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...
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.
作者简介
· · · · · ·
约翰·威廉斯(John Edward Williams, 1922—1994),美国作家,诗人,学者。辍过学,当过电台播音,从过军。退役后入大学就读并获博士学位。
NYRB Classics(共93册),
这套丛书还有
《Rogue Male (New York Review Books Classics)》《The Old Man and Me (New York Review Books Classics)》《A High Wind in Jamaica》《Niki:The Story of a Dog》《The Peregrine》
等
。
10 有用 喜喜 2015-11-27 17:07:24
不能相信《纽约客》的书评就像不能相信它每期让人摸不着头脑的小说一样。Stoner的软弱性格,失败的婚姻开头,就注定了悲剧的一生。不敢改变,就连搞个婚外情还无疾而终,平平淡淡最后死于癌症,这不就是大部分平庸的人的生活么,这有什么可写的?而且怎么就多年之后就突然被追捧了呢。
22 有用 So果果 2013-11-02 02:13:52
一杯温开水,之后凉了。
6 有用 铁臂阿童木 2016-03-24 12:04:00
读这本书让我想起去年很喜欢的电影Youth,想起里面的Simple Song。看似平淡,暗地里不断有东西在碎裂。语言是simple and delicate,实在是写得很好的英文
4 有用 lilyppbb 2013-11-13 05:47:18
一本命运神奇的书,1965年出版,2006年纽约书评经典系列收入再版,经过翻译,2013年成为荷兰第一名的畅销书,继而重新引发了美国国内评论界对这本书的关注。从媒体的报道上注意到这本书,但燃起阅读兴趣是因为有John McGahern的推荐序(选书上爱屋及乌的弱点)。小说讲述了一个贫苦的农家少年,背弃父母的希望从农学转到英语文学专业,在中部一所大学从读书教书待了一辈子的故事。他没有辉煌的学术成就,... 一本命运神奇的书,1965年出版,2006年纽约书评经典系列收入再版,经过翻译,2013年成为荷兰第一名的畅销书,继而重新引发了美国国内评论界对这本书的关注。从媒体的报道上注意到这本书,但燃起阅读兴趣是因为有John McGahern的推荐序(选书上爱屋及乌的弱点)。小说讲述了一个贫苦的农家少年,背弃父母的希望从农学转到英语文学专业,在中部一所大学从读书教书待了一辈子的故事。他没有辉煌的学术成就,没有美满的婚姻,他最后被疾病打倒,黯然退休,Stoner教授的人生不成功,却也没倒霉到惹人瞩目,作者John Williams赋予这种平凡以戏剧性,塑造了一个生活的英雄,具有某种悲壮的打动人心的力量。 (展开)
8 有用 苏夫佳 2015-07-31 01:59:53
一本被重新发现的经典!三个月来让我看得最入迷的一本书!以平实淡雅的语言、纯粹讲故事的口吻重现了一个普通美国文学教授的一生。少年时期的懵懂无知,青年时期对知识的渴求、情窦初开的狂热,人到中年家庭生活的不幸,婚外恋的激情,事业上的波折,老年时期的力不从心......全都是可预见的日常生活,在Williams笔下却有种精准的锋利感,把读者从个人琐碎的生活中拉出来,看看别人,同时也开始思考自己。