Farewell Summer

by Ray Bradbury Narrated by Robert Fass

Overview

The master of American fiction returns to the territory of his beloved classic, Dandelion Wine-a sequel 50 years in the making

Some summers refuse to end . . .

October 1st, the end of summer. The air is still warm, but fall is in the air. Thirteen-year-old Douglas Spaulding, his younger brother Tom, and their friends do their best to take advantage of these last warm days, rampaging through the ravine, tormenting the girls . . . and declaring war on the old men who run Green Town, IL. For the boys know that Colonel Quartermain and his cohorts want nothing more than to force them to put away their wild ways, to settle down, to grow up. If only, the boys believe, they could stop the clock atop the courthouse building. Then, surely, they could hold onto the last days of summer . . . and their youth.

But the old men were young once, too. And Quartermain, crusty old guardian of the school board and town curfew, is bent on teaching the boys a lesson. What he doesn't know is that before the last leaf turns, the boys will give him a gift: they will teach him the importance of not being afraid of letting go.

Editorial Reviews

Ray Bradbury's semi-autobiographical novel Dandelion Wine was written in "patches" from 1946 to its 1957 publication. This "extension," arriving almost 50 years later, might be viewed as a fitting conclusion to that intermittent process. Readers who grew up sharing up the boyhood of Douglas Spaulding can now cast nostalgic eyes back on his maturation and on a courthouse clock that refuses to stand still.... A masterpiece revisited and completed.

Kirkus Reviews

Bradbury has yet another lesson to share about growing up and growing old. It's Oct. 1, and the boys of summer are fighting one final battle. Brothers Doug and Tom Spaulding are squeezing the last bit of their freedom out of every day, but school is upon them. Apart from time and the change of season, their primary enemy is Calvin Quartermain, gray-haired member of the school board. And then, with one burst of gunfire from a cap pistol, Doug finds himself the leader of a revolution. For the boys and their sidekicks, it's a revolution against growing up. For the opposition, it's a war against growing old. Skirmishes begin, with both sides suffering casualties in one form or another. Doug and curmudgeonly Quartermain are decades apart in age, but they have a common heritage. The small-town setting is really just window-dressing for the two main characters. The Civil War looms large in this story, framing each section, with Doug carrying the bulk of the narrative. Like Peter Pan, he is the boy who doesn't want to grow old. He's haunted by strange dreams, feelings he does not understand. In his mind, all he can do is lash out at the world. For Quartermain, the battle of wits is a challenge to his manhood. He has the most to lose. In an afterword, Bradbury reveals that this novel was originally part of Dandelion Wine (1957). There's a young boy inside every old man, and Bradbury is no exception. A thin work, heavily reliant on dialogue, but one that serves as an intriguing coda to one of Bradbury's classics.

From the Publisher

[B]eautiful imagery and well-crafted prose.” — Chicago Sun-Times

“An intriguing coda to one of Bradbury’s classics. ” — Kirkus Reviews

“Creepier than [Dandelion Wine] but retains the elegiac tone and lovely descriptions of 1920s boyhood.” — Library Journal

“A touching meditation on memories, aging, and the endless cycle of birth and death.” — Booklist

“Poignant, wise...Bradbury’s mature but fresh return to his beloved early writing conveys a depth of feeling.” — Publishers Weekly

“Bradbury remains a master of inspired storytelling . . . The long-awaited, rewarding conclusion to an American classic.” — Rocky Mountain News

Chicago Sun-Times

[B]eautiful imagery and well-crafted prose.

Booklist

A touching meditation on memories, aging, and the endless cycle of birth and death.

Rocky Mountain News

Bradbury remains a master of inspired storytelling . . . The long-awaited, rewarding conclusion to an American classic.

Booklist

A touching meditation on memories, aging, and the endless cycle of birth and death.

Chicago Sun-Times

[B]eautiful imagery and well-crafted prose.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173122865
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	07/28/2020
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

Farewell Summer LP

---

By Ray Bradbury

HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Copyright © 2007 Ray Bradbury
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9780061470950

---

Chapter One

There are those days which seem a taking in of breath which, held, suspends the whole earth in its waiting. Some summers refuse to end.

So along the road those flowers spread that, when touched, give down a shower of autumn rust. By every path it looks as if a ruined circus had passed and loosed a trail of ancient iron at every turning of a wheel. The rust was laid out everywhere, strewn under trees and by riverbanks and near the tracks themselves where once a locomotive had gone but went no more. So flowered flakes and railroad track together turned to moulderings upon the rim of autumn.

"Look, Doug," said Grandpa, driving into town from the farm. Behind them in the Kissel Kar were six large pumpkins picked fresh from the patch. "See those flowers?"

"Yes, sir."

"Farewell summer, Doug. That's the name of those flowers. Feel the air? August come back. Farewell summer."

"Boy," said Doug, "that's a sad name."

Grandma stepped into her pantry and felt the wind blowing from the west. The yeast was rising in the bowl, a sumptuous head, the head of an alien rising from the yield of other years. She touched the swell beneath the muslin cap. It was the earth on the morn before the arrival of Adam. It was the mornafter the marriage of Eve to that stranger in the garden bed.

Grandma looked out the window at the way the sunlight lay across the yard and filled the apple trees with gold and echoed the same words:

"Farewell summer. Here it is, October 1st. Temperature's 82. Season just can't let go. The dogs are out under the trees. The leaves won't turn. A body would like to cry and laughs instead. Get up to the attic, Doug, and let the mad maiden aunt out of the secret room."

"Is there a mad maiden aunt in the attic?" asked Doug.

"No, but there should be."

Clouds passed over the lawn. And when the sun came out, in the pantry, Grandma almost whispered, Summer, farewell.

On the front porch, Doug stood beside his grandfather, hoping to borrow some of that far sight, beyond the hills, some of the wanting to cry, some of the ancient joy. The smell of pipe tobacco and Tiger shaving tonic had to suffice. A top spun in his chest, now light, now dark, now moving his tongue with laughter, now filling his eyes with salt water.

He surveyed the lake of grass below, all the dandelions gone, a touch of rust in the trees, and the smell of Egypt blowing from the far east.

"Think I'll go eat me a doughnut and take me a nap," Doug said.

Continues...

---

Excerpted from Farewell Summer LP by Ray Bradbury Copyright © 2007 by Ray Bradbury. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---

Videos