The Great American Read--The Book of Books

by PBS

  One way to sum up the inventive, genre-bending Outlander series would be as follows: the course of true love never does run smooth, especially when time travel is involved. But the novels go far beyond romance, incorporating historical fact, science fiction, and epic family drama.

  In Outlander (1991), the first of eight books, independent, practical Claire Randall takes a second honeymoon to Scotland in 1946 with her husband, Frank Randall, a history professor. She faints while picking flowers and wakes up some 200 years in the past, where she encounters Frank’s ancestors as well as Jamie Fraser, a handsome, educated landowner. Trained as a nurse, Claire raises deep suspicion among 18th-century Scots, some of whom see her as a witch because of her medical knowledge. She must also navigate different perceptions of femininity within the two eras she straddles, as well as her love for Frank in the 1940s and her love for Jamie in the 1740s.

  The novels and several linked novellas integrate true historic events, and Claire, of course, is cursed with often knowing how things turn out. The settings range from England to the American colonies to the Scottish Highlands to Jamaica, in time periods from the 1940s to the 1960s to the 1750s and 1760s. Through Claire’s eyes, the past’s familiar tales of violence, bloodshed, and power dynamics take on a new sheen.

  Born in Arizona in 1952, Diana Gabaldon wrote a lot academically, as a student—she earned a PhD in behavioral ecology—and during her lengthy career as a science professor at Arizona State University. In 1988 she set out to write a novel, fulfilling a lifelong dream. She grew frustrated when her main character kept making sarcastic remarks wholly out of keeping with the historical setting Gabaldon was describing. When she saw an episode of Doctor Who that featured time travel, she realized how she could marry setting, character, and plot.

  Gabaldon plans to end the Outlander series with book 10. Like her friend George R. R. Martin, she must contend with furthering her imaginative world even as her characters take on new life in another medium. Parts of the series have been transformed into a graphic novel and a musical, but the sexy, popular television series, which premiered on Starz in 2014, introduced the books to legions of new fans. (In fact, Outlander the book zoomed to the top of the New York Times bestseller list again after the series premiere, 23 years after it was published.) Viewers and critics revel in the series’ steadfast refusal to sit squarely in any one genre; instead, like the books on which it’s based, it encompasses wartime drama, time travel, fantasy, historical drama, and romance.

  Gabaldon divides her characters into three types: “mushrooms,” who seem to come out of nowhere and take over the scene; “onions,” who develop layers and complexities as Gabaldon writes about them; and “hard nuts,” who appear as a result of a plot device, and whom she must work to crack open. At the core of the books are Claire and Jamie, who must overcome an unusual amount of hurdles in order to continue their romance, including Jamie’s rape at the hands of the evil Jonathan “Black Jack” Randall, and Claire’s need to ensure that Frank’s ancestors live on, thereby guaranteeing that Frank himself will be born. Through Frank, Gabaldon can explore eternal concerns about marriage and long-term relationships. Everyone changes, of course, even if one doesn’t get to travel through time. The challenge lies in changing in such a way that you stay true to yourself and to those you love.

  The Speak Platinum paperback edition cover of the Outsiders, from 2006.

  S. E. Hinton, photographed in 2017, holding a special edition hardcover of her book. Hinton signed the contract for her book the day she graduated high school.

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  THE OUTSIDERS

  S. E. Hinton · 1967

  S.E. Hinton began writing The Outsiders (1967) at age 15, while still in high school. In fact, she flunked creative writing that year. She was 17 and a freshman at the University of Tulsa when the book was published. Very few authors can lay claim to helping invent a literary genre, let alone doing so before voting age.

  Before Hinton’s book about bad boys in Oklahoma, there were books for adults and there were books for children. Dissatisfied with the portrayal of teenagers in literature, Hinton began writing a story loosely based on rival gangs at her high school. They drink, smoke, fight, and die, largely in a world without adult supervision—a stark contrast to the typical books of the time, in which, as Hinton has noted, “Mary Jane Goes to the Prom and Tommy Hits a Home Run.” That Hinton’s debut deals directly with complicated themes and issues helps explain its lasting popularity. The Outsiders portrays alienation, aimlessness, poverty, and violence. Today’s YA books, with their fearless confrontation of such subjects as racism, homophobia, and suicide, owe a deep debt to The Outsiders.

  Susie Hinton, as she is known, still lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she was born in 1948. Her publisher suggested she abbreviate her given name, Susan Eloise, which wouldn’t be the last time a new author felt that masculinizing her name and using initials would welcome more readers. She signed the contract for The Outsiders on the day she graduated high school, and the contract for her next novel, That Was Then, This Is Now (1971), on the day she married her high-school sweetheart, four years later. Since then, she has written other novels for young adults, as well as books for children and adults, but she largely remains out of the public eye. She did, however, go on a book tour in honor of the 50th anniversary of The Outsiders in 2017.

  The Outsiders takes place in 1965, over two weeks in the life of 14-year-old Ponyboy Curtis. Ponyboy belongs to the Greasers, along with many other teens from the proverbial wrong side of the tracks in Tulsa. They battle with a bunch of rich kids called the Socs (short for “Socials”). When a Soc dies during a fight, the Greasers disappear into hiding. Ponyboy and his best friend, Johnny, hole up in an abandoned church, where Pony reads Gone with the Wind and recites “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” by Robert Frost. With tensions escalating between the gangs, Johnny decides to turn himself in to the police; as they leave, the church catches on fire, trapping several children who have wandered inside. Although they are declared heroes for saving the kids, Ponyboy and Johnny still have to face the consequences of the Soc’s death—and meet the Socs in a final showdown.

  Ponyboy serves as the book’s introspective narrator. Like the other Greasers, Ponyboy is an outsider, and bitterly feels the economic gulf that separates the poor kids from the rich ones. The loyalty between members helps them form a close-knit family. As he discovers through both his love of literature and his friendship with Cherry Valance, a Soc girl, people can transcend their backgrounds. In fact, identities can be superficial—an individual will always prove more complex than his or her group.

  The 1983 movie based on Hinton’s book furthered the careers of several actors, among them Rob Lowe, Matt Dillon, Diane Lane, and Tom Cruise. Director Frances Ford Coppola found Hinton’s fictional world so captivating that he filmed Hinton’s sequel at the same time, writing the screenplay for the latter with Hinton while working on the former; Rumble Fish was released in 1983. The Outsiders’ most famous line—“Stay gold, Ponyboy”—has taken on a life of its own: half a century after the novel’s publication, “Stay gold” can be spotted on sweaters, pillows, and even bodies in the form of tattoos, a sign of the lasting resonance of this plaintive, futile plea for the fleeting innocence of youth.

  Harvard Square in Boston, which became part of the Republic of Gilead in The Handmaid’s Tale.

  Art by W. W. Denslow showing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, created by L. Frank Baum.

  The cloisters at Lacock Abbey gave a real-life setting for the film location for Hogwarts in the movie Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

  An aerial view of 1940s New York City, the setting for any number of literary tales.

  A Sense of Place

  SENSATIONAL SETTINGS

  NO DOUBT fiction takes you places. Some novels are set in real cities, which means you may be able to walk the same streets beloved characters walked, eat in the same places, or see the same sights. Other novels, however, des
cribe cities and countries that exist solely in the writer’s imagination—only to then enter ours.

  ARRAKIS: What seems like a desiccated wasteland actually holds a tremendous amount of treasure. Arrakis is a desert planet, but it is here that the incredibly valuable “melange” is found, in Frank Herbert’s 1965 sci-fi classic Dune (the novel takes its title from another name for Arrakis). Melange heightens people’s perceptions, enabling some to see the future, and helps those who consume it to live better and longer. No wonder everyone wants it.

  CELESTIAL CITY: After making their way through such places as Difficulty Hill, the Valley of Humiliation, and the Village of Morality, the main characters in The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678) at last reach the magnificent Celestial City. As befits a Christian allegory such as this one by John Bunyan, the Celestial City stands in for heaven, where the streets are paved with gold and the king—also known as God—lives. It’s a magical, glorious place.

  EMERALD CITY: To get to the Emerald City, you need to follow road of yellow brick, which begins in the land of the Munchkins, according to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900). You may or may not choose to sing “We’re off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz,” just like Judy Garland in the 1939 movie. L. Frank Baum likely based his fictional city on the structures and street lamps he saw at the 1893 World’s Fair, which he visited while living in Chicago.

  GOTHAM CITY: Legend has it that Washington Irving gave New York City the nickname “Gotham” in the early 19th century. At any rate, the safe, clean New York of the 21st century bears little resemblance to the dark, dirty town portrayed by DC Comics, where criminals run rampant and only a superhero or two can save the day. Gotham is within driving distance of Metropolis, enabling Batman and Superman to team up as an unstoppable duo.

  HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY: Located somewhere in Scotland, the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry teaches magic to qualified students between the ages of 11 and 18, according to J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series (1997–2007). If you go, take the train at Platform 9¾ from King’s Cross in London, then prepare to contend with all kinds of supernatural creatures, learn the rules of Quidditch, and attend classes like Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts.

  LILLIPUT: A little fed up with regular life, Lemuel Gulliver sets off to have some adventures, landing first in Lilliput, ruled by a race of people just six inches tall. The Lilliputians are in a fight with the inhabitants of Blefuscu over the right way to break an egg. Jonathan Swift’s satirical Gulliver’s Travels (1726) gave us several memorable imaginary places, including Brobdingnag, where everything is huge, and the Land of the Houyhnhnms, home to a race of reason-loving horses.

  A building in the Colombian village of Aracataca, hometown of Gabriel García Márquez.

  Bilbo Baggins’s Hobbiton home, brought to life on the film set for Lord of the Rings in Matamata, New Zealand.

  MACONDO: So closely aligned are the fates of the Buendía family and the city of Macondo that an apocalyptic storm destroys both at the end of One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967). Family patriarch José Arcadio Buendía founds the Latin American city, which grows and prospers only to fall prey to colonialism and imperialism. Gabriel García Márquez may have had his own birthplace of Aracataca, Colombia, in mind as he wrote.

  MIDDLE-EARTH: Among the creatures who inhabit Middle-earth are elves, orcs, dragons, wizards, trolls, eagles, Valar (angelic beings), hobbits, and humans, living in areas like the terrible Mordor and the quaint, quiet Shire. J. R. R. Tolkien created multiple maps of this universe—as well as attendant languages and histories—to show how his characters complete the quests so aptly described in The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954–1955).

  MIDDLEMARCH: With Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life (1871–1872), George Eliot sought to write a novel that would help its readers be better people—as lofty a goal as an author may aspire to. Through her careful depictions of the interior lives of characters who inhabit this English town circa 1830, itself as painstakingly described as any person in the book, Eliot wishes to instill compassion and cultivate empathy in all who decide to visit.

  NARNIA: Over the course of seven fantasy novels collectively called The Chronicles of Narnia (1950–1956), C. S. Lewis developed a detailed imaginative world full of talking beasts and horrid witches, heroic beings and curious children. He later claimed that the genesis of these works and Narnia stemmed, at least in part, from a picture he saw at age 16 of a faun carrying parcels and an umbrella through a snow-covered forest. The human children get there by entering a wardrobe.

  REPUBLIC OF GILEAD: Careful readers of The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) may notice remarkable resemblances between the Republic of Gilead and Cambridge, Massachusetts, such as descriptions of Harvard University and the city’s stately brick manses. Of course, the republic of the dystopian novel is a theocratic military dictatorship run by Christian fundamentalists who control every aspect of women’s lives, so the similarities may be only on the surface.

  The caterpillar gives Alice advice in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, printed in a 1891 lithograph.

  Middlemarch, illustrated by Patty Townsend, Lilian Russell, and G. G. Kilburne for George Eliot.

  TARA: Scarlett O’Hara will seemingly do anything to protect Tara, her childhood home. Margaret Mitchell based the house and its extensive grounds, represented so memorably in Gone with the Wind (1936), on antebellum plantations she would explore while growing up in rural Georgia. Some readers see Tara as an embodiment of Scarlett’s spirit—battered but never broken, shattered but never stamped out, wrecked but resilient.

  WESTEROS: We have HBO to thank for gorgeous renderings of Westeros, home to the Seven Kingdoms, whose throne is at stake throughout the epic series. Its lands include the icy, snowy North; the huge, magical Wall; and the tropical, fertile South. For even more descriptions, we can turn to the ongoing fantasy series by George R. R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire (1996–present). Not since Middle-earth have we been treated to a universe so abundantly detailed.

  WONDERLAND: When Alice follows the white rabbit, she arrives in a world where a drink makes her shrink, a cake makes her grow, and a queen wants to cut off her head. Her sense of logic no longer applies, and her attempts to impose order are met with mockery and derision. Lewis Carroll’s book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865), demonstrates what it feels like to be young, when entering adulthood appears to require passage into a new land.

  YOKNAPATAWPHA COUNTY: Inspired by actual places in Mississippi, Yoknapatawpha County served as the basis for several novels by William Faulkner, each of which probed the damaged psyches of Southern families, ravaged by poverty, alcoholism, incest, slavery, and the Civil War. With Absalom, Absalom! (1936), Faulkner included a hand-drawn map of the county, enabling readers to envision the area as he did and showing how the places, and their related pain, intersect and overlap.

  A first book edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray, printed in 1891.

  Oscar Wilde, photographed by Napoleon Sarony circa 1882. Wilde was famous for his plays, such as A Woman of No Importance (1893) and The Importance of Being Earnest, but The Picture of Dorian Gray has entered the literary canon.

  The novel was published in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine in 1890. It was the first printing of the complete novel.

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  THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY

  Oscar Wilde · 1890

  Oscar Wilde would have been the toast of Twitter. Throughout his life, he produced a seemingly unending supply of one-liners and aphorisms on nearly every subject: “True friends stab you in the front.” “Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.” “In this world there are only two tragedies in life. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.” Funny even as he lay dying, friendless and penniless, in 1900, he reportedly exclaimed on his deathbed, “This wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. Either it goes or I do.” But his one and only n
ovel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), is a deadly serious treatment of virtue, sin, and the contrast between one’s outer appearance and inner desires.

  As the short book begins, artist Basil Hallward confides in his friend Lord Henry Wotton. Basil worries that his recent painting of the gorgeous Dorian Gray perhaps reveals too much about his feelings toward the subject. Lord Henry meets Dorian, affecting him with a speech about the emphasis society places on shallow characteristics like youth and attractiveness, which fade. This criticism cuts Dorian, and he begins to detest his portrait, knowing that it will stay lovely as he grows old and ugly. He wishes, more than anything, to remain young and handsome so that he may continue to indulge his vices. The portrait begins to reflect Dorian’s increasingly horrible behavior—his likeness sometimes grimaces, it starts to decay and become grotesque, and it ultimately reflects the hate Dorian holds in his soul.

  When The Picture of Dorian Gray appeared, the British press wasn’t shy in its criticism. The novel was deemed “vulgar” and “unclean.” Wilde’s editor reacted by removing passages that too strongly implied homosexual feelings; in effect, the novel went from rated R to rated PG-13. In 2011, Harvard University Press released a definitive edition of the novel, restoring its cut pages and allowing contemporary readers to experience the work as Wilde envisioned it. The book is now considered part of the literary canon because of its scintillating prose, examination of moral dilemmas in art and philosophy, and riveting take on a Faustian bargain.