Peyton Place | Literary Precedents

Peyton Place Literary Precedents

The literary expose of the small town has a long and distinguished tradition in America since the turn of the century. Authors such as Sinclair Lewis, Sherwood Anderson, and even William Faulkner were predecessors of Metalious. However, the one novel Peyton Place clearly most resembles is Henry Bellamann's 1940 best seller King's Row.

Besides sharing several character-types, the emphasis in Peyton Place on sexual maladies as a motivator for the characters is also central to Bellamann's novel. Metalious acknowledged her indebtedness to King's Row, but it is important to notice how much further Peyton Place goes in using sex to reveal the hypocrisy of small town life. In this regard Peyton Place could be only a postwar novel.

As with Sinclair Lewis, Metalious uses a certain ironic angle at times to satirize her characters, especially the pompous and hypocritical ones. Her attacks never reach the level...
(read more)