Set This House on Fire [Paperback]

William Styron (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 4, 1993

The day after Peter Leverett met his old friend Mason Flagg in Italy, Mason was found dead. The hours leading up to his death were a nightmare for Peter - both in their violence and in their maddening unreality.The blaze of events which followed was, Peter soon realised, ignited by a conflict between two men: Mason Flagg himself and Cass Kinsolving, a tortured, self-destructive painter, a natural enemy and prey to the monstrous evil of Mason Flagg. Three events - murder, rape and suicide - explode in the is relentless and passionate novel, almost overwhelming in its conception of the varieties of good and evil.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Immediately impressive...the sense of the striking scene...the fine ear for dialogue, the sharp observation of cities and scenery and interiors."

-- The New York Times Book Review

Three Americans converge in an Italian village shortly after World War II. One is a naive Southern lawyer. One is a rough-edged artist with a fatal penchant for alcohol. And one is a charming and priapic aristocrat who may be the closest thing possible to pure wickedness in an age that has banished the devil along with God. Out of their collective alchemy William Styron has crafted an electrifying and deeply unsettling novel of rape, murder, and suicide -- a work with a Dostoevskian insight into the dreadful persuasiveness of evil.

About the Author

One of the great writers of the generation succeeding that of Hemingway and Faulkner, William Styron is renowned for the elegance of his prose and his powerful moral engagement. His books include Lie Down in Darkness, The Long March, The Confessions of Nat Turner, Sophie's Choice, This Quiet Dust, and Darkness Visible. He has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the American Book Award, the Howells Medal, and the Edward MacDowell Medal.

Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (January 4, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679736743
• ISBN-13: 978-0679736745
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1.1 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #485,733 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

William Styron (1925-2006) , a native of the Virginia Tidewater, was a graduate of Duke University and a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps. His books include Lie Down in Darkness, The Long March, Set This House on Fire, The Confessions of Nat Turner, Sophie's Choice, This Quiet Dust, Darkness Visible, and A Tidewater Morning. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the Howells Medal, the American Book Award, the Legion d'Honneur, and the Witness to Justice Award from the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation. With his wife, the poet and activist Rose Styron, he lived for most of his adult life in Roxbury, Connecticut, and in Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts, where he is buried.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars For the Acquired Styron Taste.., July 28, 2006

By 

Emma Pankhurst (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Set This House on Fire (Paperback)

I love William Styron, I have read all his books, yet I would not recommend picking up "Set This House on Fire" unless you've read some of his other works first. It's lengthy-in certain cases, such as the voluminous number of pages devoted to Cass Kingsolving's abysmal drunkenness, to the point of excess-and at times seems aimless. The story is told from the point of view of a character who is relatively uninvolved in the rape, death, and depression that ensue. Some of the most interesting passages are those which give us glimpses into the main characters' pasts. Taken separately, many of these sections make for wonderful, lucid parts of a story. But, when interspersed with lengthy, often difficult, descriptions of dark emotion and personal despair, they can be a bit drowned out.
On the up side, there are many passages that are delightful to read, and Styron's elegant prose doesn't fail to shine through. Definitely worth reading if you've read and enjoyed "Sophie's Choice" or "Lie Down in Darkness." Otherwise, you'll probably be overwhelmed by the density (both lengthwise and in terms of content) of this novel.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars even just reading it is a redemption, July 29, 2000

By 

Jan Patrick Oppermann (Ravensburg, Germany) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Set This House on Fire (Paperback)

This book, Styron's finest, is about redemption. Heralded by the epigraph from John Donne, the intricately structured tale with its Marlowian manipulations of narrative points of view soon becomes so enthralling that it's impossible to put down. But it's also to Styron's great credit that the novel's theme, redemption through confrontation with death and violence, is reflected through its feverish style. There are not many books in the postwar era, and none in the United States, that have such a non-moralistic but intensely moral character and impact. Echoes of the Greek tragedians (several times evoked in the text) and of Dostoyevski abound. Finally, the crucial role by the most-fleshed out non-expatriate character, a philosophical Italian small-town cop named Luigi, elevates the moral drama to a metaphysical dimension that most contemporary writers don't even seem to understand, let alone approach. It's a shame that Styron has not received the Nobel Prize yet.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Set the middle half of this book on fire!, July 22, 2001

By 

Doron (Miami, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Set This House on Fire (Paperback)

In search of a challenging read, and intrigued by the Italian locale of much of the story, I picked up this 500+ page book at the library one day during lunch. Styron's vocabulary is immense, and his prose is quite enjoyable to read. The 1st part of the book is pretty absorbing, but the middle part is so slow and drawn out that it makes getting to the fairly interesting end rather tedious. The main problem I had was the inordinate focus on Cass' recollections. His recollections of North Carolina and the South I liked, but Cass' actions are not particulary considerate towards his family, and he is not an especially sympathetic character (esp. given his own self-destructive tendencies). I did not view Mason as some kind of evil incarnate, and ultimately the character of Leverett is not developed and fades into the background. Finally, given the book came out in 1960, some of the cultural differences and clashes brought out in the book (e.g. Mason talking about the Beats) seem a little dated. Nevertheless, the European setting and exquisite writing style compelled me to see the book to its (largely satisfactory) ending. If you have the time, and patience, this book may well be worth your while.