Search results
› WrittenBy › Written
The title, Desperate Characters, comes from a sentence in Henry David Thoreau’s Walden: “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” In the novel, Charlie and Sophie discuss Charlie's "desperation," and Otto tells Sophie that he and Charlie had recently argued over the Thoreau quote.
Jan 1, 2001 · Virtuosity at this level is a snake that bites its own tail, and a novel as perfected as "Desperate Characters" chews off little pieces of its own plausibility each time it indulges in another coruscating fireworks of outlandishly gorgeous, uncannily insightful, hyper-eloquent, impossibly well-judged description.
- (8.5K)
- Paperback
People also ask
Is 'desperate characters' a good book?
When was desperate characters published?
Where does the name 'Desperate Characters' come from?
What happens in 'desperate characters' by Paula Fox?
Jul 13, 2022 · T Book Club is back for a novel take on N.Y.C.’s five boroughs with four iconic reads. Join us virtually as we discuss Paula Fox’s “Desperate Characters,”with N.Y.C.-based author Sigrid ...
Mar 30, 2015 · First published in 1970 to wide acclaim, Desperate Characters stands as one of the most dazzling and rigorous examples of the storyteller's craft in postwar American literature ― a novel that, according to Irving Howe, ranks with "Billy Budd, The Great Gatsby, Miss Lonelyhearts, and Seize the Day." Print length.
- (1.4K)
- $9.99
- Paula Fox
- W. W. Norton & Company
Desperate Characters. Paula Fox. Harcourt, Brace & World, 1970 - Fiction - 156 pages. A Great American Novel -- from the author of Borrowed Finery. 'A masterpiece.'. Observer 'Inarguably great. Desperate Characters soars above every other work of American realist fiction since the Second World War.'. JONATHAN FRANZEN Otto and Sophie Bentwood ...
May 17, 1999 · “ Desperate Characters is, simply, a perfect short novel. A few characters, a small stretch of time; setting and action tightly confined―and yet, as in Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich, everything crucial within our souls bared.” - Andrea Barrett “This perfect novel about pain is as clear, and as wholly believable, and as healing, as ...
- Paula Fox
May 17, 1999 · Desperate Characters. Kindle Edition. by Paula Fox (Author), Jonathan Franzen (Introduction) Format: Kindle Edition. 3.8 1,346 ratings. See all formats and editions. One of the New York Times' 25 Most Significant New York City Novels From the Last 100 Years. "A towering landmark of postwar Realism…A sustained work of prose so lucid and fine ...
- Paula Fox
