Separate Peace, A, is a novel by the American author John Knowles. It was Knowles’s first novel, published in 1959.
A Separate Peace is set at Devon School, an elite boys preparatory school in New Hampshire, in 1942 and 1943, during World War II (1939-1945). The war in subtle ways provides the background for the story. The novel examines with psychological insight the friendship between two boys at the school. Phineas, nicknamed Finny, is a popular and outgoing athlete. Gene Forrester is more intellectual and reserved. The story is narrated by Gene, looking back as an adult on events that occurred at the school when he was a 16-year-old student. The novel sensitively traces Gene’s increasing maturity and the complex elements that bond the friendship between him and Finny. The backdrop of World War II strongly influences the atmosphere of the story.
In spite of his close relationship with Finny, Gene is jealous of his friend’s athletic skills and his carefree outlook on life. Gene causes Finny to fall from a tree, and Finny breaks his leg, ending his athletic career. Later, Brinker Hadley, a classmate of Gene and Finny’s, organizes a mock trial to determine Gene’s responsibility for the accident. “Leper” Lepellier, another student, implies as a witness that Gene was to blame for Finny’s fall. However, Finny runs away before the matter is settled and reinjures his leg. Finny unexpectedly dies during surgery.
Knowles based A Separate Peace on his experiences at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. He adapted the novel from his short story “Phineas.” A Separate Peace was adapted into a film in 1972 and a cable television movie in 2004. Knowles wrote a sequel, Peace Breaks Out (1981).
