About this title: "Thus with professional ability, does an accomplished author win for an unappealing hero the ungrudging admiration of his audience; and thus does character unfold with unaccustomed intensity ... a first rate piece of work". -- Virginia Quarterly Review
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Very Good. 1590171993 Paperback, Condition: Very Good; this book is in very good condition with light curve to the spine / light reading creases to the covers. read more
Description: New. Orders placed after Dec. 7 cannot be guaranteed delivery before Christmas. GREAT BUY. Brand New From US Distributor. WE ARE A 5 STAR SELLER with OVER 3, 500, 000 BOOKS SOLD. read more
Description: Like New. New York Review of Books, TPB, 1965, 2003 reprint edition., 3rd printing. Appears never read, clean, tight binding, no markings or highlighting, minimal shelf wear. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780099445098ISBN:0099445093
Description: New. **FAST SHIPPING FROM UK** We aim to post all books within 1-2 working days. All orders are fully guaranteed and sent from our warehouse in the United Kingdom Email support for all customers. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780099445098ISBN:0099445093
Description: Good. Book cover is a little worn, We aim to post all books within 1-3 working days. All orders are fully guaranteed and sent from our warehouse in the United Kingdom Email support for all customers. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: University of Arkansas Press
Date Published: 1988
ISBN-13:9781557280299ISBN:1557280290
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Small split at lower spine. Mild creasing and wear. General Fiction section. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 283 p. John Williams Collection. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: PB
Publisher: Univ of Arkansas Pr, Fayetteville, Arkansas, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1988
ISBN-13:9781557280299ISBN:1557280290
Description: Good. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall 1557280290 Fiction A reprint of Williams's remarkable 1965 novel. A compelling look at early 20th century higher education in addition to rich characterizations and seamless prose. Clean text, sound binding. 278 pages. Contact Steels for more classic fiction. Bookseller since 1973. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Random House Inc
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9781590171998ISBN:1590171993
Description: New. William Stoner is born at the end of the nineteenth century into a dirt-poor Missouri farming family. Sent to the state university to study agronomy, he instead falls in love with English literature and embraces a scholar's life, so different from th... read more
"This is the most straight-forward linear narrative type of novel I've read in the past year. So at first, I was not impressed. But I soon realized that the novel is impressive precisely because it is able to be so damn linear, the writing style so damn plain, and the characters so damn dull and yet... and yet it manages to make me continue reading on, driven by what I don't know. There is a constant melancholy through the book, but also its points of light.
So that was the first 100 pages or so. Then it gets good. I mean, really good. But I don't know why. Nothing that much changes, it is just events in the life of this guy. But I start to really care about him, or really understand him... or something. Let me just put it out there: this is a depressing novel. It is a devastating novel. It made me cry. But it is not one where horrible thing after horrible thing happens to good people. Many of the things that happen are... yes, horrible, but also very normal... they are more like small dissappointments.
John Williams is able to kill you softly with his immovable patience, his prose which is like the most patient thing in the world, and which builds and builds by inching closer and closer to the precipice. Precisely because he is not flashy. Precisely because he is so restrained in his prose, that you never realize it when you're right on the edge of the cliff and you're like "wait, how did I get here?"
Also: I don't mean to suggest that his prose is boring. His prose is beautiful. But straight forward. And very functional. It is in service to the subject matter. And the fact that it is not flashy 95% of the time makes it all the more devastating the other 5% of the time, when he floors it as in this passage:
"Years later it was to occur to him that in that hour and a half on that December evening of their first extended time together, she told him more about herself than she ever told him again. And when it was over, he felt that they were strangers in a way that he had not thought they would be, and he knew that he was in love." p53
or in this passage:
"It was a passion neither of the mind nor of the flesh; rather, it was a force that comprehended them both, as if they were but the matter of love, its specific substance. To a woman or to a poem, it said simply: Look! I am alive." p 250
I've rambled long enough. Let me just say a few more things, because I'm a bit delirious. The characters. They are complex and blameless. That is part of the devastation. You can't blame them for the decisions they make. Each one, even the ones that make our protagonist's life hell, you can't blame them because the writer makes you understand (slowly) why they are the way they are. What drives each character to drive each other mad. I read on one of these goodreads reviews someone said "It only troubles me that every single thing that Stoner thinks and says and does seems so incredibly right, or at least perfectly understandable, on first reading." That's what I mean. He didn't do anything wrong. Everything he does is understandable. He was just being himself the best way he knew how. And so was every character in this book."
"I came across this book by chance when I heard that John McGahern had written an introduction. Prior to John's passing in 2006 he wrote an article in the Observer about this book. Apparently he had been proselytizing the greatness of "Stoner" for some years and I had to investigate. I had not heard of either the book or the author and it was with great joy and surprise I read it... twice, back to back! The story is simple but the writing and the narrative pace and attention to detail is anything but simple. Without giving anything away the end of the book is wonderful but also heartbreaking. This is a book to which i will return again and again to acquaint myself further with a very special and unique character. It is with a frustrated and aching wish that I could somehow change Stoner's path and destiny but in lies the greatness and inevitability of his life. That this book can leave you so emotionally attached to the main character speaks volumes for the great but little know gift of the author John Williams."
"William Stoner is born at the end of the nineteenth century into a dirt-poor Missouri farming family. Sent to the state university to study agronomy, he instead falls in love with English literature and embraces a scholar's life, so different from the hardscrabble existence he has known. And yet as the years pass, Stoner encounters a succession of disappointments: marriage into a "proper" family estranges him from his parents; his career is stymied; his wife and daughter turn coldly away from him; a transforming experience of new love ends under threat of scandal. Driven ever deeper within himself, Stoner rediscovers the stoic silence of his forebears and confronts an essential solitude.John Williams's luminous and deeply moving novel is a work of quiet perfection. William Stoner emerges from it not only as an archetypal American, but as an unlikely existential hero, standing, like a figure in a painting by Edward Hopper, in stark relief against an unforgiving world.
*This book was so beautifully written that I hated finishing it. The kind of lyrical prose that makes reading such a pleasure is contained in this book. I found the story to be very sad, but I loved the characters immediately. I fell in love with the character of William Stoner immediately and deep within my heart, wished that his life could have been happier. Shear pleasure in reading rates this a 5 out of 5. It made me realize the different paths that people take, versus the path that they could have chosen. William Stoner loved literature and teaching so much that he chose his own path and not the one his parents had destined him to. His wife and his daughter were both a disappointment to me, but Stoner was able to deal with it and carry on with his love of literature and teaching. I wish he could have ended up with Katherine Driscoll, but this was a different time, a different place and a different world so he could not. I will always remember this book as being among the finest I have had the pleasure of reading."
"Stoner is a simple book, as many great books are.
The story is the life of William Stoner, the son of poor farm folk. Sent to university to study agriculture, Stoner discovers his calling as a teacher of English literature. Told in prose that is as plain, honest and powerful as the character it describes, the book shows how by following his dreams and staying true to his principles Stoner is made to suffer. Cut off from advancement in his university because of a personal clash with the department head, Stoner both despairs and perseveres- ultimately finding his passion again. Likewise he endures a loveless marriage until, however briefly, his is allowed to be fully alive again.
I cannot use such worn out words and phrases as "inspirational" and "a testament to the endurance of the human spirit"- for these descriptions have been hijacked by the worst pap of inferior writing which dominates book clubs and bestseller lists- yet Stoner is both these things. It rings true in the heart of the reader with quiet, simple insistence.
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