A masterly work from a writer with “the uncanny ability to give us a cinemascopic vision of her America” ( National Review ), A Garden of Earthly Delights is the opening stanza in what would become one of the most powerful and engrossing story arcs in literature.Joyce Carol Oates’s Wonderland Quartet comprises four remarkable novels that explore social class in America and the inner lives of young Americans. In A Garden of Earthly Delights , Oates presents one of her most memorable heroines, Clara Walpole, the beautiful daughter of Kentucky-born migrant farmworkers. Desperate to rise above her haphazard existence of violence and poverty, determined not to repeat her mother’s life, Clara struggles for independence by way of her relationships with four very different men: her father, a family man turned itinerant laborer, smoldering with resentment; the mysterious Lowry, who rescues Clara as a teenager and offers her the possibility of love; Revere, a wealthy landowner who provides Clara with stability; and Swan, Clara’s son, who bears the psychological and spiritual burden of his mother’s ambition.A Garden of Earthly Delights is the first novel in the Wonderland Quartet. The books that complete this acclaimed series, Expensive People , them, and Wonderland , are also available from the Modern Library.
Wonderland Quartet Seria
This series delves into the depths of American society, exploring the intricate relationships and aspirations of young individuals. Follow the lives of ambitious characters striving to transcend their social class and find their identity amidst turbulent times. Each installment offers a compelling look at the personal struggles, loves, and disappointments that shape the destinies of individuals and their families. It is an engrossing literary journey capturing the essence of the search for a better life.
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Expensive People
- 308 stron
- 11 godzin czytania
Expensive, affluent, yes - but morally bankrupt - this is the suburbanite society from which Joyce Carol Oates carves out an electrifying novel of Gothic suspense. EXPENSIVE PEOPLE is the journal of Richard Elwood, an eighteen-year-old looking back with disaffection at his childhood in a succession of wealthy suburbs. He buys a rifle by mail-order ('German Sniper Rifle used by Mad Fanatic SS Men - Limited Number!') and roams the neighbourhood at night with it...The suspense is electrifying, the writing lethal. The first sentence is guaranteed to rivet your eyes to the page: 'I was a child murderer,' begins Richard. Now read on.
Them
- 478 stron
- 17 godzin czytania
Joyce Carol Oates's Wonderland Quartet comprises four remarkable novels that explore social class in America and the inner lives of young Americans. As powerful and relevant today as it on its initial publication, them chronicles the tumultuous lives of a family living on the edge of ruin in the Detroit slums, from the 1930s to the 1967 race riots. Praised by The Nation for her "potent, life-gripping imagination", Oates traces the aspirations and struggles of Loretta Wendall, a dreamy young mother who is filled with regret by the age of sixteen, and the subsequent destinies of her children, Maureen and Jules, who must fight to survive in a world of violence and danger. Winner of the National Book Award, them is an enthralling novel about love, class, race, and the inhumanity of urban life. It is, raves The New York Times , "a superbly accomplished vision". Them is the third novel in the Wonderland Quartet. The books that complete this acclaimed series, A Garden of Earthly Delights , Expensive People, and Wonderland , are also available from the Modern Library.
Wonderland
- 511 stron
- 18 godzin czytania
A mesmerizing portrayal of Jesse Vogel: his tragic childhood, his pursuit of a career in neurosurgery, his loss of his daughter to the counterculture.