Novel
Young Lonigan
James T. Farrell · 1932
Synopsis
Chicago, June 1916. Studs Lonigan, fourteen, eldest of the four children of Patrick and Mary Lonigan, leaves the parish school on graduation day; his father intends him for a Catholic high school, his mother would like to make a priest of him. A fight won against Weary Reilly earns him a reputation as a tough, and he neglects his schoolmates for the rougher gang from the pool hall, which roughs up Black or Jewish children passing through its territory. He spends an afternoon in a tree in the park with Lucy Scanlan, then drifts away from her out of pride.
Context
The novel was published by Vanguard in 1932 with an introduction by the sociologist Frederic Thrasher, and the dust jacket reserves it for physicians, psychologists, sociologists, social workers and teachers. Two further volumes followed in 1934 and 1935. The trilogy was prosecuted in 1948 in Philadelphia, where five booksellers were charged and where Farrell came to testify; Judge Curtis Bok delivered a judgment favourable to the books in 1949. Farrell had studied in Chicago when the university's sociology was concerned with neighbourhoods and youth delinquency.
Who it is for
A short novel, the first part of a trilogy. Translated into French by Pierre-Jean Robert, published by Gallimard in 1934.
Prizes and reception
The trilogy it opens is ranked twenty-ninth among the hundred best novels of the century by the Modern Library; the reception in 1932 was respectful.
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