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Peyton
Place is a 1956 novel by Grace
Metalious. The novel describes how three
women are forced to come to terms with their identity, both as women and as
sexual beings, in a small, conservative, gossipy New England town, with
recurring themes of hypocrisy, social inequities and class
privilege in a tale that includes incest,
abortion, adultery, lust and murder. It sold 60,000 copies within the first ten
days of its release and remained on The New York Times best seller list for 59 weeks.
The
novel spawned a franchise that would run through four decades. 20th
Century-Fox adapted it as a movie
in 1957, and Metalious wrote a follow-up novel that was published in 1959,
titled Return to Peyton Place, which was filmed in 1961 using the same title. The original 1956 novel was adapted again in 1964, in what
became a wildly successful prime time television series for 20th Century Fox Television that ran until 1969, and the term "Peyton Place"
– an allusion to any small town or group that holds scandalous secrets –
entered into the American lexicon.[2]
A
daytime soap opera titled Return to Peyton
Place ran from 1972 to 1974, and the
franchise was rounded out with two made-for-television movies: Murder in Peyton Place and Peyton Place: The
Next Generation.
Setting
The
story starts in 1937 and continues through the years following World War II.
While never mentioned explicitly by name, the novel does make several
references that suggest Peyton Place is located within the state of New
Hampshire: Vermont can be seen from across the Connecticut River;[3]:189, 191
Lake Winnipesaukee
is a short drive from the town;[3]:146 a nearby
New England town is called White River[3]:189, 197
a character is spoken of as attending the New Hampton School for Boys;[3]:196 and
several mentions are made of a lake called Silver Lake,[3]:199, 200
of which there are four located in New England, three in the state of New
Hampshire, in the cities of Harrisville, Hollis and Madison.
The
fictional Peyton Place also appears to be a composite of several real New
Hampshire towns: Metalious' hometown of Gilmanton, as well as Gilford,
Laconia,
Manchester and Plymouth,
where at least some of the work was written at the Plymouth Inn on Main Street
(the inn has been torn down).[citation needed]
Grace
Metalious and her husband George first considered Potter Place (the name of a
real community near Andover, New Hampshire). Realizing their town should have a fictional name, they
looked through an atlas and found Payton (the name of a real town in Texas).
They combined that with Place and changed the "a" to an
"e". Thus, Peyton Place was created, prompting her comment,
"Wonderful—that's it, George. Peyton Place. Peyton Place, New Hampshire.
Peyton Place, New England. Peyton Place, USA. Truly a composite of all small
towns where ugliness rears its head, and where the people try to hide all the
skeletons in their closets."[4]
Characters and story
The
main plot follows the lives of three women: lonely and repressed Constance
MacKenzie, her illegitimate daughter Allison, and her employee Selena Cross, a
girl from across the tracks or "from the shacks." Several characters
and events were drawn from events in nearby towns and people that Metalious
actually knew. Selena Cross was based on Barbara Roberts, a 16-year-old girl
from the village of Gilmanton Ironworks, who murdered her father Sylvester after years of sexual
abuse and buried his body under a sheep pen. In the novel, Selena kills her
stepfather because incest was considered too taboo for readers at the time.
Metalious' editor Kitty Messner made the change, much to the author's dismay and
disapproval.[5]
Constance
leaves Peyton Place for New York City at a young age and meets a man in the
publishing business named Allison MacKenzie, who already is married with
children. Constance becomes pregnant with MacKenzie's child. MacKenzie dies a
few years after his daughter, also named Allison, is born. Constance and her
daughter adopt Allison's last name before returning to Peyton Place as a
"widow" and child, and Constance alters her daughter's birth date to
make her appear legitimate.
In
Peyton Place, Nellie marries Lucas Cross shortly after their daughter Selena's
birth, although Selena is not Lucas's child. Paul, Lucas's son and Selena's
stepbrother, left Peyton Place after accusing Lucas of stealing his money.
Nellie and Lucas later had a child together: Joey, who lives with the couple
and Selena in "the shacks," a poor section of town. When Selena
turned 14 years old, Lucas began to abuse her, impregnating her and leaving the
local doctor in a troublesome situation in which he decided to perform an
abortion. The doctor made Lucas leave town, and after she discovered this,
Nellie committed suicide by hanging. Leslie Harrington, the richest man in
town, was shattered when he lost his only son, Rodney, in a car accident.
Novelist
Barbara Delinsky, author of the fictional Looking for Peyton Place
(2006), summarized the storyline of Peyton Place on her website:
Peyton
Place opens in 1937. With the
introduction of the small New Hampshire town and its characters, the social strata
are clearly defined. Most noted among the well-to-do are Leslie Harrington,
owner of the mill, and his spoiled son Rodney, the good-hearted doctor Matthew
Swain and upstanding Seth Buswell, owner of the newspaper. The town's middle
class is represented by the book's two main characters, Constance MacKenzie and
her daughter Allison. The impoverished of the town are represented by Selena
Cross and her family. The town is a character itself, a seductively beautiful
facade that hides a plethora of ills... Constance, who gave birth to Allison in
New York after an affair with a married man and then returned to Peyton Place
pretending to be a widow, lives in fear that the truth of Allison's
illegitimacy will come out. Allison, who has few friends, dreams alternately
about her wonderful father and about being a famous writer. Meanwhile, Peyton
Place's power elite gather to discuss ways of manipulating zoning laws to rid
the town of tar-paper shacks. And Lucas Cross, owner of one such shack, is
abusive toward his stepdaughter Selena. Allison, who is desperate for a friend,
grows close to Selena, who is equally desperate to escape Lucas and poverty.
But the two girls have many differences. While Allison wants Selena to share
her love of bucolic little spots like Road's End, Selena wants only to spend
time at Allison's mother's dress shop and, increasingly, to talk with boys.
Moreover, when Allison finally gets a look inside the shack where Selena lives,
she is horrified by the squalor and the violence she sees in Lucas. Eventually,
Allison and Selena grow distant because of Selena's closeness with Ted Carter.
At the same time, a new high school principal arrives to catch the eye of
Allison's mother, Constance, and to dredge up forbidden thoughts.[6]
The
“Silver Lake” never mentioned in your Setting description was Belmont, NH.
Belmont is located right between two towns in the setting, Gilmanton and
Gilford, NH. Lake Winnisquam flows into Silver Lake.
· · Haralovich, Mary
Beth (1999). Television, History and American Culture. Duke University Press.
p. 77. ISBN 978-0-8223-2394-5.
· · Metalious, George
and O'Shea, June. The Girl from Peyton Place, Dell, 1965.
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