This edition presents for the first time the complete text of John Barth's first novel, including those passages deleted in previous editions and "the original and correct ending to the story," which was changed as a condition of the book's first publication.

Written in 1955, when the author was twenty-four, and nominated for the National Book Award in 1957,
THE FLOATING OPERA was compared by its first critics to Tristram Shandy, Candide, Celine and Camus. But it has become increasingly clear — particularly now in its restored and intended design — that it is, rather, peculiarly Barth, apart of the same world-view that informs The End of the Road, The Sot-Weed Factor and Giles Goat-Boy.

"Why THE FLOATING OPERA?

Well, that's part of 'the name of a showboat that used to travel around the Virginia and Maryland tide- water areas, and some of this book happens aboard it. . . . But there's a better reason. It always seemed a fine idea to me to build a showboat with just one big flat open deck on it, and to keep a play going confirm ously. The boat wouldn't be moored, but would drift up and down the river on the tide, and the audience would sit along both banks. They could catch whatever part of the plot happened to unfold as the boat floated past, and then they'd have to wait until the tide ran back again to catch another snatch of it, if they still happened to be sitting there. To fill in the gaps they'd have to use their imaginations, or ask more attentive neighbors, or hear the word passed along from upriver or down river. Most times they wouldn't understand what was going on at all, or they'd think they knew, when actually they didn't. Lots of times they'd be able to see the actors, but not hear them. I needn't explain that that's how much of life works ..."

Printed in the U.S.A.

 

floatingoperabarth

0385076304

B01FGNOJUC

 

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