A Fine and Private Place
core novel 1960 A Fine and Private Place
Record
| First published | 1960 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.99 (4,542 ratings, collected 2026-09-14) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9781892391469 |
Synopsis
A Fine and Private Place, published in 1960, is set in the fictional Yorkchester Cemetery in the Bronx, where Jonathan Rebeck, a former pharmacist who has lived there in secret and in poverty for nineteen years, survives partly on sandwiches stolen for him by a talking raven and spends his days in quiet conversation with the recently dead, who linger as ghosts before their minds and memories eventually fade along with their bodies. His solitary routine is disturbed by the arrival of two new spirits, Michael Morgan, a schoolteacher uncertain whether his death was murder or suicide, and Laura Durand, a bookshop clerk killed by a truck, who begin to fall in love despite their ghostly state. Rebeck's secret existence is further threatened when Mrs.
Where it sits
- Universe: A Fine and Private Place
- Series: not part of a registered series (standalone work within its universe)
- Author: Peter S. Beagle
Notes
- ISBN recorded is the Tachyon Publications 2007 edition, with the author's revisions; the 1960 Viking first edition predates ISBNs.
Sources
← A Fine and Private Place dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.