Book details

The Marriage Plot

A Novel

Author: Jeffrey Eugenides

The Marriage Plot

The Marriage Plot

About This Book

A National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist

Named a Best Book of the Year by
The New York Times Book Review • NPR • The New Republic •...

Page Count
416
On Sale
09/04/2012

Book Details

A National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist

Named a Best Book of the Year by
The New York Times Book Review • NPR • The New Republic • Salon • The Seattle Times • Houston Chronicle • The Miami Herald • Publisher's Weekly


"Remind[s] us with uncommon understanding what it is to be young and idealistic, in pursuit of true love, and in love with books and ideas."—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

"A grand romance in the Austen tradition."—USA Today

Are the great love stories of the nineteenth century dead? Or can there be a new story, written for today and alive to the realities of feminism, sexual freedom, prenups, and divorce?

It's the early 1980s. In American colleges, the wised-up kids are inhaling Derrida and listening to Talking Heads. But Madeleine Hanna, dutiful English major, is writing her senior thesis on Jane Austen and George Eliot, purveyors of the marriage plot that lies at the heart of the greatest English novels. As Madeleine studies the age-old motivations of the human heart, real life, in the form of two very different guys, intervenes---the charismatic and intense Leonard Bankhead, and her old friend the mystically inclined Mitchell Grammaticus. As all three of them face life in the real world they will have to reevaluate everything they have learned. Jeffrey Eugenides creates a new kind of contemporary love story in "his most powerful novel yet" (Newsweek).

Imprint Publisher

Picador

ISBN

9781250014764

Reading Guide

In The News

“Eugenides's ability to reinvent the timeless tale of love and soul-searching is swoon-worthy.” —Vanity Fair

“I gorged myself on The Marriage Plot.” —Geoff Dyer

“A masterful storyteller.” —The Seattle Times

“Audacious and moving.” —Time

“Extremely ambitious...surprising, and propulsive.” —Chicago Sun-Times

“Deeply humane and elegantly constructed.” —NPR

“The finale of The Marriage Plot is unexpected, beautiful, and---Dare we hope?---timeless.” —The Cleveland Plain Dealer

“A master of voice.” —The Washington Post

“Wry, engaging, and beautifully constructed.” —The New York Times Book Review

About the Creators

The Marriage Plot

The Marriage Plot

The Marriage Plot
The Marriage Plot
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