Appointment in Samarra

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Appointment in Samarra (Cyclopedia of Literary Places)

Places Discussed

Gibbsville. Pennsylvania town that John O’Hara invented for this novel and to which he repeatedly returned in his later books. Here, the central character is hard-drinking car dealer Julian English. O’Hara always valued getting his details precisely correct, so he tells readers that Gibbsville’s population in 1930 is 24,032. A minor character in the novel has occasion to think that Gibbsville is exactly 94.5 miles from Philadelphia. O’Hara knows these details well because his fictional Gibbsville, in his fictional Lantenengo County corresponds closely...

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• Appointment in Samarra (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
• Appointment in Samarra (Magill Book Reviews)
• Appointment in Samarra (Masterplots, Revised Second Edition)
• Appointment in Samarra (Cyclopedia of Literary Places)
• Appointment in Samarra (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)

See Also:

• John O’Hara (Cyclopedia of World Authors)
• John O’Hara (Short Fiction)
• John O’Hara (Long Fiction)
• John O’Hara (Censorship)

See Also:

• - Appointment in Samarra summary and study guide in the eNotes.