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The Virgin Suicides: A Novel (Picador Modern Classics) Paperback – April 27, 2009

by Jeffrey Eugenides (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 10,116 ratings
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First published in 1993, The Virgin Suicides announced the arrival of a major new American novelist. In a quiet suburb of Detroit, the five Lisbon sisters--beautiful, eccentric, and obsessively watched by the neighborhood boys--commit suicide one by one over the course of a single year. As the boys observe them from afar, transfixed, they piece together the mystery of the family's fatal melancholy, in this hypnotic and unforgettable novel of adolescent love, disquiet, and death. Jeffrey Eugenides evokes the emotions of youth with haunting sensitivity and dark humor and creates a coming-of-age story unlike any of our time. Adapted into a critically acclaimed film by Sofia Coppola, The Virgin Suicides is a modern classic, a lyrical and timeless tale of sex and suicide that transforms and mythologizes suburban middle-American life.
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  1. Print length
    243 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Picador
  4. Publication date
    April 27, 2009
  5. Dimensions
    5.53 x 0.65 x 8.2 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    9780312428815
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0312428815
  8. See all details
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  1. The Lisbon girls were thirteen (Cecilia), and fourteen (Lux), and fifteen (Bonnie), and sixteen (Mary), and seventeen (Therese).
    Highlighted by 1,061 Kindle readers
  2. She held herself very straight, like Audrey Hepburn, whom all women idolize and men never think about.
    Highlighted by 848 Kindle readers
  3. “Basically, what we have here is a dreamer. Somebody out of touch with reality. When she jumped, she probably thought she’d fly.”
    Highlighted by 725 Kindle readers
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“A piercing first novel . . . lyrical and portentous.” ―The New York Times

“Mr. Eugenides is blessed with the storyteller's most magical gift, the ability to transform the mundane into the extraordinary.” ―The New York Times Book Review

“Arresting . . . uncannily evokes the wry voice of adolescence and a mixture of curiosity, lust, tenderness, morbidity, cynicism, and the naïveté surrounding these bizarre events.” ―The Wall Street Journal

“Picador's new paperback edition of The Virgin Suicides bears a modest white sleeve with an evocative cover image of lackadaisical teenagers lounging in a field of grass. The understatement of the binding is complemented by the rest of the package: Short of breadth, with larger than average type, it resembles nothing so much as what children refer to as a 'chapter book.' This sparsity of presentation is entirely appropriate, reflecting the marred innocence of the Lisbon girls themselves. The Virgin Suicides is a precious item, a timeless document of the eternal pangs of youth, a work which deserves to be savored and treasured and shared.” ―Michael Munro

About the Author

JEFFREY EUGENIDES was born in Detroit and attended Brown and Stanford universities. The Virgin Suicides was published in 1993 and was adapted into a motion picture in 1999 by Sophia Coppola. His second novel, Middlesex, won the Pulitzer Prize in 2003. He joined the faculty of Princeton University in the fall of 2007.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0312428812
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Picador; First Edition (April 27, 2009)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 243 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780312428815
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0312428815
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.53 x 0.65 x 8.2 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 10,116 ratings

About the authors

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  1. Audrey Roach

    Audrey Roach

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    Audrey Roach (b. May 22, 1992) is a mystery and thriller writer who crafts suspenseful, edge-of-your-seat stories filled with intricate plots and unexpected twists. Audrey’s novels often feature determined protagonists uncovering deep-seated secrets, navigating dangerous situations, and outwitting their foes. Her work is perfect for fans of high-stakes, page-turning thrillers.

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  2. Jeffrey Eugenides

    Jeffrey Eugenides

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    Jeffrey Eugenides -- winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Middlesex -- was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1960. His first novel, The Virgin Suicides, was published in 1993, and has since been translated into fifteen languages and made into a major motion picture. His second novel, Middlesex, was an international bestseller. Jeffrey Eugenides is the recipient of many awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and The National Foundation for the Arts, a Whiting Writers' Award, and the Harold D. Vursell Award from The American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has been a Fellow of the Berliner Künstlerprogramm of the DAAD and of the American Academy in Berlin. Jeffrey Eugenides lives in Berlin.

    See more on the author's page
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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
10,116 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the book beautifully and descriptively written. They praise the writing quality as realistic, clear, and metaphorical. Readers find the premise interesting, insightful, and magical. They describe the tone as dark and intriguing. However, some find the story boring, frustrating, and repetitive. Opinions are mixed on the story quality, with some finding it darkly entrancing and deeply moving, while others say it's not believable.

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ReadabilityWriting qualityIntrigueDark toneStory qualityPacingCharacter developmentBoredom
138 customers mention "Readability"118 positive20 negative

Customers find the book beautifully and descriptively written. They describe it as a timeless work of art. Readers also mention the story is unique and vivid. Overall, they say it's well worth a reflective reread and a classic.

"Looks so aesthetically pleasing on my shelf!" Read more

"...clear prose, but at the same time has a way of wording that is both gorgeous and unexpected. it’s a sad story, but well worth reading...." Read more

"...It's not that intangible. I'd say the novel is accessible to most people who are at least open to exploring literature that is not just about the..." Read more

"...book from my collection I was finally able to find it here in a beautiful cover and perfect condition. Extremely happy with this purchase...." Read more

101 customers mention "Writing quality"72 positive29 negative

Customers find the writing quality of the book well-written, realistic, and clear. They also say the story is smooth and easy to read. Readers appreciate the vivid descriptions and metaphorical writing style.

"Eugenides writes in such crisp and clear prose, but at the same time has a way of wording that is both gorgeous and unexpected...." Read more

"...Even though it's about a depressing and serious topic, it's written in such a poetic way that it touches everyone (or so it should)." Read more

"...of the teenage boys as a narrative strategy struck me as awkward, pretentious, and unnecessary...." Read more

"...Good creative writing where sentences are crafted well and language is used uniquely and the narrative is skilled to weave a story wins me over..." Read more

95 customers mention "Intrigue"88 positive7 negative

Customers find the book interesting, insightful, and magical. They say the writing style is intense and exciting. Readers mention the book version offers a far greater depth and background to the events and people in the story.

"...but at the same time has a way of wording that is both gorgeous and unexpected. it’s a sad story, but well worth reading...." Read more

"Even though the book had good potential and was good in the beginning, it didn't focus on the important parts but instead went really slow on the..." Read more

"It came in good time it’s a good book would recommend" Read more

"Such a good book. I enjoyed it." Read more

12 customers mention "Dark tone"12 positive0 negative

Customers find the tone of the book intriguing, haunting, and entrancing.

"...Personally, this book had a very haunting and dark sensitivity to it. It kept me intrigued as to what was going to happen next...." Read more

"...the virgin suicides that book. at least for me. it is dark, surreal in a magical-realism sort of way...." Read more

"I liked this book with its dark theme. Near its climax, I thought it was going a different direction… a real page-turner" Read more

"Excellent novel (much better than the movie) dark and complex it's a very intense read." Read more

108 customers mention "Story quality"72 positive36 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the story quality. Some mention it's darkly entrancing, deeply moving, and beautifully told. However, others say the story is not believable, entertaining, and incoherent. They also mention the plot contains no surprises and is anticlimactic.

"...it’s a sad story, but well worth reading. there is so much i didn’t catch before, reading it this time." Read more

"...It is all self-contained, like Grosse Pointe, Michigan. It is lyrical and wonderfully surreal and yet is true to the real place in which it is set..." Read more

"...If the work is meant to be a memoir it fails in capturing the emotional pulse of suicide survivors; if the work is sheer fiction, it fails in..." Read more

"...are crafted well and language is used uniquely and the narrative is skilled to weave a story wins me over every time, despite subject matter...." Read more

41 customers mention "Pacing"16 positive25 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the pacing of the book. Some mention it's well-paced and fast, while others say the pacing feels off at times.

"...By far, this novel was not as good as Middlesex; there were points in this novel that dragged for me...." Read more

"...This book is lovely, clever, well-paced, and heartbreaking concurrently. 5 ⭐️" Read more

"...still glad to have read it. even though (like i said before) the end is fast paced, it was still a great read." Read more

"...It’s a short book but everything is so depressing and long and drawn out. I really don’t know what I expected. I definitely do not recommend it." Read more

11 customers mention "Character development"4 positive7 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the character development in the book. Some mention they're well-developed, while others say they leave them wondering why and feeling detached from them.

"...of suicide survivors; if the work is sheer fiction, it fails in character development and multiplicity of layering...." Read more

"...The characters were so well developed I felt I knew them and remember them fondly...." Read more

"...Still, there is such a sense of remove from the characters, it is difficult, if not impossible, to connect with them or get fully-engaged in the..." Read more

"...The character development leaves you wondering why. You can suspect the reasons, but never know for certain...." Read more

18 customers mention "Boredom"0 positive18 negative

Customers find the book boring, frustrating, and repetitive. They also mention it's a rambling, incoherent attempt to tell a story.

"this book was so fascinating in the beginning. then it got boring. then the end was way too fast in my opinion...." Read more

"...In my opinion, it is a rambling, incoherent attempt to tell a story almost as if the author thought, "This book needs to be longer, let me just..." Read more

"Honestly, after reading this, I found that I thought it was kinda boring and overhyped...." Read more

"This was the most boring, depressing book I’ve ever read. I get it’s a book about suicide but DAMN...." Read more

Absolutely perfect
5 out of 5 stars
Absolutely perfect
After years of me missing this book from my collection I was finally able to find it here in a beautiful cover and perfect condition. Extremely happy with this purchase. Shipping arrived a day later in secure packaging. Stunning cover and as it’s one of my favorite books I am very happy to have it again.
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Top reviews from the United States

Laney_:)
5.0 out of 5 stars Pretty!
Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2024
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Looks so aesthetically pleasing on my shelf!
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elhector76
4.0 out of 5 stars i love this book
Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2024
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Eugenides writes in such crisp and clear prose, but at the same time has a way of wording that is both gorgeous and unexpected. it’s a sad story, but well worth reading. there is so much i didn’t catch before, reading it this time.
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Anna Paula Rodrigues
5.0 out of 5 stars Profoundly dense and involving.
Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2024
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This novel is beautifully written. It's a eulogy to the girls and to everyone who's been a teenager themselves, and look back at those years with bittersweet eyes. I'd been longing to read another book that could draw me inside as part of the characters. Even though it's about a depressing and serious topic, it's written in such a poetic way that it touches everyone (or so it should).
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Jayden
3.0 out of 5 stars A good read but could be better
Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2024
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Even though the book had good potential and was good in the beginning, it didn't focus on the important parts but instead went really slow on the parts that weren't key factors. And it's strange that it's middle aged men are obsessing over this. I think it'd be better if it switched point of view from the girls to the boys or had a book from the girls perspective.
6 people found this helpful
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John Escher
5.0 out of 5 stars Fish Flies, Baby-- That's the Clue
Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2012
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I had so much fun reviewing THE MARRIAGE PLOT that I resolved to review THE VIRGIN SUICIDES next and lastly to read and review MIDDLESEX. That sounds self-indulgent of me, I know, but on the other hand self-indulgence is the main characteristic of this whole new spawn of American book reviews caused by the onset of electronic publishing, so mine should fit in quite well.

Almost every one of the 440 reviews of THE VIRGIN SUICIDES begins, after the obligatory cold blanket assignment of stars, with the reviewer's statement of whether she or he liked the book, cold blanket again, followed by a tract of triteness and cliche very apt to contain the expression "it's" spelled wrong--three more cold blankets seemingly intended to deaden any real thought or sign of life in an actual reader.

The best discussion of a book begins in neutrality, with focus on what it was we just read. Some people sense this. So they try to summarize without knowing a difference between true summary, which is highly selective, and "factual rehash," which is not. What we mostly get are fifth grade or reading group book reports which aren't even reviews much less literary criticism. Who other than author, publisher and agent cares whether someone liked a book or not when, clearly, that somebody is a human goose who is an insult to real geese and may not even know how to read?

The trouble, you see, is that all writing but especially a book review is autobiographical (so fire away--I don't mind).

A special issue of "Grosse Pointe Magazine" lies in front of me right now, a seriously dumbed down journal actually containing a theme to pull its various articles together. The theme, "Mom is wonderful," finds adult expression in those exact words or close to them, but the sole sign of life in this magazine issue is reproduced portraits of their moms by pre-schoolers in watercolor.

Where else could dull editors with no sense of irony, people who never absorbed Philip Wylie's famous statement, "Mom is a jerk," go in search of life in Grosse Pointe? They had to turn to the pre-schoolers, just as Jeffrey Eugenides turned to five sister Lolitas, pre-teen and young teenagers sequestered together, each more gorgeous than the last.

Has the age for true life in Grosse Pointe gone down in the decades since Eugenides penned his expose? That's possible.

But please don't misunderstand. You'd be wrong to conclude that I don't like Grosse Pointe. It's a scatological point, surrounded by water, in the language of its French founders and as Eugenides reveals near the end of the book. Believe me, one can always go to The Dirty Dog to hear great jazz, and at each meeting of the Christ Church foyer groups, there always are two or three persons who demonstrate that the ready made idea that all any adult in Grosse Pointe ever cares about is money is totally untrue. "Wherever there are four Episcopaliens together," one parishioner took it upon himself to explain soon after I arrived, "there's always a fifth."

The Eugenides crowd seems headquartered slightly down the road in Roman Catholic, not Episcopalien surroundings, but Greeks in America have always had trouble choosing the most appropriate local religion after Greek Orthodox. Remember, one of the five teeny-boppers at the core of Eugenides' first novel is named Mary, yet not one of the almost five hundred reviewers, including me, saw fit to look into that.

One reviewer, obviously very sexually repressed, can not fathom what the boys in their tree house can possibly see in the five girls of the nearby, eye-level Lisbon household.

This reviewer needs to come to Grosse Pointe in May (used to be in June), when the threshhold, recurrent and central image of THE VIRGIN SUICIDES, zillions of fish flies, emerge from beneath the surface of Lake St. Clair. At the Pier Park, where I go to hit tennis balls, the chitin from their bodies, regurgitated by swarms of ravenous gulls, forms a mountain forty feet high. When I first moved here, my partner took me to a shorefront branch of Andiamo's chain restaurant, since gone under, and while we were seated on the porch, the fish flies "attacked, " and four women at the next table began to shriek.

The word shriek gets no quote marks from me but the word "attacked" does. A fish fly, as Liv Ullman once said about sex, "never hurt nobody." The fish flies are about an inch and a half long--a special breed of Mayfly--and to better understand them, one must realize that sex is what they are all about. They have sex and promptly die. They've been coming every May for the half century my 98-year-old friend Frieda Johnston has lived here and have never missed.

The fish flies explain the young girls who also die very young and are very sexy, don't you know. Here's my question: Is the death of the fish flies or that of the young girls tragic as so many of the 500 projecting reviewers, often moody teeny-boppers themselves, think? Furthermore, are the deaths of these girls even sad when we consider what lies ahead for them? Grosse Pointe is a very pleasant place, a carefree island almost--but not quite, because of an underlying horror which perhaps is best expressed in the word "banal" and in terms of repressed fear (e.g., of all the blacks in Detroit who have to come to Grosse Pointe if they want to Trick or Treat) or of brain and breast cancer ever since the spraying and destruction of elms that Eugenides writes so well about.

Rick Moody, another student of John Hawkes at Brown, tried to find the same repressed feelings and sublimated terror and unrealized human potential on the gold coast of Connecticut but not with the same success as Eugenides. His novel, THE ICE STORM, also like THE VIRGIN SUICIDES made into a movie, was mostly a dreary tract about swapping of Stepford wives although it contains a truly terrifying and beautiful image of a live power wire thrashing about in fallen ice. All of us students of John Hawkes, of course, are familiar with THE DAY OF THE LOCUST by Nathaniel West, which is probably the best thing ever written about Los Angeles, California and in much the same way.

As most of the fish fly reviewers are quick to try and push you into thinking, MIDDLESEX is much better than THE VIRGIN SUICIDES except for two admirable persons who think the opposite. I reserve judgment, but have heard that MIDDLESEX sprawls like THE MARRIAGE PLOT. THE VIRGIN SUICIDES does not sprawl. It is all self-contained, like Grosse Pointe, Michigan. It is lyrical and wonderfully surreal and yet is true to the real place in which it is set, and its (look, Ma, no apostrophe) tight structure is true refreshment .

I am willing to bet, before I read MIDDLESEX, that THE VIRGIN SUICIDES, not MIDDLESEX, is the reason that Jeffrey Eugenides received his Pulitzer Prize just as THE PAINTED BIRD, not BEING THERE was the reason that the late Jerzy Kosinski received his.

It is not just the Amazon reviewers who are sleepy in their heads and slow to develop consciousness. Yes, Pulitzer committee members, like people on any committee anywhere are just like that, too.
25 people found this helpful
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M. Swinney
5.0 out of 5 stars Just a Fine Turn of Cherry-tinged Writing
Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2009
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Granted I had heard of Jerry Eugenides pulitizer prize winning novel Middlesex and Sofia Coppola's movie The Virgin Suicides but never really gave it much thought to sit down and read one of Eugenides' books. Upon shopping for fiction-lover brother this past August, I did some Amazonian research and came up with a list of ten or so titles I thought would fit him and his literary tastes. Eugenides' "The Virgin Suicides," made it to the top of the list. So I did the easy thing and ordered it from Amazon and just before wrapping it I took a closer look at the subject matter...hmmm 5 or 6 sisters all kill themselves and that's pretty much the plot of the book...and had second thoughts about unleashing this black macabre upon said brother. Thus, a second gift purchasing of The Power and the Glory (Penguin Classics) became the substitute stand-in as I kept "The Virgin Suicides," to read and screen first before unleashing such dark subject matter on another.

And on a selfish note, boy, I'm glad I kept it. Good creative writing where sentences are crafted well and language is used uniquely and the narrative is skilled to weave a story wins me over every time, despite subject matter. From a person who has read a few books in his days, Eugenides won me over on the first page. "They got out of the EMS truck, as usual moving much too slowly in our opinion, and the fat one said under his breath, 'This ain't TV, folks, this is how fast we go.' He was carrying the heavy respirator and cardiac unit past the bushes that had grown monstrous and over the erupting lawn, tame and immaculate thirteen months earlier when the trouble began." That's a sentence. In fact its two sentences. In it, along with the book's first sentence, we get pre-announced that this book is going to be about a group of teenage sisters that end up killing themselves and thirteen months time elapsed it will take for the story to unravel. Many authors would think that's putting too much out there in the beginning revealing the big reveal on page 1. It works wonderfully for Eugenides' tale though.

The story is told through a Greek Chorus narrator of a group of nosy pubescent boys who investigate and obsess over the Lisbon sisters to no end. And just like the classic tragedy, this story harkens back to a Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet or Hamlet. We don't blink twice about our teenagers being exposed to Romeo and Juliet's star-crossed love affair ending in suicide and murder but the subject matter of Eugenides' "The Virgin Suicides," can be daunting and vexing. The novel is loosely based on a real life event of which I'm not too sure about the details so these kind of things evidently happen. Eugenides just turns it into a moral tale about the ultimate selfishness of such acts and while doing so spins a yarn so perfectly catching the awkwardness and thrill that comes along with growing up in America that you become a believer that this isn't just a black comedy but a tale that reveals something true of the human soul and psyche...an aim for all good literature.

So there is a pinnacle moment in the book of which I won't tell of as to not give anything away should you read it. I read a lot of Stephen King books as a kid growing up and though "The Virgin Suicides," isn't a horror book, this piece of writing in a few paragraphs achieves a chill in the bones as much as a novel full of King's Pet Cemetaries or haunted Colorado hotels do. Just listen to this writing, "How long we stayed like that, communing with her departed spirit, we can't remember. Long enough for our collective breath to start a breeze slowly through the room that made Bonnie..." And that's all I'll reveal. The rest you just gotta read for yourself, dear readers.

I'll hand off this book pre-screened to the brother now, with a caveat, I want it back to read again someday. Eugenides' "The Virgin Suicides," highly recommended but not for the faint of heart. --mmw
19 people found this helpful
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Alexandria Burkhart
4.0 out of 5 stars :/
Reviewed in the United States on November 18, 2024
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He idolizes these girls to the point of discomfort in a way that feels right when you remember that it’s from the memory of a teenage boy and perspective of an man
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Very nice and comfy
5.0 out of 5 stars Good book
Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2024
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It came in good time it’s a good book would recommend
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Jennifer
5.0 out of 5 stars Linda edición
Reviewed in Mexico on April 11, 2024
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Muy linda
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Eduardo
5.0 out of 5 stars Menor que eu imaginava, mas muito bom
Reviewed in Brazil on June 10, 2022
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Menor que eu imaginava, mas muito bom. Bem feito e firme.
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Eduardo
5.0 out of 5 stars Menor que eu imaginava, mas muito bom
Reviewed in Brazil on June 10, 2022
Menor que eu imaginava, mas muito bom. Bem feito e firme.
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Ania
5.0 out of 5 stars If you saw the movie and wanted the book - get the book!
Reviewed in Canada on September 29, 2021
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I admit it... I bought the book after rewatching the film a third time and, honestly, it was so much more mystifying than the movie (which is a big statement as Sofia Coppola's take on this novel was haunting in the best way) The author has a talent for describing each setting and character in depth without being boring and his descriptions are absolute poetry. The writing in this one will transport you to another time and place, even to another body. It'd been a while since I read a book that made me feel like I was experiencing the story as my own. If you liked the movie, you'll be happy to find this book contains so much more haunting detail and if you didn't like the movie, I don't doubt you'll be moved by the writing. Highly recommend.
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Anne
4.0 out of 5 stars !!
Reviewed in the Netherlands on July 23, 2024
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Exactly as described. Only thing was that a small corner of the book was damaged but except that everything was good about it.
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Beatriz R-Porrero
5.0 out of 5 stars Una novela fascinante
Reviewed in Spain on July 11, 2024
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Una historia fascinante, escrita de un modo inigualable. Estás atrapado por las chicas Lisbon irremediablemente y de principio a fin.
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