. You can actually feel the changes occuring within the main character as the story progresses simply by the language he uses... Read more
Published 4 months ago by machine

5.0 out of 5 stars A very prophetic story which resonates in today's world
This is story concerning a man who, in today's PC terms, is neurologically challenged. He undergoes an experimental procedure involving biochemical and cellular intervention in... Read more
Published 10 months ago by John M

5.0 out of 5 stars A Forgotten Masterpiece
Flowers for Algernon is a largely forgotten masterpiece - despite being the inspiration for an oscar winning movie (Charly, 1968) and the 1992 hit The Lawnmower Man. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Mr. Michael Heron

4.0 out of 5 stars a classic - and original
Read this, and you will recognise half a dozen hollywood films were based on this book ((but strangely never used the title name)) - which says something about the excellence of... Read more
Published 16 months ago by lapin rouge

5.0 out of 5 stars A work of genius
A deeply affecting and beautiful book. An exploration of IQ and its relation to being a whole person.
Charlie is retarded, but something in him wants to improve. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Annabel Gaskell

5.0 out of 5 stars one of the best ever!!
I have never cried so much or so hard after finishing a book. Highly recommended.
Published on 15 Feb 2006 by P. Hughes

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