Until he was thirty-two, Brooklyn-born Charlie Gordon - gentle, amiable, oddly engaging - had lived in a kind of mental twilight. He knew that knowledge itself was important, and he had learned to read and write after a fashion;but he also knew that he wasn't nearly so bright as all the people around him. There was even a white mouse named Algernon who in some ways was brighter than Charlie.

But an extraordinary operation had been performed upon Algernon. Algernon was now a very special mouse, a downright genius among mice.

Suppose Charlie underwent a similar operation...

So begins Daniel Keyes's strikingly original first novel. Won by Charlie from the start, the reader follows his great adventure with rapt attention, high hope, a mounting sense of triumph. And yet, beneath the surface, there is dread. The experiment may be too daring. Unpredictable dangers may lie ahead for Charlie and for Algernon...

In other versions, as a widely anthologized story and as a noteworthy television drama, Flowers for Algernon has fascinated millions. In this full-bodied, richly populated novel, its appeal is stronger than ever.
--front flap