Dark Laughter (1925) is a novel by Sherwood Anderson. Inspired by
his own decision to abandon his family and career in order to
establish himself as a professional writer, Anderson explores the
guilts, routines, desires, and disappointments driving the lives of
many Americans in the early-twentieth century. Although he is known
today for his story collection Winesburg, Ohio, a pioneering work
of Modernist fiction admired for its plainspoken language and
psychological detail, Anderson's Dark Laughter was his only
bestseller. Inspired by the stream of consciousness style of James
Joyce's Ulysses, Anderson produced a novel that remains
controversial for its depictions of race, class, and sexuality.
>"Bruce Dudley stood near a window that was covered with flecks
of paint and through which could be faintly seen, first a pile of
empty boxes, then a more or less littered factory yard running down
to a steep bluff, and beyond the brown waters of the Ohio River."
Bruce, a factory worker in Old Harbor, Indiana, is your average
working man. He lives a simple life, keeps a low profile, spends
his money at the bar with his friends, and tries not to get fired.
As far as anyone knows, there is nothing special about him
whatsoever; he is a drifter who found his way to Old Harbor by
chance and settled down to make himself some money. But Bruce was
born in Old Harbor; raised on its streets and educated in its
schools, he lived most of his life by another name: John Stockton,
Indiana native turned Chicago reporter. Married with kids, he was
happy as far as anyone could tell. Up until the day he left, he was
still John Stockton, but the change that came over him late in life
was too great to resist. He needed a new name, a new life. He
wanted to start over in the place where he began. When an
opportunity comes to work as a gardener for the factory owner's
wife, Bruce soon finds it impossible to resist her brazen advances.
Dark Laughter is a tale of guilt, identity, and shame from master
storyteller Sherwood Anderson. With a beautifully designed cover
and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Sherwood
Anderson's Dark Laughter is a classic of American literature
reimagined for modern readers.
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