Chimera (John Barth Novel) (Paperback)

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Chimera is a 1972 postmodern novel by John Barth composed of three loosely connected novellas. The novellas are Dunyazadiad, Perseid and Bellerophoniad, the titles of which eponymously refer to the mythical characters Dunyazad, Perseus and Bellerophon, the last of whom slew the Chimera. This work exemplifies postmodernism, with several Q&A sessions and three diagrams (all in Bellerophoniad). Chimera won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1973. The Dunyazadiad is a retelling of the framing story of Scheherazade, the famed storyteller of the One Thousand and One Nights. The second novella entitled Perseid follows the middle aged Greek hero Perseus in his struggle to obtain immortality. The final novella, Bellerophoniad, chronicles the story of Bellerophon, yet another ancient Greek hero.