User:Kristenknoerzer/sandbox

Stoner notes

Lead: Set in dusty heartland one generation before it was written. Opens with a short prologue, describing, in terse, obit-like prose, the life and death of an unbeloved assistant professor of English at a provincial university. It mentions that the only evidence of his existence is a medieval manuscript donated to the library by his colleagues in his name. (New Yorker)

Described by author as "escape into reality" (Intro)

Background: Translated by French writer Anna Galvada (New Yorker)

Reception: Tim Kreider contrasted to Great Gatsby, described protagonist as "unglamorous, hardworking academic." "It’s possible “Stoner” is doomed to be forever beloved mostly among critics, academics, and authors, because at its heart is the ineffable fetish that afflicts them all: 'the love of literature, of language, of the mystery of the mind and heart showing themselves in the minute, strange, and unexpected combinations of letters and words, in the blackest and coldest print.' " (New Yorker)

Received little notice and sold a meagre 2000 copies (Canberra Times)

"Neither filled with the epic adventures of Ishmael or the burning desire of Gatsby, Stoner nonetheless finds himself at the heart of a novel that belongs in the discussion of the United States' finest." (Canberra Times)

"Stoner famously - at least among writers - opens with 200 words summarising its hero's apparently inconsequential life and then spends 200 gripping pages repeating exactly the same story. But of course the 200 words and the 200 pages do not really tell the same story" - John Biguenet, an award-winning American playwright and novelist (Canberra Times)

Upon his death in 1994, Williams' New York Times obituary offered a single reference to Stoner, which fell out of print during the author's lifetime but remained a cult favourite, mostly among writers. The tipping point came last year, when bestselling novelist Anna Gavalda (Hunting and Gathering) translated the novel into French. In a 2013 interview with National Public Radio in the US, Gavalda proclaimed Stoner more than simply a book for people who like to read: "It's a book for people who need to read, for whom reading is vital. It's for people who can't live without books, culture and knowledge." Nearly half a century after its initial publication, Stoner has become a bestseller across much of Europe. (Canberra Times)

Style: Academic novel with prewar values (New Yorker)

"A novel far removed from typical historical fiction, Augustus seeks to unveil the inner lives of its characters through its kaleidoscopic passages." (Canberra Times)

Themes: Marking of evil with deformity "like something out of fairy tales or Dick Tracy." "Part of Stoner's greatness is that it sees life whole and as it is, without delusion yet without despair." "Literature is the true religion of “Stoner,” and it is this that ultimately redeems Stoner’s life." (New Yorker)

"The many forms love takes and the forces that oppose it" (Intro)

Plot: From the prologue: "William Stoner entered the University of Missouri as a freshman in the year 1910, at the age of nineteen. Eight years later, during the height of World War I, he received his Doctor of Philosophy degree and accepted an instructorship at the same University, where he taught until his death in 1956. He did not rise above the rank of assistant professor, and few students remembered him with any sharpness after they had taken his courses."

Characters: William Stoner - protagonist whose life and death is told through course of prologue and novel, an only child (intro), attended University in Columbia and worked on farms, assistant professor of English, writer, and avid reader; Edith, Stoner's wife - a banker's daughter (intro) who was raised in an emotional vacuum and is unknowingly cruel; Stoner's daughter; Hollis Lomax - Stoner’s colleague and enemy who kisses Edith, a hunchback; Charles Walker, Lomax’s protégé, has a crippled arm and leg (New Yorker); Archer Sloane, Stoner's mentor who inspired him to study literature; Stoner's mistress - name unknown, Stoner's colleague, a young teacher (Intro)