In the small New England town of Peyton Place secrets are preserved for a lifetime, and skeletons are kept firmly in the closet. But the secrets of the town begin to unravel slowly one sunny afternoon when sixteen-year-old Selena Cross visits Dr. Matthew Swain to confirm an unwanted pregnancy. Across town, Selena's employer, Constance MacKenzie models a high, yet hypocritical, moral standard for her secretly illegitimate daughter, Allison-until she falls in love with Tomas Makris and can no longer deny her own physical desire. Dreaming of literary greatness and deeply hurt by her mother's betrayal, Allison moves to New York, where she receives both a literary and a sexual education at the hands of Brad Holmes, her literary agent.
Published in 1956, Grace Metalious's Peyton Place was an enormous success upon publication, selling sixty thousand copies within its first ten days on sale, and staying on the New York Times bestseller list for fifty-nine weeks. The novel was adapted as both a film starring Lana Turner, and a television series starring Mia Farrow. The story of the small-minded inhabitants of Peyton Place is continued in Return to Peyton Place.
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