Revolutionary Road

Introduction

Richard Yates’s novel Revolutionary Road was published in 1961 and was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1962, along with Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 and Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer, which won the award. The book was Yates’s first novel, though he had worked as a journalist and ghostwriter, writing some of John F. Kennedy’s speeches following his service in the US Army during World War II. In a 1976 interview for the literary journal Ploughshares, Yates commented about the underlying theme of the novel as an indictment of American society in the 1950s, when there was a strong urge for conformity and desperation for safety and security at any price. In 2008, Sam Mendes directed a film version of the book also titled, Revolutionary Road, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. This guide follows the 2007 Vintage Classics edition of Revolutionary Road.

Content Warning: The novel’s female protagonist, April Wheeler, dies as a result of a self-induced abortion. Thus, the topic of abortion is discussed within a narrative context.

Plot Summary

Frank and April Wheeler are a young couple with two kids.