7.4 /10 1 Votes7.4
Country United States Publisher Covent Garden Press Pages 133 pp | 3.7/5 Goodreads Language English Publication date January 1973 Originally published January 1973 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Genres Novel, Speculative fiction Similar William S Burroughs books, Novels | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Port of Saints is a novel by Beat Generation author William S. Burroughs. First published in 1973, it was the last major work Burroughs wrote during his self-imposed exile in Europe during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
One of Burroughs' shorter novels, the book utilizes characters from numerous earlier works, and also introduces characters that would re-appear later in the Burroughs canon. Described as an "erotic fantasy", the novel (as explained by Burroughs scholar Jenny Skerl) consists of several plotlines shuffled together, with the "main" plot loosely dealing with a group of wild boys that seek to rewrite history by travelling through time to various times and places.
Burroughs spent the rest of the decade writing shorter works and essays. His following novel was Cities of the Red Night, published in 1981. The same year Port of Saints was released, Burroughs also published the short story collection Exterminator! and several chapbooks.
A revised edition of the novel was published in 1980.