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The Season of Comfort
From the author of MYRA BRECKINRIDGE and DARK GREEN, BRIGHT RED, a novel, first published in 1949, describing the growing-up of a brilliant and precocious schoolboy whose parents separate when he is young, and whose mother is portrayed as a 'monster'.
- GenresFiction
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1949
About the author
Gore Vidal
240 books1,936 followersGore Vidal was an American novelist, essayist, screenwriter, playwright and political commentator known for his sharp wit, provocative opinions and criticism of American society. Raised in Washington, D.C., he attended several preparatory schools before graduating from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1943. His maternal grandfather, Thomas Pryor Gore, a Democratic senator from Oklahoma, profoundly influenced his early interest in politics. During World War II, Vidal served in the United States Army and worked aboard a supply ship in the Aleutian Islands. His experiences inspired his first novel, Williwaw (1946), published shortly after his military service.
Vidal attracted controversy with The City and the Pillar (1948), one of the early American novels to portray male homosexuality openly. Its subject provoked conservative critics and established his reputation as a writer willing to challenge prevailing social conventions. He subsequently explored different genres, writing novels, plays, essays and screenplays. His stage comedy Visit to a Small Planet became a theatrical success, while his work in Hollywood included contributions to the screenplay for Ben-Hur (1959).
His historical novels brought him particular recognition. Julian (1964) examined the Roman emperor's attempt to restore paganism, while Burr (1973) and Lincoln (1984) offered fictional interpretations of American political history. Myra Breckinridge (1968), a provocative satire of Hollywood and gender conventions, further demonstrated his willingness to challenge cultural assumptions. His later historical fiction included 1876, Empire and Hollywood, forming part of his broader exploration of American power and national identity.
Vidal was equally influential as an essayist and public intellectual. His collections addressed American foreign policy, religion, sexuality and the political establishment. United States: Essays 1952-1992 won the National Book Award in 1993. His memoir Palimpsest (1995) offered personal reflections on his family, relationships and literary career. Vidal also became famous for televised confrontations with conservative commentator William F. Buckley Jr. during the 1968 presidential election coverage. Their bitter exchanges made him a prominent figure in American political debate.
His political involvement extended beyond commentary. He ran unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives in New York in 1960 and for the United States Senate in California in 1982. He later chaired the People's Party and remained an outspoken critic of American militarism, corporate influence and the expansion of executive power. His views frequently placed him at odds with political leaders and fellow intellectuals, including writer Norman Mailer.
Vidal spent much of his later life in Italy before returning to the United States. He continued writing essays, novels and memoirs into his final years, maintaining his reputation for intellectual independence and irreverence. His work examined the relationship between private ambition and public power, often questioning conventional accounts of American history. He died in 2012, leaving a substantial literary legacy spanning fiction, political criticism and cultural commentary.
Vidal attracted controversy with The City and the Pillar (1948), one of the early American novels to portray male homosexuality openly. Its subject provoked conservative critics and established his reputation as a writer willing to challenge prevailing social conventions. He subsequently explored different genres, writing novels, plays, essays and screenplays. His stage comedy Visit to a Small Planet became a theatrical success, while his work in Hollywood included contributions to the screenplay for Ben-Hur (1959).
His historical novels brought him particular recognition. Julian (1964) examined the Roman emperor's attempt to restore paganism, while Burr (1973) and Lincoln (1984) offered fictional interpretations of American political history. Myra Breckinridge (1968), a provocative satire of Hollywood and gender conventions, further demonstrated his willingness to challenge cultural assumptions. His later historical fiction included 1876, Empire and Hollywood, forming part of his broader exploration of American power and national identity.
Vidal was equally influential as an essayist and public intellectual. His collections addressed American foreign policy, religion, sexuality and the political establishment. United States: Essays 1952-1992 won the National Book Award in 1993. His memoir Palimpsest (1995) offered personal reflections on his family, relationships and literary career. Vidal also became famous for televised confrontations with conservative commentator William F. Buckley Jr. during the 1968 presidential election coverage. Their bitter exchanges made him a prominent figure in American political debate.
His political involvement extended beyond commentary. He ran unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives in New York in 1960 and for the United States Senate in California in 1982. He later chaired the People's Party and remained an outspoken critic of American militarism, corporate influence and the expansion of executive power. His views frequently placed him at odds with political leaders and fellow intellectuals, including writer Norman Mailer.
Vidal spent much of his later life in Italy before returning to the United States. He continued writing essays, novels and memoirs into his final years, maintaining his reputation for intellectual independence and irreverence. His work examined the relationship between private ambition and public power, often questioning conventional accounts of American history. He died in 2012, leaving a substantial literary legacy spanning fiction, political criticism and cultural commentary.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 17, 2021
"Et je redoute l'hiver parce que c'est la saison du confort!"
'The season of comfort is winter'...Rimbaud's excerpt from A Season in Hell...is the title for one of Vidal's early novels, written when he was 25, and is a remarkable early novel. I've read all of his works and somehow neglected this one. He didn't like it, and in Parini's biography of Vidal, the author told Parini it was painful to re-read, as it is a hellish story of Bill and Charlotte, Bill's mother, an obvious novelization of the turmoil between Vidal's mother and himself, but it is a rich and profound work about the strife between family and son, and how Bill emerges as an artist and comes to terms with Charlotte's shallowness and manipulation. Her family is political, and a strong view of political families is portrayed by Vidal, as well as stifled romance between Bill and Jim, a boyhood friend, another experience drawn from life.
I like the depth of emotion and study of inner conflict between mother and son, and a likable portrayal of Stephen, Bill's father. The novel takes us from Charlotte's agony at Bill's conception to his childhood, and the second part of the book has many notable descriptions, settings, and Bill's emergence as an artist during the war years. Some satire is well-displayed in his private school, and Bill's discovery of the world through a unique vision and sensory perception, where art takes over from emotions. There is also an intriguing series of monologues between Bill and Charlotte, and Vidal's prose is already sharpening and coolly analytical. His descriptions may be wordy, but are never dull, and they strike home in Bill's coming to terms with life. Winter is indeed a bad time for him, but in that time he grows into his own man.
I thought it needed editing...a lot of ly words and I thought passages showed an apprentice writer, but still has many, many sections of a master. I completely enjoyed reading this book, a stunning view of the early Vidal.
'The season of comfort is winter'...Rimbaud's excerpt from A Season in Hell...is the title for one of Vidal's early novels, written when he was 25, and is a remarkable early novel. I've read all of his works and somehow neglected this one. He didn't like it, and in Parini's biography of Vidal, the author told Parini it was painful to re-read, as it is a hellish story of Bill and Charlotte, Bill's mother, an obvious novelization of the turmoil between Vidal's mother and himself, but it is a rich and profound work about the strife between family and son, and how Bill emerges as an artist and comes to terms with Charlotte's shallowness and manipulation. Her family is political, and a strong view of political families is portrayed by Vidal, as well as stifled romance between Bill and Jim, a boyhood friend, another experience drawn from life.
I like the depth of emotion and study of inner conflict between mother and son, and a likable portrayal of Stephen, Bill's father. The novel takes us from Charlotte's agony at Bill's conception to his childhood, and the second part of the book has many notable descriptions, settings, and Bill's emergence as an artist during the war years. Some satire is well-displayed in his private school, and Bill's discovery of the world through a unique vision and sensory perception, where art takes over from emotions. There is also an intriguing series of monologues between Bill and Charlotte, and Vidal's prose is already sharpening and coolly analytical. His descriptions may be wordy, but are never dull, and they strike home in Bill's coming to terms with life. Winter is indeed a bad time for him, but in that time he grows into his own man.
I thought it needed editing...a lot of ly words and I thought passages showed an apprentice writer, but still has many, many sections of a master. I completely enjoyed reading this book, a stunning view of the early Vidal.
March 12, 2019
"'Thank you, Mr. Giraud, for an excellent speech, much the best we've had since Lincoln spoke here.' He laughed to show he was joking." (p. 223) Normally I would have considered this overwritten, and was surprised that I liked it. I think it's because of the way Vidal nests the POV: Bill (the POV character here) slipping into the fatuous POV of his head-master. While this may have been unintentional, Vidal is a wizard at successfully breaking the rules.
As a bildungs roman, the ending is a little flat and I thought The Parallel Construction chapter felt isolated and ineffective (although interesting, by itself). Still, I'm amazed at how serious Vidal's early narratives were.
As a bildungs roman, the ending is a little flat and I thought The Parallel Construction chapter felt isolated and ineffective (although interesting, by itself). Still, I'm amazed at how serious Vidal's early narratives were.
May 28, 2024
Written in 1948, this examines the psychological issues on Billy caused by the conflict between his parents. His mother is portrayed as the villain, the person who takes Billy away from his father. She remarries for money and power. Billy is shuttled off to boarding school. He wants to be an artist and falls in love with Kay, but war intervenes. Can he shake off the influences of familily and make his way in the world? I found it to be a bit too much internal. His histories are better.
September 20, 2026
My least favourite novel by my favourite novelist. Vidal's most autobiographical novel just didn't do it for me.
December 23, 2022
The Season of Comfort (1949) is Gore Vidal’s semi-autobiographical novel of a young man’s upbringing with a tempestuous and overweening mother. Bill Giraud, the novel’s central character, is the grandson of a famous southern senator and the son of a painter turned diplomat. His mother, Charlotte, is the daughter of said senator whose own complicated relationship with her mother, Clara, informs her behavior with her son. Young Bill is a gifted child who loves to read and finds solace in the arms of his grandparents when his parents later divorce, either ignoring him (in the case of the father) or chastising him (in the case of the mother). We see Bill’s life move from home to boarding school, where he becomes friends with a young man named Jimmy, who holds a special meaning for him (a theme Vidal used originally in his 1948 novel, the City and the Pillar). Bill decides that painting is his calling and devotes his adolescence to honing his craft, despite his mother’s protestations. However, all of this is interrupted by the Second World War, and Bill enlists, gets wounded in battle, and will eventually return home at the war’s end, to resume his painting.
The novel’s structure is quite interesting, moving from first to third person, jumping from the present to the past, and contains an entire chapter called “The Parallel Construction,” where an argument between Bill and his mother plays out over separate pages for each character. This is the first novel of Vidal’s where he’s playing with form, narrative, and convention— something he would do to great effect in novels like Myra Breckinridge (1968) and Duluth (1983). I also identified with the story; as someone who grew up with divorced parents and a complicated relationship with his mother, I felt heaps of empathy for Bill and the struggles he went through. As the title suggests, seasons play a big part in the narrative, with winter seasons representing death and desolation and spring representing birth and renewal. While only in his early 20s when he wrote it, I think this novel is very mature, grounded, and thoughtful about the messy dynamics of a family. Of his early work, this novel is one of his best.
The novel’s structure is quite interesting, moving from first to third person, jumping from the present to the past, and contains an entire chapter called “The Parallel Construction,” where an argument between Bill and his mother plays out over separate pages for each character. This is the first novel of Vidal’s where he’s playing with form, narrative, and convention— something he would do to great effect in novels like Myra Breckinridge (1968) and Duluth (1983). I also identified with the story; as someone who grew up with divorced parents and a complicated relationship with his mother, I felt heaps of empathy for Bill and the struggles he went through. As the title suggests, seasons play a big part in the narrative, with winter seasons representing death and desolation and spring representing birth and renewal. While only in his early 20s when he wrote it, I think this novel is very mature, grounded, and thoughtful about the messy dynamics of a family. Of his early work, this novel is one of his best.
March 18, 2017
Vidal Journey #4
Another solid outing from Mr Vidal, you feel the characters and are drawn into the story.
I am enjoying the journey so far.
This is a re-read about nine years after the first one, perhaps I will revisit in 2025!
Another solid outing from Mr Vidal, you feel the characters and are drawn into the story.
I am enjoying the journey so far.
This is a re-read about nine years after the first one, perhaps I will revisit in 2025!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews