The Man Who Loved Children (Everyman's Library) - Hardcover

Stead, Christina

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679443649 ISBN 13: 9780679443643

Publisher: Everymans Library, 1995

Synopsis

The Man Who Loved Children, an acclaimed twentieth-century classic, is an unforgettable portrait of a magnificently dysfunctional family.

The Pollits--Sam and Henny and their swarming household of children and animals--inhabit an America wracked by the Great Depression, but are even more deeply embedded in a world of their own making. This is an intense, suffocating, theatrical, all-encompassing world, poor in material goods but rich in emotion and language. Manipulative, hyperbolic cheer from the haplessly egotistical father is matched by floods of exuberantly venomous invective from his infuriated wife, while Louie, the mistreated, love-hungry little girl at the heart of the story, is precocious and tenacious in equal measure, an ugly duckling we find ourselves fiercely rooting for.

Everything about the Pollits--their excesses of energy and indulgence, their closeness, their bitterness, their emotional fireworks--is extreme, but the paradoxical marvel of Christina Stead's masterpiece stems from its power to convey out of such extremes an utterly convincing depiction of the central relationships of human experience.

(Book Jacket Status: Not Jacketed)

About this title

Review:

"This crazy, gorgeous family novel is one of the great literary achievements of the twentieth century. I carry it in my head the way I carry childhood memories; the scenes are of such precise horror and comedy that I feel I didn't read the book so much as live it."--Jonathan Franzen, author of" The Corrections"
"A story of life, faithfully plotted, clearly told, largely peopled with real souls, genuine problems; it is realistically set, its intention and drive are openly and fully revealed; it is also a work of absolute originality."--Elizabeth Hardwick
"It must be a classic, for there are very few novels in English that are as large and as beautifully written."--Robert Lowell
"One of the best novels of this century."--Walter Clemons, " Newsweek"

This crazy, gorgeous family novel is one of the great literary achievements of the twentieth century. I carry it in my head the way I carry childhood memories; the scenes are of such precise horror and comedy that I feel I didn't read the book so much as live it. "Jonathan Franzen, author of The Corrections"

A story of life, faithfully plotted, clearly told, largely peopled with real souls, genuine problems; it is realistically set, its intention and drive are openly and fully revealed; it is also a work of absolute originality. "Elizabeth Hardwick"

It must be a classic, for there are very few novels in English that are as large and as beautifully written. "Robert Lowell"

One of the best novels of this century. "Walter Clemons, Newsweek""

This crazy, gorgeous family novel is one of the great literary achievements of the twentieth century. I carry it in my head the way I carry childhood memories; the scenes are of such precise horror and comedy that I feel I didn't read the book so much as live it. Jonathan Franzen, author of The Corrections

A story of life, faithfully plotted, clearly told, largely peopled with real souls, genuine problems; it is realistically set, its intention and drive are openly and fully revealed; it is also a work of absolute originality. Elizabeth Hardwick

It must be a classic, for there are very few novels in English that are as large and as beautifully written. Robert Lowell

One of the best novels of this century. Walter Clemons, Newsweek

"

"This crazy, gorgeous family novel is one of the great literary achievements of the twentieth century. I carry it in my head the way I carry childhood memories; the scenes are of such precise horror and comedy that I feel I didn't read the book so much as live it." --Jonathan Franzen, author of The Corrections

"A story of life, faithfully plotted, clearly told, largely peopled with real souls, genuine problems; it is realistically set, its intention and drive are openly and fully revealed; it is also a work of absolute originality." --Elizabeth Hardwick

"It must be a classic, for there are very few novels in English that are as large and as beautifully written." --Robert Lowell

"One of the best novels of this century." --Walter Clemons, Newsweek

From the Back Cover:

Every family lives in an evolving story, told by all its members, inside a landscape of portentous events and characters. Their view of themselves is not shared by people looking from outside in--visitors, and particularly not relatives--for they have to see something pretty humdrum, even if, as in this case, the fecklessness them complain of is extreme.

About this edition

• Publisher: Everymans Library
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0679443649
• ISBN 13: 9780679443643
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 529