An Infinite Summer

An Infinite SummerPublished: Faber, 1979. ISBN 0 571 11343 5 [hardback; pp.208]. Currently out of print. The first edition is shown here. The British paperback reprint was from Pan (1980). Translations exist, in some cases with crossover to Dream Archipelago stories. No US edition remains, although Scribner published a handsome hardcover edition in 1979.

Awards: Contains “Palely Loitering” and “The Watched”, both Hugo Award nominees. The title story is CP’s most anthologized work.

Three of the stories in this collection are in the Dream Archipelago sequence, and were later re-collected, in slightly revised versions, in the book of that name. Confusingly, at least two translated versions of this book were given the “Dream Archipelago” title.

An Infinite Summer consists of five long stories about desire and love, dreams of the past, distant islands, lost happiness, and growing up. [Includes: Introduction by CP. Stories: “An Infinite Summer”, “Whores”, “Palely Loitering”, “The Negation”, “The Watched”.]