Cleet Kinsolving, a young many without money in the world of the very rich, returns from the Second World War with no prospects, few plans, and a deep and so far thwarted ambition: to make the best of himself, to live life on his own terms. After an idyllic time working around airplanes in Kansas, Cleet is drawn, with deep reluctance, back to his home town in Connecticut by an enormously rich and powerful family who have always magnetized everyone and everything around them. The Reardons live in a huge Victorian mansion, High Farms, and it is there that the family power challenges Cleet. For the Reardons, led by the son and heir, Neil, have always succeeded in twisting those around them to their own purposes: Cleet himself; Neil's wife, Georgia, bubbling over with the gaiety of riches she does not believe in; her sister Lynn, terrified of the Reardons and of her own awkwardness; their ne'er-do-well parents - winning, alcoholic Ken and loud, warmhearted Genevieve - who come to High Farms for the great annual ball which is at the climax of the novel. Among the vast rooms and grounds of High Farms all these people struggle against a most common human dilemma: they live their lives out of season, like actors performing last week's play in front of this week's sets. In his struggle against the Reardon world, Cleet stakes everything he values on meeting the Reardon challenge.
Author
John Knowles (September 16, 1926 - November 29, 2001), b. Fairmont, West Virginia, was an American novelist, best known for his novel A Separate Peace. A 1945 graduate of the Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, Knowles graduated from Yale University as a member of the class of 1949W. A Separate Peace is based upon Knowles' experiences at Exeter during the summer of 1943. The setting for The Devon School is a thinly veiled fictionalization of Phillips Exeter. The plot should not be taken as autobiographical, although many elements of the novel stem from personal experience. In his essay, "A Special Time, A Special Place," Knowles wrote: The only elements in A Separate Peace which were not in that summer were anger, violence, and hatred. There was only friendship, athleticism, and loyalty. The secondary character Finny (Phineas) was the best friend of the main character, Gene. Knowles took to his grave the secret of whether Finny was all a part of his imagination, or an actual friend whose true identity was never spoken. Gore Vidal, in his memoir Palimpsest, acknowledges that he and Knowles concurrently attended Phillips Exeter, with Vidal two years ahead. Vidal states that Knowles told him that the character Brinker, who precipitates the novel's crisis, is based on Vidal. "We have been friends for many years now," Vidal said, "and I admire the novel that he based on our school days, A Separate Peace." Knowles' other significant works are Morning in Antibes, Double Vision: American Thoughts Abroad, Indian Summer, The Paragon, and Peace Breaks Out. None of these later works were as well received as A Separate Peace. A resident of Southampton, New York, Knowles wrote seven novels, a book on travel and a collection of stories. He was the winner of the William Faulkner Award and the Rosenthal Award of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. In his later years, Knowles lectured to university audiences.
