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Nightmare Alley is a novel by American writer William Lindsay Gresham, published in 1946. It is a study of the lowest depths of showbiz and its sleazy inhabitants—the dark, shadowy world of a second-rate carnival filled with hustlers, scheming grifters, and Machiavellian femmes fatales.
- United States
- William Lindsay Gresham
- 1946
- Rinehart & Company
Kindle $10.99. Nightmare Alley begins with an extraordinary description of a carnival-show geek—alcoholic and abject and the object of the voyeuristic crowd’s gleeful disgust and derision—going about his work at a county fair. Young Stan Carlisle is working as a carny, and he wonders how a man could fall so low.
- (6.3K)
- Paperback
Apr 6, 2010 · As a portrait of the human condition, Nightmare Alley is a creepy, all-too-harrowing masterpiece.” —Michael Dirda, The Washington Post "The ‘nightmare’ of the title rings true, for this delirious and unstoppable novel . . . inverts the American dream. The plot turns the Horatio Alger myth on its head and the psychology leans on Freud ...
- NYRB Classics
- $15.95
Apr 6, 2010 · A classic suspense novel about a carnival carny who becomes a spiritualist and a con man, based on the 2021 film by Guillermo del Toro. Read the book, watch the trailer, and download the reading group guide on NYRB's website.
- New York Review Books
Apr 6, 2011 · Nightmare Alley begins with an extraordinary description of a carnival-show geek—alcoholic and abject and the object of the voyeuristic crowd’s gleeful disgust and derision—going about his work at a county fair. Young Stan Carlisle is working as a carny, and he wonders how a man could fall so low.
- $10.99
Dec 9, 2021 · Nightmare Alley was American writer William Lindsay Gresham's first book, and was a bestseller, subsequently adapted into a film in 1947. The novel was in part inspired by conversations...
Nightmare Alley begins with an extraordinary description of a carnival-show geek—alcoholic and abject and the object of the voyeuristic crowd’s gleeful disgust and derision—going about his work at a county fair. Young Stan Carlisle is working as a carny, and he wonders how a man could fall so low.
