Graves a Fine and Private Place Goodreads Review
 Dust encompass of first edition | |
| Author | Peter S. Beagle |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | George Salter |
| Country | U.s.a. |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy novel |
| Published | 1960 (Viking Press) |
| Media type | Impress (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 272 |
A Fine and Private Place is a fantasy novel by American writer Peter S. Beagle, the starting time of his major fantasies. Information technology was first published in hardcover by Viking Printing on May 23, 1960,[ane] followed past a trade paperback from Delta the aforementioned year. Frederick Muller Ltd. published the get-go Great britain hardcover in 1960, and a regular paperback followed from Corgi in 1963. The first U.S. mass market paperback publication was by Ballantine Books in 1969. The Ballantine edition was reprinted numerous times through 1988. More than recently it has appeared in trade paperback editions from Souvenir Printing (1997), Roc (1999), and Tachyon Publications (2007). The piece of work has also appeared with other works by Beagle in the jitney collections The Fantasy Worlds of Peter S. Beagle (1978) and The Last Unicorn / A Fine and Individual Place (1991).[2] It has likewise been translated into Japanese, German, Russian, Czech, Hungarian, Portuguese, Korean, Castilian, Italian, and Romanian.
Plot [edit]
The book takes its championship from a verse from Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress": "The grave's a fine and private place, / But none, I think, practise in that location embrace." The setting, accordingly, is the fictional Yorkchester Cemetery, where ane Jonathan Rebeck, a homeless and bankrupt pharmacist who has dropped out of order, has been living, illegally and unobtrusively, for nearly two decades. He is maintained by a raven who, like the legendary ravens who fed Elijah in the wilderness, supplies him with food in the form of sandwiches thieved from nearby businesses.
The protagonist exhibits the peculiar ability to converse with both the raven and the shades of the dead who haunt the cemetery. Beagle portrays ghosts as being bound to the vicinity of their burial, with their minds and memories slowly fading away equally their mortal forms return to the dust. Every bit the plot gain, Rebeck befriends ii recently arrived spirits, those of teacher Michael Morgan, who died either from poisoning by his wife or suicide (he can't call back which), and of bookshop clerk Laura Durand, who was killed by a truck. The two ghosts fall in love, and each pledge themselves to each other "for as long as I can retrieve love."
Rebeck shortly finds himself subject field to another's attentions as well, in the class of a widow, Mrs. Klapper, who discovers him while visiting her married man'southward mausoleum. The quiet existence of this unlikely quintet is diverted past philosophical chat and the poisoning trial of Morgan's married woman, word of which is regularly provided by the raven from the local newspapers.
Afterwards she is ultimately institute innocent and her hubby's death ruled suicide, Morgan faces separation from Laura when his body is removed to unhallowed ground. Rebeck, under the encouragement of Mrs. Klapper, is driven to find a style to reunite them, and finally takes exit of his unusual abode.
Reception [edit]
The novel received favorable reviews, notably by Orville Prescott and Edmund Fuller in The New York Times (May 23, 1960, and June 5, 1960, respectively), Tom Morrow in the Chicago Daily Tribune (June 5, 1960), and George W. Feinstein in The Los Angeles Times (Baronial 7, 1960).
Prescott called it "a first novel of considerable charm and much promise," noting its originality, "combination of wistful melancholy and tart humor," and "shine, precise, graceful prose, bright with wit and sparkling with imaginative phrases." Less positively, he felt information technology "doesn't go far plenty," "seems likewise slight to support then many pages," and had "as well many repetitions, too many stretches where Mr. Beagle'due south fancy falters."[3]
Fuller characterized the book every bit "a striking debut on several counts," possessed of "wit, amuse and individuality–with a sense of manner notable in a offset novel." He disliked what he saw every bit tendencies to "occasional strident, inappropriate, irrelevant vulgarism" and sentimentality, and viewed the portrayed "philosophical concept of death [as] shallow." Nonetheless, he concluded Beagle was an author to watch.[four]
Morrow, whose review chosen the novel "a droll fantasy" in its title, ironically referred to the novel as "a work-a-day piddling book–nothing unusual," before going on to illustrate all the unusual things about information technology. He devoted his cavalcade largely to plot summary.[5]
Feinstein was lukewarm in his praise, stating that "[b]ased on a mildly agreeable situation and fortified by mildly amusing dialogue, this fantasy suffers from distention."[6]
The book has too received extensive review coverage in the science fiction and fantasy genre magazines. Galaxy reviewer Floyd C. Gale rated it 5 stars out of 5, praising the novel as "tender, funny, and wise, almost equally unlike (and skillful) as a 'ghost' story can be."[vii] Reviewing a mid-1970s reissue, Richard A. Lupoff described information technology equally "a marvelous fantasy. . . . funny, gentle, tender, and profound."[8]
Commenting on a 2007 edition, Charles de Lint chosen the novel "a peachy book," and "one of my favorite books," which on rereading he found "just as wonderful every bit I remembered it to exist: beautifully written, the characters warmly fatigued, the pages filled with conversations that run the gamut of the human condition." While he felt it "might seem quaint equally it takes its time to tell its story," he noted "there's a reason that people all the same read Dickens and Austen, and there's a reason they'll capeesh this book: quality counts.".[9]
Other reviewers include Gahan Wilson in The Mag of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October 1969, Spider Robinson, besides in Galaxy, June 1977, and Darrell Schweitzer in Scientific discipline Fiction Review, February 1978.[two]
In other media [edit]
The novel was adapted into A Fine and Private Place: A Musical Fantasy with book and lyrics by Erik Haagensen and music by Richard Isen (Clearsong Records, 2004). This version has been withdrawn from further apportionment or functioning at the author's asking.
IDW Publishing announced on June 14, 2012, that information technology would publish a comic book adaptation of the novel starting in September 2012, with a script by Beagle's own chosen adapter, Peter B. Gillis.[ten] However, the first effect of a planned series of five did not appear until July 2014, and equally of February 2015 consequence #2 had not yet been released.[xi]
References [edit]
- ^ "Books–Authors." in The New York Times, May five, 1960, page 32.
- ^ a b ISFdB entry for A Fine and Private Place
- ^ Prescott, Orville. "Books of The Times." in The New York Times, May 23, 1960, page 27.
- ^ Fuller, Edmund. "Unique Recluse." in The New York Times, June 5, 1960, folio BR34.
- ^ Morrow, Tom. "Shenanigans in a Mausoleum: A Droll Fantasy." in the Chicago Daily Tribune, June 5, 1960, page C3.
- ^ Feinstein, George W. "'Fine and Private Place' an Ectoplasmic Romance." in the Los Angeles Times, August 7, 1960, page B7.
- ^ Gale, Floyd C. (April 1961). "Galaxy's 5 Star Shelf". Galaxy Science Fiction. pp. 131–135.
- ^ Lupoff, Richard A. "Lupoff's Volume Week," Algol 28, 1977, p.54.
- ^ De Lint, Charles. "De Lint reviews A Fine and Private Place past Peter S. Beagle," The Mag of Fantasy & Scientific discipline Fiction, August 2007, pp. 34-35.
- ^ "New Adaptation of A Fine & Private Place Coming in September". IDW Publishing. San Diego, California, US: IDW Publishing. June 14, 2012. Archived from the original on 16 February 2015. Retrieved xvi Feb 2015.
- ^ "You searched for Individual Identify". IDW Publishing. IDW Publishing. 16 February 2015. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Fine_and_Private_Place
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