Gove Vidal's "Inventions"
Gore Vidal's "Inventions"
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Finland, 1976
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Netherlands, 1975
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Italy, 1984
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Germany, 1985
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Spain, 1985
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Vidal published his first "invention," Myra Breckinridge, in
1968 with no fanfare. Myra so shocked the literary world and the nation
that she has her own page of covers. Since
then, Vidal has published four more inventions, which he cites among his
favorite creations. They are: Myron (1974), Duluth
(1983), Live from Golgotha (1992) and The Smithsonian
Institution (1998). It seems unlikely that he'll publish another.
Around the world, depictions of these books have been mostly similar but
occasionally different than the norm. The sexy Finnish Myron
above fits the book, whereas the contemplative Dutch edition does not.
Duluth is a parody of American life and culture, just as these
editions suggest.
FEATURED PAGE: A
slide show of covers from Vidal's inventions
The religion-themed Live from Golgotha (below) invites Christian
imagery. But the book also involves time travel and, like Duluth,
media satire, as the German edition suggests. The Smithsonian
Institution picks up the notion of time travel and combines it with
bizarre fantasy: In a wax museum, historical figures come to life and
interact with the novel's young protagonist. The French cover plays on the
vivification of characters from American history, while the Hungarian
covers suggests that T, the story's hero, goes back in time to attempt to
change the course of at least one life in World War II.
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Brazil, 1994
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Italy, 1994
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Hungary, 1994
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France, 1998
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Hungary, 2002
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Gore Vidal in Translation
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The Gore Vidal Index
