The City and the Pillar
London: John Lehmann, 1949. First UK edition. Hardcover. Octavo. 270pp. Original brown cloth, gilt lettering and ruling on spine. Spine a bit faded and dulled.
Vidal's third novel which shocked the public with its direct and unadorned examination of a homosexual main character,
Vidal (1925-2012) in this novel used what he called a "flat, gray, naturalistic style." The novel became a sensation but received generally negative reviews. In 1974 he explained to The Paris Review that, "Tactically, if not aesthetically, this was for a good reason. Up until then homosexuality in literature was always exotic…. I wanted to deal with an absolutely ordinary, all-American, lower-middle-class young man and his world. To show the dead-on “normality” of the homosexual experience." very good -. Item #50381
Price: $150.00