by Djuna Barnes - £8.99 Faber & Faber (2007)
paperback
ISBN 13: 9780571235285 | ISBN 10: 057123528x
Djuna Barnes's extraordinary novel Nightwood
documents the lives of Americans and Europeans in Paris in the decadent Roaring Twenties.
The novel's rich, evocative language, exquisite craftsmanship and penetrating insight into obsessive passion has made it a classic of twentieth-century literature. As such, its influence has been - and continues to be - exceptional.
"Seedy Paris of whores and cheap bars has not yet begun to change. It is to this world that Robin Vote is drawn; the night-time world, where she will not be judged and where she can find the anonymity of a stranger's embrace. This world is faithfully tracked and searched by Robin's lover, Norah Flood, hunting faint imprints of her errant amour, sometimes finding her, collapsed with drink, and threatened by police, beggars, and women on the make ... Nightwood has neither stereotypes or caricatures, there is truth to these damaged hearts that moves us beyond the negative. Humans suffer and, gay or straight, they break themselves into pieces, blur themselves with drink and drugs, choose the wrong lover, crucify themselves on their own longings, and, let's not forget, are crucified by a world that fears the stranger - whether in life or in love."
(from the introduction by Jeanette Winterson)
(Price & availability last checked: June 2018)
In booklists: Lesbian Fiction, Writers By Surname - B, Lesbian Fiction - Historical,
In categories: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexuality & Transgender, Fiction,
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