or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
33 used & new from £2.96
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
The Ghost Writer: A Well-Tempered Triumph... Marvellously Controlled... Mercilessly Compact
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

The Ghost Writer: A Well-Tempered Triumph... Marvellously Controlled... Mercilessly Compact (Paperback)

by Philip Roth (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
Price: £4.98 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £3.01 (38%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Want guaranteed delivery by Tuesday, November 17? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
24 new from £2.96 9 used from £2.96
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Hardcover 2 used & new from £29.95
Paperback £12.95 £12.95 15 used & new from £2.84
Mass Market Paperback (Reissue) 4 used & new from £11.98

Frequently Bought Together

The Ghost Writer: A Well-Tempered Triumph... Marvellously Controlled... Mercilessly Compact + Zuckerman Unbound + The Anatomy Lesson
Price For All Three: £14.95

Show availability and delivery details

  • This item: The Ghost Writer: A Well-Tempered Triumph... Marvellously Controlled... Mercilessly Compact by Philip Roth

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

  • Zuckerman Unbound by Philip Roth

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

  • The Anatomy Lesson by Philip Roth

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Zuckerman Unbound

Zuckerman Unbound

by Philip Roth
5.0 out of 5 stars (2)  £4.98
The Anatomy Lesson

The Anatomy Lesson

by Philip Roth
4.0 out of 5 stars (1)  £4.99
Exit Ghost

Exit Ghost

by Philip Roth
4.0 out of 5 stars (13)  £5.98
The Prague Orgy

The Prague Orgy

by Philip Roth
£4.48
The Counterlife

The Counterlife

by Philip Roth
3.0 out of 5 stars (2)  £5.99
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Paperback: 192 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; New edition edition (2 Jun 2005)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0099477572
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099477570
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 1.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 20,933 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #8 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > R > Roth, Philip

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

Product Description

The Ghost Writer introduces Nathan Zuckerman in the 1950s; a budding writer infatuated with the Great Books, discovering the contradictory claims of literature and experience while an overnight guest in the secluded New England farmhouse of his literary idol, E. I. Lonoff. At Lonoff's, Zuckerman meets Amy Bellette, a haunting young woman of indeterminate foreign background who turns out to be a former student of Lonoff's and who may also have been his mistress. Zuckerman, with his active, youthful imagination, wonders if she could be the paradigmatic victim of Nazi persecution. If she were, it might change his life...The first volume of the trilogy and epilogue Zuckerman Bound, The Ghost Writer is about the tensions between literature and life, artistic truthfulness and conventional decency - and about those implacable practitioners who live with the consequences of sacrificing one for the other.


About the Author

In 1997 Philip Roth won the Pulitzer Prize for American Pastoral. In 1998 he received the National Medal of Arts at the White House, and in 2002 received the highest award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Gold Medal in Fiction, previously awarded to John Dos Passos, William Faulkner, and Saul Bellow, among others. He has twice won the National Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 2005, Philip Roth will become the third living American writer to have his work published in a comprehensive, definitive edition by the Library of America. The last of the eight volumes is scheduled for publication in 2013.

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(1)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The Ghost Writer: A Well-Tempered Triumph... Marvellously Controlled... Mercilessly Compact
77% buy the item featured on this page:
The Ghost Writer: A Well-Tempered Triumph... Marvellously Controlled... Mercilessly Compact 4.0 out of 5 stars (4)
£4.98
I Married a Communist
6% buy
I Married a Communist 4.0 out of 5 stars (7)
£5.97
Indignation
6% buy
Indignation 4.4 out of 5 stars (19)
£5.23
American Pastoral
6% buy
American Pastoral 3.4 out of 5 stars (35)
£4.48
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

4 Reviews
5 star:
 (1)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars "What do I know, other than what I can imagine?", 25 Aug 2004
By Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: The Ghost Writer (Paperback)
Philip Roth, in this first of the Nathan Zuckerman novels, published in 1979, introduces Nathan as a twenty-three-year-old graduate of the University of Chicago who has had four short stories published and is looking for a mentor. Having contacted famed writer E. I. Lonoff, a writer living in rural New England with his wife of 35 years, he has accepted Lonfof's invitation to visit, but a snowstorm arises and Zuckerman finds himself spending the night with Lonoff and his wife. His observations about the life of Lonoff leads him imagine many stories--about Lonoff's past, his possible relationship with a young former student, and about his life in the countryside. In addition, he also reminisces about his own past, his relationships with his family, his feelings toward his own writing, his possible obligations to Jewish history, and the imagined past of Amy, Lonoff's former student, who resembles Anne Frank.

Though Zuckerman is full of hopes for a broader relationship with Lonoff, he soon discovers that his idol is a petulant and insecure man who has used and, in some cases, emotionally abused, those around him, all in the name of "art." Spending a sleepless winter night on the couch in Lonoff's den, Zuckerman investigates Lonoff's library, especially the collection of the writings of Henry James, which Lonoff admires so much, tries to write a letter to his estranged father (who is appalled by one of Nathan's recent short stories, which, he feels, feeds anti-Semitic prejudice), and ponders the relationship between genuine creativity, editing and revision, and the possible responsibilities of a writer beyond his own creative impulse.

A story about the writing of stories, this novella explores the fictional lives writers create from their own lives, and the sacrifices they make. As Lonoff's wife says of Lonoff, "Not living is what he makes his beautiful fiction out of." Lonoff himself says, "I turn sentences around...That's my life." And Henry James says in a motto Lonoff has framed in his den, "We give what we have. Our doubt is our passion and passion is our task." When Zuckerman leaves Lonoff's house the next morning, he no longer sees Lonoff as an idol, but Zuckerman is still committed to his destiny as a writer, anxious to go to a writers' retreat to work on some new stories. Thoughtful, imaginative, and great fun to read, The Ghost Writer is one of Roth's most tightly organized and revelatory works, essential reading for anyone interested in the creative process. Mary Whipple

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Catharsis, 15 April 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: The Ghost Writer (Paperback)
I can't believe I am the first to post my opinion of this book. I discovered Philip Roth recently, somehow never hearing of him before(the more I discover about Roth the more I am astounded that this could be possible). By the time I was finished reading The Ghost Writer, my first real influence had been set and my view of myself as writer altered. Every hour I dwelled on what I had experienced, and rushed out to buy the sequel, Zuckerman Unbound. The day I began to read it, this author who had entered my life like a thunderbolt only days earlier, this author who published his first book when he was my age, won his first Pulitzer prize. I have only known of his work for a week but the first thing across my mind was "It's about time!". I am not the first to relate to young Zuckerman and surely will not be the last.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
7 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting look at the life of a young writer, 31 May 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: The Ghost Writer (Paperback)
This was my second Philip Roth book, the first being his famous "Portnoy's Complaint". I probably made a mistake reading "Portnoy" first, as I doubt any of his other works (or ANYONE'S other works) will be as consistently hilarious as "Portnoy" was. However, looked at as an independent work, "The Ghost Writer" provides a very interesting look at the mind of a writer, the responsiblities of a writer both to him/herself, the people who love him, and to the truth. For those interested in such subjects, "The Ghost Writer" provides for a very good read.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting bit in the middle
This book was force-fed us when studying English Literature in the spring. I understand the qualities of it, but it is way too male and way too jewish for my liking. Read more
Published 28 days ago by Eirin Mikalsen Orum

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject








i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.