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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
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1949
60 people want to read
About the author
Gore Vidal
416 books1,875 followersWorks of American writer Eugene Luther Gore Vidal, noted for his cynical humor and his numerous accounts of society in decline, include the play
The Best Man
(1960) and the novel
Myra Breckinridge
(1968) .
People know his essays, screenplays, and Broadway.
They also knew his patrician manner, transatlantic accent, and witty aphorisms. Vidal came from a distinguished political lineage; his grandfather was the senator Thomas Gore, and he later became a relation (through marriage) to Jacqueline Kennedy.
Vidal, a longtime political critic, ran twice for political office. He was a lifelong isolationist Democrat. The Nation, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, The New York Review of Books, and Esquire published his essays.
Essays and media appearances long criticized foreign policy. In addition, he from the 1980s onwards characterized the United States as a decaying empire. Additionally, he was known for his well publicized spats with such figures as Norman Mailer, William F. Buckley, Jr., and Truman Capote.
They fell into distinct social and historical camps. Alongside his social, his best known historical include Julian, Burr, and Lincoln. His third novel, The City and the Pillar (1948), outraged conservative critics as the first major feature of unambiguous homosexuality.
At the time of his death he was the last of a generation of American writers who had served during World War II, including J.D. Salinger, Kurt Vonnegut, Norman Mailer and Joseph Heller. Perhaps best remembered for his caustic wit, he referred to himself as a "gentleman bitch" and has been described as the 20th century's answer to Oscar Wilde
Also used the pseudonym Edgar Box.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Gore Vidal é um dos nomes centrais na história da literatura americana pós-Segunda Guerra Mundial.
Nascido em 1925, em Nova Iorque, estudou na Academia de Phillips Exeter (Estado de New Hampshire). O seu primeiro romance, Williwaw (1946), era uma história da guerra claramente influenciada pelo estilo de Hemingway. Embora grande parte da sua obra tenha a ver com o século XX americano, Vidal debruçou-se várias vezes sobre épocas recuadas, como, por exemplo, em A Search for the King (1950), Juliano (1964) e Creation (1981).
Entre os seus temas de eleição está o mundo do cinema e, mais concretamente, os bastidores de Hollywood, que ele desmonta de forma satírica e implacável em títulos como Myra Breckinridge (1968), Myron (1975) e Duluth (1983).
Senhor de um estilo exuberante, multifacetado e sempre surpreendente, publicou, em 1995, a autobiografia Palimpsest: A Memoir. As obras 'O Instituto Smithsonian' e 'A Idade do Ouro' encontram-se traduzidas em português.
Neto do senador Thomas Gore, enteado do padrasto de Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, primo distante de Al Gore, Gore Vidal sempre se revelou um espelho crítico das grandezas e misérias dos EUA.
Faleceu a 31 de julho de 2012, aos 86 anos, na sua casa em Hollywood, vítima de pneumonia.
People know his essays, screenplays, and Broadway.
They also knew his patrician manner, transatlantic accent, and witty aphorisms. Vidal came from a distinguished political lineage; his grandfather was the senator Thomas Gore, and he later became a relation (through marriage) to Jacqueline Kennedy.
Vidal, a longtime political critic, ran twice for political office. He was a lifelong isolationist Democrat. The Nation, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, The New York Review of Books, and Esquire published his essays.
Essays and media appearances long criticized foreign policy. In addition, he from the 1980s onwards characterized the United States as a decaying empire. Additionally, he was known for his well publicized spats with such figures as Norman Mailer, William F. Buckley, Jr., and Truman Capote.
They fell into distinct social and historical camps. Alongside his social, his best known historical include Julian, Burr, and Lincoln. His third novel, The City and the Pillar (1948), outraged conservative critics as the first major feature of unambiguous homosexuality.
At the time of his death he was the last of a generation of American writers who had served during World War II, including J.D. Salinger, Kurt Vonnegut, Norman Mailer and Joseph Heller. Perhaps best remembered for his caustic wit, he referred to himself as a "gentleman bitch" and has been described as the 20th century's answer to Oscar Wilde
Also used the pseudonym Edgar Box.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Gore Vidal é um dos nomes centrais na história da literatura americana pós-Segunda Guerra Mundial.
Nascido em 1925, em Nova Iorque, estudou na Academia de Phillips Exeter (Estado de New Hampshire). O seu primeiro romance, Williwaw (1946), era uma história da guerra claramente influenciada pelo estilo de Hemingway. Embora grande parte da sua obra tenha a ver com o século XX americano, Vidal debruçou-se várias vezes sobre épocas recuadas, como, por exemplo, em A Search for the King (1950), Juliano (1964) e Creation (1981).
Entre os seus temas de eleição está o mundo do cinema e, mais concretamente, os bastidores de Hollywood, que ele desmonta de forma satírica e implacável em títulos como Myra Breckinridge (1968), Myron (1975) e Duluth (1983).
Senhor de um estilo exuberante, multifacetado e sempre surpreendente, publicou, em 1995, a autobiografia Palimpsest: A Memoir. As obras 'O Instituto Smithsonian' e 'A Idade do Ouro' encontram-se traduzidas em português.
Neto do senador Thomas Gore, enteado do padrasto de Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, primo distante de Al Gore, Gore Vidal sempre se revelou um espelho crítico das grandezas e misérias dos EUA.
Faleceu a 31 de julho de 2012, aos 86 anos, na sua casa em Hollywood, vítima de pneumonia.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 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.
November 3, 2023
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.
April 25, 2024
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 - 5 of 5 reviews