Slow Learner: Early Stories

Author(s): Thomas Pynchon

Short Stories

Slow Learner is a compilation of early stories written between 1959 and 1964, before Pynchon achieved recognition as a prominent writer for his 1963 novel, V and containing a revelatory essay on his early influences and writing. The collection consists of five short stories: 'The Small Rain', 'Lowlands', 'Entropy', 'Under the Rose', and 'The Secret Integration', as well as an introduction written by Pynchon himself for the 1984 publication. The five stories were originally published individually in various literary magazines but in 1984, after Pynchon had achieved greater recognition, Slow Learner was published to collect and copyright the stories into one volume. The introduction also offers a rare insight into Pynchon's own views on his work and influences.


Product Information

"Possibly the most accomplished writer of prose in English since James Joyce... Sentence by sentence he can do more than any novelist of this century with the resources of the English-American language" London Review of Books "Anything from the most monstrous talent in the post-war West should be pursued in earnest. I've eaten two copies already" Time Out "Thomas Pynchon is the Gargantua of modern fiction... In Slow Learner he breaks cover for the first time with a remarkable open handed portrait of the writer as a young man" Sunday Times "Pynchon at his best" Guardian

Thomas Pynchon is the author of V., The Crying of Lot 49, Gravity's Rainbow, Vineland, Mason and Dixon, Against the Day and Inherent Vice. He received the National Book Award for Gravity's Rainbow in 1974.

General Fields

  • : 9780099532514
  • : Random House UK
  • : VINTAGE ARROW - MASS MARKET
  • : 0.157
  • : April 1995
  • : 198mm X 129mm X 12mm
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Thomas Pynchon
  • : Paperback
  • : English
  • : 813.54