The Pale King is an unfinished novel by David Foster Wallace, published posthumously on April 15, 2011. After Wallace's suicide on September 12, 2008, a manuscript and associated computer files were found by his widow, Karen Green, and his agent, Bonnie Nadell. That material was compiled by his friend and editor Michael Pietsch into the form that was eventually published. Wallace had been working on the novel for over a decade. Even incomplete, The Pale King is a long work, with 50 chapters of varying length totaling over 500 pages.
Read more about The Pale King: Overview, Writing, Editing, and Publication, Themes, Reception, Awards and Honors, Published Excerpts, "Work in Process: Reading David Foster Wallace's The Pale King"
Famous quotes containing the words pale and/or king:
“With astonishment Aschenbach noticed that the boy was entirely beautiful. His countenance, pale and gracefully reserved, was surrounded by ringlets of honey-colored hair, and with its straight nose, its enchanting mouth, its expression of sweet and divine gravity, it recalled Greek sculpture of the noblest period.”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)
“The firelight of a long, blind, dreaming story
Lingers upon your lips; and I have seen
Firm, fixed forever in your closing eyes,
The Corn King beckoning to his Spring Queen.”
—Randall Jarrell (1914–1965)