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The Hard-Boiled Virgin
When it first appeared in 1926, The Hard-Boiled Virgin was hailed by novelist James Branch Cabell as "the most brilliant, the most candid, the most civilized, and most profound book yet written by any American woman". It is a semiautobiographical novel about Atlantan Katharine Faraday, who, after numerous anguishing relations with men, chooses a career and independence ove...more
Paperback, 304 pages
Published
October 1st 1993
by Brown Thrasher Books
(first published February 1977)
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Anne Firor Scott, in her Foreword to this edition of The Hard-Boiled Virgin, says:
Who needs enemies?
Who should be more insulted, the author or her readers?
Comparisons to Virginia Woolf appear on the back cover and in the Foreword and I haven't noticed that Woolf is begging for readers.
I wonder w...more
As it is, [Newman's] novels, though they are meticulously crafted, and filled with brilliant insights, require intense concentration of the reader who may, in the end, decide the effort was not worth it.
Who needs enemies?
Who should be more insulted, the author or her readers?
Comparisons to Virginia Woolf appear on the back cover and in the Foreword and I haven't noticed that Woolf is begging for readers.
I wonder w...more
This is my all-time favorite book, but it is not for everyone. Newman uses long, dense sentences and penchant for sarcastic euphemism to skewer early 20th century society in Atlanta, Georgia. It is a novel that is uniquely Southern, but also uniquely of its time. While I've read reviews from the time which disdain her oblique and occasionally murky style, wading through her jungle of words was graet fun for me. Newman is smart and incredibly funny in this dry, semi-autobiographical coming-of-age...more
One of my favorite all-time books. It is not an easy read, but her dense prose style is like taking a bubble bath to me. You sink into her words and feel luxurious. I love an author who loves language. The Hard-Boiled Virgin is also a brilliant piece of satire, with no one spared. The author lampoons herself as a teen, other authors, and most certainly her rigid social strata. She excels at the art of euphemism, to hilarious effect. I think perhaps southern readers might enjoy her brand of wit m...more
not easy to read but I see why people would have been up in arms in the 20's about it
Apr 21, 2013
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