{"product_id":"the-essential-gore-vidal-a-gore-vidal-reader-9780679457466","title":"The Essential Gore Vidal : A Gore Vidal Reader","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe range and size of Gore Vidals literary achievement is remarkable. He is a master of the historical novel  in which he has explored American history  ancient history  and the history of religion. He has developed his own style of science fiction combined with satire  and in the books he refers to as his \"inventions\" he writes cautionary tales about sex  politics  art  and philosophy. He is at once a contrarian  a wise man  and a romantic. He is also wickedly funny  and often outrageous. All of these qualities are evident in his essays  which deal with things about which he feels passionately.  He writes about other writers--Tennessee Williams  Henry James  Montaigne  Edmund Wilson--and about public life  and his own life  which has been complicated and rich. This collection (the only single volume that includes both Vidals fiction and his essays) contains two complete long works--Myra Breckinridge  perhaps his most famous novel  and The Best Man  a play about the American presidency. There are selections from The City and the Pillar  his early  controversial novel about homosexual love  and excerpts from such later works as Julian  Duluth  and Live from Golgotha. Selections from the American history novels--Burr  Lincoln  1876  Empire  Hollywood  and Washington  D.C.--have been woven together to provide a continuous narrative. There are twenty-five essays here  on the many subjects that have engaged Vidal during his long career. The editor  Fred Kaplan  who is writing the first major biography of Vidal  has provided an introduction to the work as a whole as well as an introductory explanation of each selection. He has also prepared a biographical chronology and a bibliography.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45647278374965,"sku":"ByrdShop_0679457461","price":34.07,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780679457466.jpg?v=1781691481","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-essential-gore-vidal-a-gore-vidal-reader-9780679457466","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}