Peyton Place (novel)

Peyton Place is a 1956 novel by Grace Metalious. Selling sixty thousand copies within the first ten days of its release, it was publishing's first "blockbuster," and remained on the New York Times best seller list for fifty-nine weeks. The main plot follows the lives of three women – lonely and repressed Constance Mackenzie, her illegitimate daughter Allison, and her employee Selena Cross, a girl from "across the tracks" – and how they come to terms with their identity as women and sexual beings in a small New England town. Hypocrisy, social inequities, and class privilege are recurring themes in a tale that includes incest, abortion, adultery, lust, and murder. Peyton Place became a common catchphrase to describe any place known for its sordid atmosphere or nefarious doings.