The Lime Twig: Second Skin ; Travesty (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) - Softcover

Three early novels by John Hawkes This volume brings together three early novels by John Hawkes. The Lime Twig is set in the underworld of postwar London; Second Skin is a tale of suicide and new life on two mythical islands; and Travesty is a monologue on fear and eroticism that takes place during a drive at night. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

For nearly fifty years and in more than fourteen novels, John Hawkes has been creating his "landscapes of the imagination" and enriching the form and language of the American novel. Bringing together three early novels, this volume displays Hawkes's mastery as a prose stylist and the range and power of his gifts as an innovative writer. The Lime Twig (1961), set in postwar London, is the story of a young man who, unwittingly involved with the underworld, comes face to face with the violence and decay of contemporary society. Second Skin (1964) is a tale of suicide and new life on two mythical islands - one demonic, the other idyllic - and is a comic, magical evocation of The Tempest. Travesty (1976) is a portrait of the ultimate artist, a harrowing monologue on fear and eroticism that takes place during a drive at night in Southern France.