Three Lives (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics Series) ANNOTATION
The unforgettable stories of three women, told with poignancy and compassion by one of the most important writers of our century.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
First published in 1909, the great American version of Flaubert's Trois Contes recounts the lives of three plain and humble women, two working as household servants and the third, a Black woman, involved in an unhappy love affair. But to express these revelatory fictions in this manner is to miss everything, for Stein's language of the first decade of the 20th century is still as fresh today as if her characters had just created the American tongue.
SYNOPSIS
Reprints the text of Stein's three avant-garde novellas of working- class women, together with a wide spectrum of thematically arranged historical documents. Selections address the role and perception of women at the turn of the century; the impact of medical science, modern art, and realism on Stein as a developing writer; and issues of gender, race, religion, class, and sexual orientation. Includes text annotations, and a chronology of Stein's life and times. Wagner-Martin teaches English at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Lacks a subject index. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR