num_pages: 192
description: Leo Percepied, aspiring writer and self-styled free-wheeling bum, gravitates to the Subterraneans, impoverished intellectuals who haunt the bars and clubs of San Francisco, surviving on a diet of booze and benzedrine, Proust and Verlaine. Living among them is Mardou Fox, beautiful and a little crazy, whose dark eyes, full of suffering and sweetness, find recognition in Leo. But, afraid of his growing involvement, Leo sets out to destroy their love. Exuberant and melancholy, Kerouac's spontaneous prose flows across the pages. Written in three days, The Subterraneans is, like all Kerouac's work, closely related to his own life while encapsulating his great vision of America.
language: English
title: The Subterraneans
titlecomplete: The Subterraneans
characters: Frank Carmody, Leo Percepied, Julian Alexander, Sam Vedder
genres: 20th Century, American, Americana, Literary Fiction, Novels, Literature, Classics, The United States Of America, Romance, Fiction
ratings_count: 15243
places: San Francisco, California
series: Duluoz Legend
publisher: Penguin Books Ltd