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A Separate Peace | 
 enlarge | Author: John Knowles
Publisher: Scribner
Category: Book
List Price: $10.00
Buy New: $9.00
You Save: $1.00 (10%)
New (8) Collectible (3) from $9.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  764 reviews
Sales Rank: 135829
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 208
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.6
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
ASIN: B0012F9VVG
Publication Date: October 7, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Set at a boys' boarding school in New England during the early years of World War II, A Separate Peace is a harrowing and luminous parable of the dark side of adolescence. Gene is a lonely, introverted intellectual. Phineas is a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. What happens between the two friends one summer, like the war itself, banishes the innocence of these boys and their world. A bestseller for more than thirty years, A Separate Peace is John Knowles's crowning achievement and an undisputed American classic.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 759 more reviews...
 A great seller June 2, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Product is exactly as described, shipping just took a little longer than anticipated. Otherwise a wonderful buying experience!
Great book! June 1, 2008
Needed book for required reading for school. Really enjoyed the read. Would recommend for anyone.
"In our free democracy, even fighting for its life, the truth will out"' May 27, 2008
Sixteeen-year-old Devon Academy students Gene and Phineas "Finny" are two among 200 private high school students in attendance at a rural New Hampshire boarding school as the story begins in the summer of '42. WWII is raging on other continents, but the best friends and their classmates are a world away. Serious, studious Gene is amazed and often envious of his friend Finny's spontaneous rule-breaking antics. And even more so by his ability to evade punishment and even obtain a smile (or more) from even the most staid faculty member as he dodges punishment with seemingly logical explanations and excuses for his ever-impulsive behavior. Athletic golden boy Phineas seems almost too good to be true, convincing the most reluctant student to participate in his crazy activities, made-up games and clubs. He even goes so far as to contend that the war is not real. But Gene begins to wonder if there might be a more sinister reason for Finny's follies: preventing him from showing up his friend by winning an award for academics. All it takes is one little well-timed jounce to change both lives forever.
With its perfect descriptions of the surroundings, superb character development, and not entirely predictable plot, A Separate Peace will draw the reader in to a remarkable story of friendships between privileged, intelligent young men at the brink of manhood and involvement in the war. Both a life lesson and clinic on how to write descriptively, this novel is likely to stay with readers for a very long time. Also good, The Dive from Clausen's Pier by Ann Packer, better, and An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser.
 From The Marrow of His Bones: Brillantly Written But Slightly Flawed Portrait of Friendship and Rivalry May 15, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Published in 1959, John Knowles' A SEPARATE PEACE is loosely based on the author's experiences while a student at Exter Academy during the 1940s--and tells the story of two students, Phineas and Gene, who strike up an unlikely but intense friendship that leads unexpectedly to tragedy and untimely death. It was extremely well-received by critics and public alike and is considered a minor classic of modern American literature, a frequent fixture on high school and university must-read lit studies lists.
A fairly short work, A SEPARATE PEACE can be easily read from cover to cover in the course of two or three hours--but I wouldn't recommend doing so. Some novels should not be rushed, and this is one of them; Knowles' lyric style requires a certain patience to develop fully in the reader's mind and the almost ghostly manner in which he handles the novel's themes of friendship, rivalry, ethics, and morality requires a fair amount of thought.
Gene, the novel's narrator, returns to Devon Academy, a private school he attended as a teenager during World War II. He hopes the visit will allow him to face the truth of and find meaning in the past--and he vividly recalls his relationship with school friend and roommate Phineas, a gifted athlete and charismatic eccentric whose charm encouraged his fellow students to numerous risky activities. Chief among these are a dangerous dive from a tree branch into the river, a dive that gradually acquires a ritualistic nature and ultimate gives rise to tragedy.
The nature of the tragedy involved drives the action of the novel. Who is morally weak and who is morally strong? How much can Gene--and we--ascribe to accident and circumstance and impulse and how much arises from free will? Who is actually responsible? There are no easy answers.
In both tone and story A SEPARATE PEACE seems to draw from three earlier masterpieces: F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1920 THIS SIDE OF PARADISE and 1925 THE GREAT GATSBY and Evelyn Waugh's 1945 BRIDESHEAD REVISITED. All three of these are lyical in tone; both PARADISE and BRIDESHEAD present young men in academic settings; and PEACE is quite similar in conclusion to GATSBY, both novels ending without a clear moral center and leaving the reader to sort of the meaning of the story in much the same way the characters must.
This was Knowles' first novel, and in some respects his inexperience shows: at certain points, most notably Gene's visit to Leper's Vermont home and the impromptu student court, the construction feels forced and artificial, as if Knowles recognized these moments had to occur for the sake of the story but didn't quite know how to go about writing them. That aside, however, the style of writing is remarkable eloquent, the prose possessing a poetic quality that is remarkably fine. The conclusion never fully resolves the relationship between Gene and Phineas, never fully answers the questions it raises, and as such has a remarkably haunting quality.
I personally A SEPARATE PEACE an often-brilliant piece of writing; I also suspect it is a novel that holds up extremely well to re-reading. At the same time, however, I confess I also found it slightly over-rated. There is a very fine line between narrative vagueness that inspires thought and narrative vagueness that is simply vague, and Knowles too often edges into the latter. Recommended, but perhaps best regarded as a slightly flawed "art" novel.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
 caught my attention right from the first chapter May 13, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
A Separate Peace caught my attention right from the first chapter. John Knowles uses simple and clean language that makes reading this novel easy. It is a short novel with an interestingly simple plot that could have been developed into any ending.
The two main characters, Gene and Finny, are opposite in what they do but are attracted by the same excitement. Gene is very involved in his schoolwork and academically gifted. Finny is very involved in sports and physical activity. The story revolves around the lives of Gene and Finny and their path through school, life, and the war.
The differences these boys appear to have creates a competitiveness that's very prevalent in most parts of the novel, creating tensions that pull the reader in. Adding the war into the story makes it different from other tension filled novels in the sense that there is an additional fear. The fear of war becomes a reality for the boys when their friend Leper Lepellier gets drafted and sent to war. Knowles helps create a gloomy mood at select times by using dark and sharp words. But when there are happy moments he is very good at creating an ambiance that's warm and heart felt. Heart felt words are mostly used when Finny and Gene are together, like at the beach or when they make up a new game. It is a story that explores the launch into manhood and the difficulties boys deal with during war times. The novel is very realistic and offers a sense into their experiences.
I would recommend this book because you don't have to look deep into the story to find the meaning behind it all. The length is perfect for anyone. The ending was strange in that it didn't feel like it should have been over - there seemed to be an emptiness that never got filled.
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