{"product_id":"bellefleur-9780062269164","title":"Bellefleur","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/em\u003eBestselling Author\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBack in print in a new trade paperback edition, a classic Gothic novel from Joyce Carol Oates--a literary masterpiece of invention, artistry, and power \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"\u003cem\u003eBellefleur\u003c\/em\u003e is proof . . .that Oates is one of the great writers of our time. . . . A magnificent piece of daring, a tour de force of imagination and intellect.\"--John Gardner, \u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe wealthy and notorious Bellefleurs live in a region not unlike the Adirondacks, in a mansion on the shores of the mythic Lake Noir. Powerful and influential, this prolific and eccentric clan includes several millionaires, a mass murderer, a spiritual seeker who climbs mountains looking for God, and a noctambulist who dies from a chicken scratch.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eBellefleur\u003c\/em\u003e traces the lives of several generations of this unusual family. At its center is Gideon Bellefleur and his imperious, somewhat psychic, very beautiful wife Leah, their three children (one with frightening psychic abilities) and the servants and relatives, living and dead, who inhabit the castle and its environs. Their story offers a prfound look at the world's changeableness, time and eternity, space and soul, pride and physicality versus love. Bellefleur is an allegory of \u003cem\u003ecaritas \u003c\/em\u003eversus \u003cem\u003ecupiditas\u003c\/em\u003e, love and selflessness versus pride and selfishness. It is a novel of change, baffling complexity, mystery.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWritten with a voluptuousness and startling immediacy that transcends Joyce Carol Oates's early works, \u003cem\u003eBellefleur\u003c\/em\u003e is widely regarded as a masterwork--a feat of literary genius that forces us, \"to ask again how anyone can possibly write such books, such absolutely convincing scenes, rousing in us, again and again, the familiar Oates effect, the point of all her art: joyful terror gradually ebbing toward wonder\" (John Gardner).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eOates, Joyce Carol:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cp\u003eJoyce Carol Oates is a recipient of the National Medal of Humanities, the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Book Award, and the 2019 Jerusalem Prize, and has been several times nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. She has written some of the most enduring fiction of our time, including the national bestsellers \u003cem\u003eWe Were the Mulvaneys\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eBlonde\u003c\/em\u003e, which was nominated for the National Book Award; and the \u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e bestseller \u003cem\u003eThe Falls\u003c\/em\u003e, which won the 2005 Prix Femina. She is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University and has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ecco Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50692589322514,"sku":"9780062269164","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_84268ff3-e6e3-490c-b742-81d112033398.jpg?v=1734128599","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/bellefleur-9780062269164","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}