Giovanni’s Room (Masterplots II: African American Literature Series)
At a glance:
- Author: James Baldwin
- First Published: 1956
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Psychological realism
- Time of Work: The early 1950’s
- Setting: New York City and Paris, France
- Principal Characters: David, Giovanni, Hella, Jacques, Guillaume, Sue
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: 1950’s
- Locales: Paris, France
The Novel
Giovanni’s Room begins with David standing in a great house in the south of France, looking at his reflection in the window as night falls. As he stands, drinking what will be the first of many drinks before the night ends, he casts his mind back over the chain of events leading him to this “most terrible morning of my life.” On this morning, his former lover Giovanni will die on the guillotine. The novel, divided into two parts, is one long retrospective view of David’s life, a series of brooding flashbacks that rehearse the story of his failed attempt...
[The entire page is 3281 words long]
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