- Hardcover: 720 pages
- Publisher: Random House Inc; New edition edition (31 May 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0679603069
- ISBN-13: 978-0679603061
- Product Dimensions: 12.8 x 4.8 x 19.1 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 857,641 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
The World According To Garp (Black Swan)
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Book Description
A masterpiece from one of the great contemporary American writers.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Product Description
The World According to Garp is a comic and compassionate coming-of-age novel that established John Irving as one of the most imaginative writers of his generation. A worldwide bestseller since its publication in 1978, Irving's classic is filled with stories inside stories about the life and times of T. S. Garp, novelist and bastard son of Jenny Fields--a feminist leader ahead of her time. Beyond that, The World According to Garp virtually defies synopsis.
----"Nothing in contemporary fiction matches it," said critic Terrence Des Pres. "Irving's blend of gravity and play is unique, audacious, almost blasphemous. . . . Friendship, marriage and family are his primary themes, but at that blundering level of life where mishap and folly--something close to joyful malice--perpetually intrude and disrupt, often fatally. Life, in Irving's fiction, is always under siege." Time magazine commented: "Irving's popularity is not hard to understand. His world is really the world according to nearly everyone."
----This Modern Library edition includes a new Introduction by the author.
The Modern Library has played a significant role in American cultural life for the better part of a century. The series was founded in 1917 by the publishers Boni and Liveright and eight years later acquired by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer. It provided the foundation for their next publishing venture, Random House. The Modern Library has been a staple of the American book trade, providing readers with affordable hardbound editons of impor-tant works of literature and thought. For the Modern Library's seventy-fifth anniversary, Random House redesigned the series, restoringas its emblem the running torchbearer created by Lucian Bernhard in 1925 and refurbishing jackets, bindings, and type, as well as inaugurating a new program of selecting titles. The Modern Library continues to provide the world's best books, at the best prices.
----"Nothing in contemporary fiction matches it," said critic Terrence Des Pres. "Irving's blend of gravity and play is unique, audacious, almost blasphemous. . . . Friendship, marriage and family are his primary themes, but at that blundering level of life where mishap and folly--something close to joyful malice--perpetually intrude and disrupt, often fatally. Life, in Irving's fiction, is always under siege." Time magazine commented: "Irving's popularity is not hard to understand. His world is really the world according to nearly everyone."
----This Modern Library edition includes a new Introduction by the author.
The Modern Library has played a significant role in American cultural life for the better part of a century. The series was founded in 1917 by the publishers Boni and Liveright and eight years later acquired by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer. It provided the foundation for their next publishing venture, Random House. The Modern Library has been a staple of the American book trade, providing readers with affordable hardbound editons of impor-tant works of literature and thought. For the Modern Library's seventy-fifth anniversary, Random House redesigned the series, restoringas its emblem the running torchbearer created by Lucian Bernhard in 1925 and refurbishing jackets, bindings, and type, as well as inaugurating a new program of selecting titles. The Modern Library continues to provide the world's best books, at the best prices.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
Garp's mother, Jenny Fields, was arrested in Boston in 1942 for wounding a man in a movie theater. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Garp's mother, Jenny Fields, was arrested in Boston in 1942 for wounding a man in a movie theater. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
That is, if you have as good an imagination as John Irving.
I had heard great things about John Irving, and had it not been for this fact I would have never launched myself into a 600 page novel. I am easily bored. Even despite its recommendations I was still unprepared for how I would react to The World According to Garp.
The novel begins by narrating the unusual circumstances surrounding Garp's entrance into the world, i.e. from the perspective of his mother. Although its is a long book, I really felt that every word was necessary, and points are woven together throughout the novel. The story climaxes towards the end, by which time you are grateful for the extra pages.
Garp is a writer, and this book is about writing, and the world 'according to a writer,' and especially a father. Irving writes in his afterword that his book is about a father's fear of losing his children. He says: "I'm just a father with a good imagination. In my imagination I lose my children every day."
The fun thing is we get to read Garp's writing, too, and his best work, a short story called The Pension Grillparzer (don't ask!) has actually been published as a separate book in its own right. We get to know Garp through his writing and through the other characters, as well as through Irving's voice. A very inventive novel, pushing the boundaries of fiction, not just its shape, but its subject too.
This book made me laugh. The comedy is so closely intertwined with the tragedy that you feel personally involved with the joke. You experience pain with humour, tragedy with farce, and warmth all the way through. You never know what is going to happen next. I know what I'm going to do next: read some more Irving!
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This really is a wonderful book; alternately hysterically funny and surreal, and at one point heartbreakingly sad. From the very first page, you are drawn into Garp's peculiar world. The characters are fully-developed and the plot races along at a cracking pace.
It's a bit of a cliché to say that a book can make you laugh and also make you cry, but in this case it's true. If this is the first John Irving book you read, it certainly won't be the last.
Set aside a couple of completely free days to read it - once you start, you won't want to put it down.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is truly my favourite book ever! A fabulous story about the life of Garp from conception until death.(and a very unusual conception it was).
The reader experiences Garps life with him. His unusual mother and upbringing. The characters he encounters are thoroughly enjoyable. Particularly Roberta Muldoon. It is a story that makes you laugh and cry and I was teary at the end. My next pet whether it be male or female is going to be named Garp!
A lot of John Irving's usual themes are present in the book, New England, wrestling, animals etc. This is my favourite John Irving title and the film with Robin Williams starring as Garp fails to do it any justice at all.
I would reccomend this book as a great flowing story about life with but with Irving style quirkyness.
The reader experiences Garps life with him. His unusual mother and upbringing. The characters he encounters are thoroughly enjoyable. Particularly Roberta Muldoon. It is a story that makes you laugh and cry and I was teary at the end. My next pet whether it be male or female is going to be named Garp!
A lot of John Irving's usual themes are present in the book, New England, wrestling, animals etc. This is my favourite John Irving title and the film with Robin Williams starring as Garp fails to do it any justice at all.
I would reccomend this book as a great flowing story about life with but with Irving style quirkyness.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Enjoyable novel - sometimes too affectedly 'weird'
This is one of Irving's earlier books. He is justly famous for it, and for HNH, but it is not as good as his later stuff - he seems to be working through some personal issues, and... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Jezza
A fantastic book
This is a great book- very funny in parts, original ideas throughout and some very sad moments too (I even cried at one point-if you have read it you may know which part). Read more
Published 11 months ago by Seasider
mediocre comic novel on sex, gender, and feminism
While I may be in the minority here, this novel failed for me. Perhaps my expectations were too high - this is supposed to be one of America's most distinguished novelists - but I... Read more
Published 11 months ago by rob crawford
the world according to garp
this book is absolutely amazing, it is moving, funny and engaging. I am an avid book reader and until now if someone had asked me my favourite book I really would not have been... Read more
Published 12 months ago by becks1
Didn't live up to the hype
Read the book because of all the rave reviews. Found it very good in parts but in the whole too disjointed, too long and a surfeit of tragic events. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Alastair Ramlakan
have to buy yet again
My all time favourite read. I always come back to it to re-read every few years. I am on my 5th. copy currently due to lending it out to others who never return it. Read more
Published 16 months ago by reader
A work of genius
A novel of dazzling scope and stunning poignancy, "...Garp" is a work so gripping that it is impossible to imagine a world in which such a text could NOT exist. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Steven Athwal
The World According to Garp, John Irving
I found this book quite strange from the outset, but was enthralled at the same time! This is the third John Irving book I have read and although I found a lot of it like searching... Read more
Published 22 months ago by P. A. Cunningham
A book with every emotion in it...
I brought this book for a friend but ended up reading it first as i couldn't put it down after reading the first page, John Irving has the ability to capture every emotion in his... Read more
Published 22 months ago by T. J. Davis
Brilliant
I absolutely loved this book. After the reading succes of The Cider House Rules this was another stunner for me. Read more
Published on 12 Mar 2010 by Jirina Prochazkova
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
