Vidal, Gore (Vol. 2) | Vidal, Gore 1925–
Vidal, Gore 1925–
An American novelist, playwright, screenwriter, essayist, and raconteur, Vidal is the author of Myra Breckinridge, Visit to a Small Planet, and The Best Man. (See also Contemporary Authors, Vols. 5-8, rev. ed.)
The best among the eight novels which Vidal published from 1946 to 1954 is The Judgment of Paris, a remarkably sound work, written when he was twenty-five. Of great scope and frequent depth, The Judgment of Paris is successful because in it the author combines delight in satire and in perfect sentences with several interesting literary conventions. The framework of the novel is a retelling in modern terms of the Greek myth of Paris, who was asked by Zeus to choose the most beautiful of three goddesses—Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. The hero is an American "innocent" touring Europe to complete his education and to be polished by the older culture, a device found in such works by...
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