![]() Cover of the first edition | |
Author | Gore Vidal |
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Country | United States |
Language | English |
Genre | Political fiction |
Publisher | E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., New York City |
Publication date | 1950 |
Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
Pages | 296 |
ISBN | 0233989137 |
Preceded by | A Search for the King |
Followed by | The Judgement of Paris |
Dark Green, Bright Red is a novel by Gore Vidal, concerning a revolution headed by a former military dictator in an unnamed Central American republic. The book was first published in 1950 in the United States by E. P. Dutton. [1] [2] It drew upon Vidal's experiences living in Guatemala during the Guatemalan Revolution. [3]
Vidal re-wrote a significantly shortened version of Dark Green, Bright Red in 1968. However, when the book was published in a new United Kingdom edition in 1995 by Andre Deutsch, the longer, original text was used. [3]
With the backing of a U.S. fruit company, a court-martialled American army officer and a French advisor, General Alvarez, a deposed Central American dictator mounts an attempted coup d'etat to regain power. The first part of the book is set mainly in jungle, yet most of the military action takes place elsewhere. It was the first of Vidal's books to explore the idea that the United States was an imperialist country. [3]
The novel received mixed to negative reviews. A review in The New York Times called it "a sad waste of real narrative gifts and wit", [4] while Kirkus Reviews considered it "[w]ell-written, with authentic atmosphere, ... but not up to the mark of [Vidal's] earlier work." [5] Saturday Review deemed it "an interesting failure." [6]
Political fiction employs narrative to comment on political events, systems and theories. Works of political fiction, such as political novels, often "directly criticize an existing society or present an alternative, even fantastic, reality". The political novel overlaps with the social novel, proletarian novel, and social science fiction.
Eugene Luther Gore Vidal was an American writer and public intellectual known for his epigrammatic wit. His novels and essays interrogated the social and sexual norms he perceived as driving American life. Vidal was heavily involved in politics, and unsuccessfully sought office twice as a Democratic Party candidate, first in 1960 to the U.S. House of Representatives, and later in 1982 to the U.S. Senate.
Burr: A Novel is a 1973 historical novel by Gore Vidal that challenges the traditional Founding Fathers iconography of United States history, by means of a narrative that includes a fictional memoir by Aaron Burr, in representing the people, politics, and events of the U.S. in the early 19th century. It was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1974.
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