Giles Goat-Boy

by BARTH, JOHN

• ISBN13: 9780385240864
• ISBN10: 0385240864
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 1987-08-18
• Publisher: Anchor

Summary

In this outrageously farcical adventure, hero George Giles sets out to conquer the terrible Wescaccomputer system that threatens to destroy his community in this brilliant "fantasy of theology, sociology, and sex" (Time).

Author Biography

John Barth was born on May 27, 1930, in Cambridge, Maryland. As a student at Johns Hopkins University he was fascinated by Oriental tale-cycles and medieval collections, a body of literature that would later influence his own writing. He received his BA from Johns Hopkins in 1951 and his MA in 1952. He has held professorships at Pennsylvania State University, the State University of New York at Buffalo, and Boston University, and taught in the English and creative writing programs at Johns Hopkins.   Barth’s first novel, The Floating Opera (1956), was nominated for the National Book Award. The End of the Road (1958) was also critically praised. In 1960, The Sot-Weed Factor—a comic historical novel—established Barth’s reputation. Giles Goat-Boy (1966) was a huge critical and commercial success, after which he revised and republished his first three novels. Lost in the Funhouse, a book of interconnected stories, earned him a second nomination for the National Book Award. His other works are Chimera (1972), a collection of three novellas, which won the National Book Award; Letters (1979), an epistolary novel; Sabbatical: A Romance (1982); and The Friday Book (1984), a collection of essays.

Table of Contents

Foreword to Doubleday Anchor Edition	v
Publisher's Disclaimer	xi
Cover-Letter to the Editors and Publisher	xix
VOLUME ONE
First Reel
His keeper. His kidship	5	(5)
His Deanship of the Hill	10	(4)
Lady Creamhair	14	(7)
In the hemlock grove with Lady Creamhair	21	(6)
He attacks Max. His espial of a Beist in the buckwheat	27	(9)
His attempt to Be with Lady Creamhair	36	(10)
His Maximizing	46	(31)
Second Reel
His prepping and departure	77	(30)
A fork in His road	107	(6)
George's Gorge	113	(17)
Anastasia's history	130	(22)
He bites Anastasia in the sidecar	152	(15)
At the Power Plant	167	(17)
His Memorial Service in the Living Room	184	(21)
Third Reel
To the Pedal Inn	205	(21)
Peter Greene's life and loss of eye	226	(22)
His arrival at Main Gate	248	(17)
The Tragedy of Taliped Decanus	265	(53)
In the Observatory	318	(21)
Trial-by-Turnstile	339	(14)
Scrapegoat Grate	353	(36)
VOLUME TWO
First Reel
To Main Detention	389	(34)
To the Clockworks	423	(17)
To the Light House and the University Council	440	(22)
To the NTC Infirmary	462	(19)
To the Library	481	(21)
To WESCAC's Belly	502	(11)
To the Old Chancellor's Mansion	513	(16)
Second Reel
In Main Detention	529	(23)
His departure from Main Detention	552	(21)
He fixes the Clock	573	(15)
He ends the Boundary Dispute	588	(14)
He overcomes His infirmity	602	(15)
He sees through His Ladyship and re-places the Founder's Scroll	617	(18)
He passes the Finals and presents His ID-card, appropriately signed, to the proper authority	635	(10)
Third Reel
At the intersection	645	(1)
His return to Great Mall	645	(15)
Through the Catalogue and Circulation Rooms to the Belfry	660	(7)
His final passage through the Belly	667	(7)
Out of the Belly	674	(6)
To the goat-barns and Founder's Hill	680	(8)
On Founder's Hill	688	(9)
Posttape	697	(12)
Postscript to the Posttape	709	(1)
Footnote to the Postscript to the Posttape	710