# The Subterraneans

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/jack-kerouac/the-subterraneans/9780141184890

![The Subterraneans](https://quivercdn.com/covers/penguin-classics/jack-kerouac/the-subterraneans_978-01-4118-489-0.jpg?v=2026-04-23%2012%3A10%3A18)

- Book: [The Subterraneans](https://www.bookquiver.com/jack-kerouac/the-subterraneans) ([The Subterraneans.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/jack-kerouac/the-subterraneans.md))
- Authors: [Jack Kerouac](https://www.bookquiver.com/jack-kerouac)
- Publisher: penguin_classics
- ISBN: 978-01-4118-489-0
- Pages: 112
- Published: 2020-02-06
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: Softcover

## Description

The Subterraneans haunt the bars and clubs of San Francisco, surviving on a diet of booze and benzedrine, Proust and Verlaine. Living amongst them is Leo, an aspiring writer, and Mardou, half-Indian, half-Negro, beautiful and neurotic. Their bittersweet and ill-starred love affair sees Kerouac at his most evocative. Many regard this as being Kerouac's most touching and tender book.