The Princess of 72nd Street
Elaine Kraf
(Author)
Melissa Broder
(Introduction by)
21,000+ Reviews
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Description
A provocative and thoroughly feminist "cult classic" (The New Yorker) about a smart and sensitive yet deeply troubled young woman fighting to live on her own terms--now returning to print for the first time in over a decade "Almost half a century after it was first published, The Princess of 72nd Street sounds like a contemporary cry for freedom from the expectations of others."--The Atlantic I am glad I have the radiance. This time I am wiser. No one will know. . . . The radiance drifts blue circles around my head. If I wanted to I could float up and through them. I am weightless. My brain is cool like rippling waves. Conflict does not exist. For a moment I cannot see--the lights are large orange flowers. Ellen has two lives. A single artist living alone on New York's Upper West Side in the 1970s, she periodically descends into episodes of what she calls "radiances." While under the influence of the radiance, she becomes Princess Esmeralda, and West 72nd Street becomes the kingdom over which she rules. Life as Esmeralda is a colorful, glorious, and liberating experience for Ellen, who, despite the chaos and stigma these episodes can bring, relishes the respite from the confines of the everyday. And yet those around her, particularly the men in her life, are threatened by her incarnation as Esmeralda, and by the freedom that it gives her. In what would turn out to be her final published work, Elaine Kraf tackles mental health and female agency in this utterly original, witty, and inventive novel. Provocative at the time of its publication in 1979 and thoroughly iconoclastic, The Princess of 72nd Street is a remarkable portrait of an unforgettable woman.
Product Details
Price
$17.00
$15.81
Publisher
Modern Library
Publish Date
August 06, 2024
Pages
160
Dimensions
5.0 X 7.9 X 0.5 inches | 0.22 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9780593731826
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About the Author
Elaine Kraf (1936-2013) was a writer and painter. She was the author of four published works of fiction--I Am Clarence (1969), The House of Madelaine (1971), Find Him! (1977), and The Princess of 72nd Street (1979)--as well as several unpublished novels, plays, and poetry collections. Kraf was the recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts awards, a 1971 fellowship at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, and a 1977 residency at Yaddo. She was born and lived in New York City.
Reviews
"If one were to imagine a perfect specimen of a 'forgotten classic' by a woman writer from the 1960s and '70s, you might come up with The Princess of 72nd Street. . . . . it's a slender, accomplished and frequently funny work told from the perspective of a lively and bruised female consciousness . . . Its first-person narration feels essayistic, full of bold declarations about heterosexual love, gender roles and aesthetics."--The Washington Post "Elaine Kraf's The Princess of 72nd Street lyrically details the seventh 'radiance' experienced by a young figure painter named Ellen who, during fits of seeming psychosis, believes herself to be the sovereign ruler of West 72nd between Broadway and Central Park. Ellen/Princess Esmerelda makes witty observations about creativity, femininity, and public life with a voice that feels startlingly modern."--NYLON "It's hard for me to believe I only just read this book for the first time this winter. And I'm happy for everyone else that it's getting reissued this year. The Princess of 72nd Street is a novel about mania, and how you can make the world beautiful for yourself through psychosis. I love the way Kraf writes, she jams so much into her sentences."--Sophie Kemp, Document Journal "A raggedy genius is finally queened, bringing a fairy-tale ending to this cracked, dark story of the old West Side."--Joshua Cohen, Pulitzer Prize-winning author "When a novelist tells a good story well, it becomes a good novel. When a novelist uses words as if they were sacred love, what is written becomes poetry. Elaine Kraf is a poet."--The New York Times Book Review "A frenetic and glittering manifesto, wherein a woman wrestles--or dances--with the most misunderstood parts of herself . . . a well-deserved reintroduction of what is bound to be a beloved classic for contemporary young women."--Olivia Gatwood, author of Whoever You Are, Honey "Kraf writes . . . about the habits of madness without trivializing the grimness and pain."--The Village Voice "For a novel that is in many ways about fantasy, there is a bracing wind of keen discernment that sweeps through, from the first pages to the last. It is one of the marvels of this book that Elaine Kraf manages to be so recklessly fantastical and so coolly perceptive at the same time."--Jen Silverman, author of There's Going to Be Trouble "There are astonishingly affecting contrasts of the sordid and sad, the detached and misaligned. The Princess of 72nd Street is a serious, important piece of contemporary fiction."--Booklist "An electric portrait of one woman's blazing unraveling. Kraf is one of literature's hidden gems--that rare writer who refuses to let us look away from her bright, transcendent suffering. Her work demands a place on your bookshelf right next to Plath and Ditlevsen."--Sarah Rose Etter, author of Ripe
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