The Man Who Loved Children (Twentieth Century Classics S.) - Softcover

Stead, Christina; Jarrell, Randall

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140181822 ISBN 13: 9780140181821

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 1989

Synopsis

The Man Who Loved Children is Christina Stead's masterpiece about family life. Set in Washington during the 1930s, Sam and Henny Pollit are a warring husband and wife. Their tempestuous marriage, aggravated by too little money, lies at the centre of Stead's satirical and brilliantly observed novel about the relations between husbands and wives, and parents and children. Sam, a scientist, uses words as weapons of attack and control on his children and is prone to illusions of power and influence that fail to extend beyond his family. His wife Henny, who hails from a wealthy Baltimore family, is disastrously impractical and enmeshed in her own fantasies of romance and vengeance. Much of the care of their six children is left to Louisa, Sam's 14-year-old daughter from his first marriage. Within this psychological battleground, Louisa must attempt to make a life of her own. First published in 1940, The Man Who Loved Children was hailed for its satiric energy. Now its originality is again lauded by novelist, Jonathan Franzen, in his illuminating new introduction.

About this title

Review

She could transmute personal experience into something of both social and psychological significance ... She was one of the great originals --The Times

From the Back Cover

Christina Stead’s finest and most famous novel, 'The Man Who Loved Children', is the story of the savage warfare between Henrietta, ‘a raging wreck of a woman, driven by horror, passion and contempt,’ and her husband Sam, whose impractical idealism has brought his family to near-ruin. At sea in the world of adults, Sam is a genius in the eyes of each of his five children – except for Louie, his gauche and brilliant elder daughter. Wise and all-seeing, Louie is forced to take drastic steps to save herself and her siblings from lasting tragedy...

At once an immediate and rhapsodic study of the intricacies and joys of family life and a dark and intense study of domestic terror, 'The Man Who Loved Children' is one of the century’s great originals.

“To open any book by Christina Stead is to be at once aware that one is in the presence of greatness. A profoundly serious, deeply accomplished and magically illuminating novelist, she restores to us the entire world in its infinite complexity and inexorable bitterness.”
ANGELA CARTER.

“'The Man Who Loved Children' is Stead’s finest and most finely balanced novel. A dark star among novelists, her work is of a verdigris brilliance, of a very fine perception and always of uncalculating honesty.”
'TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT.'

“The art of Christina Stead is individual, idiosyncratic, constantly challenging, emotionally and intellectually rewarding.”
'LISTENER.'

“Christina Stead is a formidable and entirely individual writer.”
'NEW STATESMAN.'

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0140181822
• ISBN 13: 9780140181821
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 528