Overview

The new novel from the bestselling author of Middlesex and The Virgin Suicides. Brown University, 1982. Madeleine Hanna, dutiful English student and incurable romantic, is writing her thesis on Jane Austen and George Eliot – authors of the great marriage plots. As Madeleine studies the age-old motivations of the human heart, real life, in the form of two very different men, intervenes. Leonard Bankhead, brilliant scientist and charismatic loner, attracts Madeleine with an intensity that she seems powerless to resist. Meanwhile her old friend Mitchell Grammaticus, a theology student searching for some kind of truth in life, is certain of at least one thing – that he and Madeleine are destined to be together. But as all three leave college, they will have to figure out how they want their own marriage plot to end.

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9780007441303

Table of Contents

Reviews

'Jeffrey Eugenides is a big and big-hearted talent: generous to his readers in telling stories that unfailingly entertain, and generous to his characters, who mess up and strive and suffer and repent the way anyone we really love does --forgivably.' Jonathan Franzen 'Eugenides has emerged as the great American writer that many of us suspected him of being.' Los Angeles Times 'A hypnotic storyteller.' Jay McInerney Praise for Middlesex: 'This year's most sumptuously enjoyable book ! superb' Sunday Times, Books of the Year 'This is a truly original and compelling novel, by turns sad, funny and moving' Daily Mail 'The best American novel since The Corrections ! exuberant, ambitious, deeply compassionate and wildly funny' GQ 'A transatlantic epic ! a towering achievement' Los Angeles Times 'A warm and beautifully written novel that illuminates the part of the human soul that even biology cannot reach' Sunday Times 'Eugenides's superb third novel is his most mature to date, the work of an author who has achieved a new gravity after the audacious brilliance of his earlier work!Eugenides looks poised to become a writer on a par with Updike and Cheever as an anatomist of contemporary American matters' -- Stephen Amidon, Sunday Times 'The characterisation is remarkable. Leonard, Madeline and Mitchell, as well as all those of the periphery, are constructed with patience and artistry, with the result that they are completely believable and always capable of surprising the reader with breathtaking insight, Eugenides teases out the emotional truth at work here. This is a complete and complex work!If you were ever young and thought that you knew what you wanted, if you ever imagined that no one else could ever feel such intensity of emotions as you, if you ever had your dreams dashed and your heart broken, then this is the book for you.' Sarah Vine, The Times The tight plotting and internalised psychology of this new novel, allied to the full sweep of ideas and social observation and quiet comedy that characterised Eugenides's earlier works, are signs of a new maturity. In the generosity and nuance of his characters and paragraphs, you are reminded of the Jonathan Franzen of The Corrections.' Tim Adams, Observer. 'It's a tender, well written, compulsively readable, essentially conventional love story.' Nat Segnit, Independent on Sunday. 'Highly enjoyable' Evening Standard. 'Masterful!Eugenides brilliantly captures the excitement of intellectual discovery and argument for its own sake' Psychologies Being Eugenides, the book is immensely readable, funny and heartfelt with instantly beguiling writing that springs effortlessly back and forth over the years's events' Daily Telegraph 'A marvellous, compulsive storyteller, richly allusive, he reminds us that while love may not always be a triumph, it follows its own wayward course to the end' Sunday Telegraph 'Erudite, smart and entertaining' Mail. '!powerful and all consuming. Forget the hearts and flowers; this is a challenging and intellectual novel about life and the intricate human relationships it weaves.' Express 'Nobody is going to accuse Jeffrey Eugenides's new novel of being insufficiently clever. It is a big book of tricks.' New Statesman

`If you were ever young and thought you knew what you wanted, if you ever imagined that no one could feel such intensity of emotion as you, if you ever had your dreams dashed and your heart broken, then this is the book for you' The Times `I adored The Marriage Plot ... David Nicholls' One Day with George Eliot thrown in' Erica Wagner, The Times, Books of the Year `I gorged myself on The Marriage Plot' Geoff Dyer `A marvellous, compulsive storyteller; he reminds us that while love may not always triumph, it follows its own wayward course to the end' Sunday Telegraph `Where it excels is in pinpointing human emotions and in capturing the giddy flux of young love. As Mitchell says, There were some books that reached through the noise of life to grab you by the collar and speak only of the truest things. Funny, poignant and insightful, this is one of those books' Sebastian Shakespeare `Immensely readable, funny and heartfelt, with instantly beguiling writing that springs effortlessly back and forth over the year's events... it was indeed worth waiting for' Daily Telegraph `Utterly engrossing ... so well depicted - with wit, care and charm - that Eugenides hasn't just raised his game, he's changed the fictional goalposts' Daily Mirror `In the generosity and and nuance of his characters and paragraphs you are reminded of the Jonathan Franzen of The Corrections ' Observer `Moving, human and challenging...subtle, pertinent narrative observations that show the work of a master of fiction at work' Times

'Jeffrey Eugenides is a big and big-hearted talent: generous to his readers in telling stories that unfailingly entertain, and generous to his characters, who mess up and strive and suffer and repent the way anyone we really love does --forgivably.' Jonathan Franzen 'Eugenides has emerged as the great American writer that many of us suspected him of being.' Los Angeles Times 'A hypnotic storyteller.' Jay McInerney Praise for Middlesex: 'This year's most sumptuously enjoyable book ! superb' Sunday Times, Books of the Year 'This is a truly original and compelling novel, by turns sad, funny and moving' Daily Mail 'The best American novel since The Corrections ! exuberant, ambitious, deeply compassionate and wildly funny' GQ 'A transatlantic epic ! a towering achievement' Los Angeles Times 'A warm and beautifully written novel that illuminates the part of the human soul that even biology cannot reach' Sunday Times

'Above all this is a book about how to find somebody to love and be loved by ! If you were ever young and thought you knew what you wanted, if you ever imagined that no one could feel such intensity of emotion as you, if you ever had your dreams dashed and your heart broken, then this is the book for you' The Times 'I adored The Marriage Plot ! David Nicholls' One Day with George Eliot thrown in' Erica Wagner, The Times, Books of the Year 'I gorged myself on The Marriage Plot' Geoff Dyer 'A marvellous, compulsive storyteller; he reminds us that while love may not always triumph, it follows its own wayward course to the end' Sunday Telegraph 'Where it excels is in pinpointing human emotions and in capturing the giddy flux of young love. As Mitchell says, There were some books that reached through the noise of life to grab you by the collar and speak only of the truest things. Funny, poignant and insightful, this is one of those books' Tatler 'Immensely readable, funny and heartfelt, with instantly beguiling writing that springs effortlessly back and forth over the year's events! it was indeed worth waiting for' Daily Telegraph 'Utterly engrossing ! so well depicted -- with wit, care and charm -- that Eugenides hasn't just raised his game, he's changed the fictional goalposts' Daily Mirror 'In the generosity and and nuance of his characters and paragraphs you are reminded of the Jonathan Franzen of The Corrections . There were times when this reader was so alarmed at the first hints of impending lapses in Leonard's behaviour that he felt like calling out his alarm to other characters. The suspicion is that the marriage plot is still the most important plot of our lives' Observer 'A wonderfully original tale of college graduates floundering in the real world' Sunday Times 'An engrossing epic! Unexpected, provocative and addictive -- you'll be talking about it for weeks' Easy Living 'Eugenides's superb third novel is his most mature to date, the work of an author who has achieved a new gravity after the audacious brilliance of his earlier work!Eugenides looks poised to become a writer on a par with Updike and Cheever as an anatomist of contemporary American matters' -- Stephen Amidon, Sunday Times 'The characterisation is remarkable. Leonard, Madeline and Mitchell, as well as all those of the periphery, are constructed with patience and artistry, with the result that they are completely believable and always capable of surprising the reader with breathtaking insight, Eugenides teases out the emotional truth at work here. This is a complete and complex work!If you were ever young and thought that you knew what you wanted, if you ever imagined that no one else could ever feel such intensity of emotions as you, if you ever had your dreams dashed and your heart broken, then this is the book for you.' Sarah Vine, The Times The tight plotting and internalised psychology of this new novel, allied to the full sweep of ideas and social observation and quiet comedy that characterised Eugenides's earlier works, are signs of a new maturity. In the generosity and nuance of his characters and paragraphs, you are reminded of the Jonathan Franzen of The Corrections.' Tim Adams, Observer. 'It's a tender, well written, compulsively readable, essentially conventional love story.' Nat Segnit, Independent on Sunday. 'Highly enjoyable' Evening Standard. 'Masterful!Eugenides brilliantly captures the excitement of intellectual discovery and argument for its own sake' Psychologies Being Eugenides, the book is immensely readable, funny and heartfelt with instantly beguiling writing that springs effortlessly back and forth over the years's events' Daily Telegraph 'A marvellous, compulsive storyteller, richly allusive, he reminds us that while love may not always be a triumph, it follows its own wayward course to the end' Sunday Telegraph 'Erudite, smart and entertaining' Mail. '!powerful and all consuming. Forget the hearts and flowers; this is a challenging and intellectual novel about life and the intricate human relationships it weaves.' Express 'Nobody is going to accuse Jeffrey Eugenides's new novel of being insufficiently clever. It is a big book of tricks.' New Statesman

Author Information

Jeffrey Eugenides was born in Detroit and attended Brown and Stanford Universities. His first novel, The Virgin Suicides, was published in 1993 to great acclaim and he has received numerous awards for his work. In 2003, Eugenides received the Pulitzer Prize for his novel Middlesex, which was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and France’s Prix Medicis and has sold more than 3 million copies.

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