Looking for Peyton Place

Looking for Peyton Place
Author: Barbara Delinsky
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2005-07-12
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0743274520

For Annie Barnes, going home to Middle River means dealing with truths long hidden, some of which she buried there herself. But it is a journey she knows she must take if she is to put to rest, once and for all, her misgivings about her mother's recent death. To an outsider, Middle River is a picture-perfect New Hampshire town. But Annie grew up there, and she knows all its secrets -- as did her idol Grace Metalious, author of the infamous novel Peyton Place, which laid a small town's sexual secrets bare for all the world to see. Though Grace actually lived in a nearby town, the residents of Middle River have always believed she used them as the model for her revolutionary novel, and some even insist Annie's grandmother was the model for one of Grace's most scandalous characters. With these rumors and whispers about Peyton Place haunting her childhood, Annie came to identify so closely with the author that it was Grace and her bold rebellion against 1950s conformity that inspired Annie to get out of Middle River and make a life for herself in Washington, D.C. It's been a good life, too. Annie Barnes is now a bestselling author, reaching that level with only her third novel. Success has given her a confidence she never had as a young girl in Middle River -- and it has given the residents of that town something new to worry about. When they hear Annie is returning for a lengthy visit, everyone, including Annie's two sisters, believes she's coming home to write about them. Though amused by the discomfort she causes in Middle River, Annie has no intention of writing a novel about the town or its people. It is her mother's death -- under circumstances that don't quite add up -- that has brought her back, and soon her probing questions start to make people nervous. When she discovers evidence of dangerous pollutants emanating from the local paper mill -- poisons that she comes to believe contributed to her mother's fatal illness -- Annie finds herself at odds with most of the town's inhabitants, including her sisters, both of whom are seemingly unfazed by the incriminating evidence she uncovers. Because the mill is the town's main employer, everyone is afraid of what might happen if Annie digs deeper, and their fears soon start to turn ugly. For Annie, though, there is no turning back, as passion and rage propel her forward in a determined quest. Coming face-to-face with decades of secrets and lies, she knows she must find the strength to move beyond the legacy of Grace Metalious, defying her past to heal the wounds of the town and her own family.

Peyton Place

Peyton Place
Author: Grace Metalious
Publisher:
Total Pages: 388
Release: 1956
Genre: Cities and towns
ISBN:

Allison MacKenzie looks back on life in the New England town where she grew up around the time of Pearl Harbor.

Return to Peyton Place

Return to Peyton Place
Author: Grace Metalious
Publisher: UPNE
Total Pages: 405
Release: 2011-03-15
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 155553760X

The continuing story of Peyton Place is once again available in paperback

Lolita in Peyton Place

Lolita in Peyton Place
Author: Ruth Pirsig Wood
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2014-01-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317777506

This book analyzes the differences in content, reader expectation, and social/moral/ethical functions of the three types of novels in America of the 1950s. It challenges the notion that highbrow novels (Lolita ) do important cultural work while popular novels contribute to personal and social decay, and examines how time periods influence the moral content of novels. The book separates popular fiction into lowbrow (Peyton Place ) and middlebrow (Man in the Grey Flannel Suit ) and explains that lowbrow (like highbrow) evolves from the folklore tradition and contains messages about how to be a good man or good woman and how to find a satisfying niche in the social order. Middlebrow, on the other hand, evolves from myth tradition and relates lessons on what personal adjustments need to be made to succeed in the economic order. Middlebrow novels most reflect the time and place of their writing because conditions for economic survival change more than conditions for social survival. Arguing that what most distinguishes highbrow from lowbrow is the audience, highbrow writers try to separate from the flock; lowbrow writers to include. This study differs from such well-known studies of popular fiction as John Cawelti's and Janice Radway's in looking beyond the surface features of plot, character, and theme. The book also challenges arguments that novels in which marriage is women's highest triumph and aggressive heroism men's reinforce limiting cultural paradigms.

Unbuttoning America

Unbuttoning America
Author: Ardis Cameron
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2015-04-30
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 080145610X

In this lively account of the writing, publication, and legacy of the 1956 bestselling novel, "Peyton Place," Ardis Cameron tells how the story of a patricide in a small New England village became a cultural phenomenon.

No Adam In Eden

No Adam In Eden
Author: Grace Metalious
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 346
Release: 2015-01-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1443439959

The last novel to be published before her death, Grace Metalious’s No Adam in Eden explores women’s capacity—or incapacity—to love. At the centre of this story about three generations of women is Angelique de Montigny, the beautiful but spoiled daughter of Armand and Monique. Convinced of her matchless beauty and charm, Angelique proves herself incapable of love, to the detriment of her husband and her children. HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.

The 'Peyton Place' Murder

The 'Peyton Place' Murder
Author: Renee Mallett
Publisher: WildBlue Press
Total Pages: 227
Release: 2021-01-15
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 1952225612

This true crime history examines the surprising connection between an infamous small-town murder and the bestselling novel it inspired. Born and raised in Manchester, New Hampshire, Grace Metalious shocked the nation in 1956 with Peyton Place, her sexually charged debut novel about murder in a small town. It spawned a series of novels, two Hollywood movies, and a long-running television series on ABC. It also made Metalious a pariah in her hometown, where she became tabloid fodder until her untimely death at the age of thirty-nine. Unknown to most readers, the fictional story was inspired by a real crime known as “The Sheep Pen Murder,” which took place in Gilmanton, New Hampshire, in the late 1940s. Now historian Renee Mallett skillfully weaves together the lives of Metalious and Barbara Roberts, the confessed killer behind The Sheep Pen Murder. In The “Peyton Place” Murder, Mallett explores what happens when true crime and literature meet.

Looking for America

Looking for America
Author: Ardis Cameron
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 408
Release: 2008-04-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 140513772X

Looking for America: The Visual Production of Nation andPeople is a groundbreaking collection that explores the“visual” in defining the kaleidoscope of Americanexperience and American identity in the 20th century. Covers enduringly important topics in American history:nationhood, class, politics of identity, and the visual mapping of“others” Includes editorial introductions, suggested readings, a primeron how to "read" an image, and a guide to visual archives andcollections Well-illustrated book for those in American Studies and relatedfields eager to incorporate the visual into theirteaching—and telling—of the American story.