1. If members of the group are old enough to have read Peyton Place when it first came out in the mid-fifties, they might discuss the word-of-mouth gossip about the novel at the time.

2. Peyton Place in many ways is "the" novel of the 1950s and contains many of the concerns and contradictions that the post-war culture grappled with durin the decade. What do these issues seem to be?

3. Critics have described the film version of the novel as perhaps the "quintessential" small-town movie of the period. How was Peyton Place, the movie, quintessential?

4. David Halberstam in his book The Fifties discusses Peyton Place as a novel which overcame its sensational reputation and now can be read for its prescient depiction of women during the period. What does the book say about gender?

5. In what other ways can the sensational elements of the book, which were tame...