An epic novel of the rough, tough and wild 'garden' of America - the back country which hosts a brutal way of life for immigrants. This is the jungle where men are violent and goaded to kill, where women have to learn to look after themselves, and where love is something to be wary of... 'This savage account of the child Clara...is impressive in its truth and power...where THE GRAPES OF WRATH was angrily sentimental, Miss Oates is calmly bitter...A powerful narrative engine drives the story along' - SUNDAY TIMES 'Joyce ...
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An epic novel of the rough, tough and wild 'garden' of America - the back country which hosts a brutal way of life for immigrants. This is the jungle where men are violent and goaded to kill, where women have to learn to look after themselves, and where love is something to be wary of... 'This savage account of the child Clara...is impressive in its truth and power...where THE GRAPES OF WRATH was angrily sentimental, Miss Oates is calmly bitter...A powerful narrative engine drives the story along' - SUNDAY TIMES 'Joyce Carol Oates is a good novelist in the ranging, naturalistic American tradition...but A GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS is inward-looking enough to bring Miss Oates home to the novelist's true concern...it is this human reality that makes the book so valuable' - THE GUARDIAN
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Seller's Description:
Very Good in Very Good dust jacket. Hardcover. 8vo. Vanguard Press, New York. 1967. 440 pgs. Signed by Joyce Carol Oates on the title page. First Edition/First Printing. DJ has light shelf-wear present to the DJ extremities. No ownership marks present. Text is clean and free of marks, binding tight and solid, boards very lightly rubbed and worn. Joyce Carol Oates's Wonderland Quartet comprises four remarkable novels that explore social class in America and the inner lives of young Americans. In A Garden of Earthly Delights, Oates presents one of her most memorable heroines, Clara Walpole, the beautiful daughter of Kentucky-born migrant farmworkers. Desperate to rise above her haphazard existence of violence and poverty, determined not to repeat her mother's life, Clara struggles for independence by way of her relationships with four very different men: her father, a family man turned itinerant laborer, smoldering with resentment; the mysterious Lowry, who rescues Clara as a teenager and offers her the possibility of love; Revere, a wealthy landowner who provides Clara with stability; and Swan, Clara's son, who bears the psychological and spiritual burden of his mother's ambition. E-183; 8.1 X 5.8 X 1.5 inches; 440 pages; Signed by Author.