Reflections in a Golden Eye (novel)

Infobox Book |
name = Reflections in a Golden Eye
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = First edition cover without paper & cellophane dust jacket
author = Carson McCullers
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Southern Gothic
publisher = Houghton Mifflin
release_date = 1941
media_type = Print (Hardback)
pages = 182 pp
isbn = ISBN 0618084754 ISBN 978-0618084753
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"Reflections in a Golden Eye" is a 1941 novel by American author Carson McCullers.

It first appeared in "Harper's Bazaar" in 1940, serialized in the October-November issues. The book was published by Houghton Mifflin on February 14, 1941, to mostly poor reviews. The book was dedicated to, and inspired by, the Swiss journalist and travel writer Annemarie Schwarzenbach, to whom McCullers had been attracted, but been rejected by--although they remained friends.

Plot summary

The novels takes place at an Army base in the U.S. state of Georgia. Private Ellgee Williams is a solitary man full of secrets and desires. He has been in service for two years and is assigned to stable duty. After doing yard work at the home of Capt. Penderton, he sees his wife nude and becomes obsessed with her.

Capt. Weldon Penderton and his wife Lenora, a feeble-minded Army brat, have a fiery relationship and she takes in many lovers. Lenora's current lover is Major Morris Langdon, who lives with his depressed wife Alison, and her flamboyant Filipino houseboy Anacleto, near the Pendertons.

Capt. Penderton, who is a coward and a homosexual, realizes that he is physically attracted to Pvt. Williams, unaware of the private's attraction to Leonora.

Film adaptation

A 1967 film adaptation of Reflections in a Golden Eye bearing the same name was directed by John Huston. It stars Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor, Julie Harris, Robert Foster and Brian Keith.

Critical analysis

"Reflections in a Golden Eye" is considered by Anthony Slide, a modern scholar, to be one of only four familiar gay novels of the first half of the twentieth century. The other three novels are Djuna Barnes' "Nightwood", Truman Capote's "Other Voices, Other Rooms", and Gore Vidal's "The City and the Pillar". [Slide, Anthony. "Lost Gay Novels: A Reference Guide to Fifty Works from the First Half of the Twentieth Century", (Binghamton, NY: Harrington Park Press), page 2.]

According to author Michael Bronski, McCullers tackles the topics of "homosexuality, sadism, voyeurism, and fetishism [while exploring] the boundaries of eroticism, outsider status and the fragility of normal in "Reflections in a Golden Eye" [Bronski, Michael, ed. "Pulp Friction: Uncovering the Golden Age of Gay Male Pulps". New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2003, page 349.]

Footnotes

References

*cite book | title=Playing the Game: The Homosexual Novel in America| last=Austen | first =Roger | authorlink= | publisher=The Bobbs-Merrill Company| location = Indianapolis | edition =1st ed. | date=1977 | id=ISBN 978-067252287X
*cite book | title=Pulp Friction: Uncovering the Golden Age of Gay Male Pulps | last=Bronski | first =Michael | publisher=St. Martin's Griffin | location=New York, NY | edition =1st ed. | date=2003 | id= ISBN 978-0312252676
*cite book | title=Lost Gay Novels: A Reference Guide to Fifty Works from the First Half of the Twentieth Century | last=Slide | first =Anthony | publisher=Harrington Park Press | location=Binghamton, NY | edition =1st ed. | date=2003 | id= ISBN 978-156023413X
*cite book | title=Queer Pulp: Perverted Passions from the Golden Age of the Paperback | last=Stryker | first =Susan | publisher=Chronicle Books | location=San Francisco, CA | edition =1st ed. | date=2001 | id= ISBN 978-0811830209

External links

* [http://www.carson-mccullers.com/html/refl.html Reflections in a Golden Eye page]
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=1uoo9v-aV84C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Carson+McCullers&psp=1 Online text of "Reflections in a Golden Eye"]
* [http://www.goodshortnovels.com/archiveissue1.html Book review] from www.GoodShortNovels.com