A Garden of Earthly Delights by Joyce Carol Oates (English) Paperback Book

Description: A Garden of Earthly Delights by Joyce Carol Oates, Elaine Showalter Presents one of the authors 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 mothers life, Clara struggles for independence by way of her relationships with four very different men. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description Joyce Carol Oatess "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 mothers 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, Claras son, who bears the psychological and spiritual burden of his mothers ambition. A masterly work from a writer with "the uncanny ability to give us a cinemascopic vision of her America" (National Review), "A Garden of Earthly Delights" is the opening stanza in what would become one of the most powerful and engrossing story arcs in literature. "A Garden of Earthly Delights" is the first novel in the "Wonderland Quartet".The books that complete this acclaimed series, "Expensive People", them, and "Wonderland", are also available from the Modern Library. Author Biography Joyce Carol Oates is the Roger S. Berlind Professor in the Humanities at Princeton University. She is the author of numerous works of fiction and poetry, as well as books of essays, criticism, and plays. She lives in Princeton, New Jersey. Review Praise for The Wonderland Quartet"Protean and prodigious are surely the words that describe Ms. Oates. From the very beginning, as these impressive and diverse novels make clear, her talents and interests and strengths have never found comfort in fashionable restraint. Shes sought, instead, to do it all—to face and brilliantly, inventively transact and give shape to as much of experience as possible, as if by no other means is a useful and persuasive gesture of moral imagination even conceivable. For us readers these are valuable books."—Richard Ford "These four novels reveal Oates powers of observation and invention, her meticulous social documentation joined to her genius for forging unforgettable myths. She is one of the handful of great American novelists of the last hundred years."—Edmund White "This rich, kaleidoscopic suite of novels displays the young Joyce Carol Oates exercising her formidable artistic powers to portray a turbulent twentieth-century America. They offer the reader a singular opportunity to experience some of Oatess best writing and to witness her development, novel by novel, into one of our finest contemporary writers."—Greg Johnson, author of Invisible Writer: A Biography of Joyce Carol Oates Review Quote Praise for The Wonderland Quartet, four early novels by Joyce Carol Oates A Garden of Earthly Delights Expensive People them Wonderland "Protean and prodigious are surely the words that describe Ms. Oates. From the very beginning, as these impressive and diverse novels make clear, her talents and interests and strengths have never found comfort in restraint. Shes sought, instead, to do it all -- to face and brilliantly, inventively transact and give shape to as much of experience as possible, as if by no other means is a useful and persuasive gesture of moral imagination even conceivable. For us readers these are valuable books." --Richard Ford "These four novels reveal Oates powers of observation and invention, her meticulous social documentation joined to her genius for forging unforgettable myths. She is one of the handful of great American novelists of the last hundred years. " --Edmund White "This rich, kaleidoscopic suite of novels displays the young Joyce Carol Oates exercising her formidable artistic powers to portray a turbulent twentieth-century America. They offer the reader a singular opportunity to experience some of Oatess best writing and to witness her development, novel by novel, into one of our finest contemporary writers." --Greg Johnson, author ofInvisible Writer: A Biography of Joyce Carol Oates "As a young writer, Joyce Carol Oates published four remarkable novels,A Garden of Earthly Delights(1967),Expensive People(1968),them(1969), andWonderland(1971). They were all nominated for the National Book Award, and Oates won the award forthemin 1970....Reprinting the series in modern paperback editions nearly forty years after their composition allows us a new perspective on their collective meaning and illuminates their place in Oatess overall career...The Wonderland Quartet, written in the "white heat" of youthful imagination and fervor, remains not only relevant but prophetic about the widening social and economic gulf in American society, the self-destructive violence of political extremism, and the terrifying hubris of science and technology. Bringing to life an unforgettable range of men and women, the Wonderland Quartet offers a compelling introduction to a protean and prodigious contemporary artist." --Elaine Showalter, from her introduction, which appears in all four of these new Modern Library editions Discussion Question for Reading Group Guide 1. By focusing on the stories of Carleton, Clara, and Swan, Oates allows her readers to become intimately familiar with three of A Garden of Earthly Delights s characters. Which character do you most empathize with and why? 2. In your opinion, why is Carleton indifferent to most of his children and what makes him particularly fond of his beloved Clara? 3. How are migrant workers stigmatized in the text and how do the Walpoles both conform to and break away from these stereotypes? 4. Lowry and Claras relationship begins rather unusually. What did you make of Lowry when he first appeared in Claras life? How did your perception of him change later in the novel? 5. A Garden of Earthly Delights chronicles the lives of characters who are haunted by their individual pasts and by the pasts of their ancestors. What examples of this can you find in the text? 6. The parent-child relationship is central to the novel: sometimes the intimacy between a mother and child mimics that usually found between a husband and wife; at other points in the novel, romantic relationships in the novel take on a peculiar father-daughter dynamic. Discuss this blurring of boundaries in Claras various relationships with men. 7. Oates reveals, "To Clara, a mans love was no sign of his strength but rather of his weakness, something you wanted from him but then had to feel a little sorry about taking." In several instances in the text, love is explicitly described as a weakness. Discuss how this theme is subtly weaved throughout the text. 8. Oates describes Claras frustration at her lack of education by saying, "Clara was thinking: if she could read better-if she could write-if she didnt have to struggle so with words, things would come easier for her. There were times when an idea brushed her mind, but she couldnt seize it. Like a butterfly fluttering out of her reach." What role does the thirst for knowledge play in Claras life and later in the life of her son Swan? 9. Oates explains why Swan suddenly loses interest in reading and learning in the following lines: "All knowledge is a drug, Swan believed. And all drugs can be addictive. He would fight it. He knew how. Hed isolated it-this sensation as of imminent helplessness-as the way I which a fetus grows in its mothers belly: tiny head taking form, tiny arms, legs, torso, fish-body becoming human, sucking its energy from the encasing flesh and growing, always growing." Discuss the characters in the novel and their struggles against helplessness or various forms of addiction. 10. When Clark confides in his stepmother about Jonathans problematic behavior, Clara misses the point, saying, "Im sorry to hear this, Clark. I...like Jonathan....I think he likes me..." What does her response reveal about her character and her relationship to the Revere family (of which she is now a part)? 11. A lack of choices and opportunities is usually connected to poverty, as evident in the beginning of the novel. However, in several instances, Swan records his frustration at being a member of the Revere family, where "nothing is left to chance" and "the only way out of it was the way Robert had gone, by accident, or Jonathan had taken on purpose." Discuss why Swan, who, through has mothers marriage, has acquired prestige, an education, and wealth, feels trapped by his newfound position in society. 12. What draws Clara and Judd together and how is Claras relationship with Judd different from her relationship with other men in her life? 13. Oates discusses Swans reluctance to form intimate relationships, "Swan understood then that he could not talk to her (Loretta) and if he tried he would only disturb her. He could not talk to his mother either, and of course not to his father, and never to Clark and never to his teachers, and it made sense that he could not now talk to Loretta..." Describe Swans growing feelings of isolation from others that begin in his childhood and culminate in his final act of violence. 14. In her Afterword, Oates explains that "though such terms as victims of abuse --abuse survivors-are clich Excerpt from Book 1 Arkansas. On that day many years ago a rattling Ford truck carrying twenty-nine farmworkers and their children sideswiped a local truck carrying hogs to Little Rock on a rain-slick country highway. It was a shimmering-green day in late May, the Ford truck ended up on its side in a three-foot drainage ditch, and in the hazy rain everyone milled about in the road amid broken glass, a familiar stink of gasoline and a spillage of hog excrement. Yet, among those who hadnt been hurt, the predominant mood was jocular. Carleton Walpole would long remember: the skidding on the wet blacktop, the noise of brakes like a guinea hens shrieking, the sick weightless sensation before impact. The terrified screams of children and women, then the angry shouts of the men. By the time the truck overturned into the ditch most of the younger and more agile of the farmworkers had leapt clear, while the older, the slower, most of the women and younger children, struggled with the tarpaulin roof and had to crawl out on their hands and knees like beasts onto the soft red clay shoulder. Another goddamned "accident": this wasnt the first since theyd left Breathitt County, Kentucky, a few weeks ago, but it wasnt the worst, either. No one appeared to be seriously injured, bleeding or unconscious. "Pearl? Where the hell are you?"--Carleton had been one of the first to jump from the truck, but he was anxious about his wife; she was pregnant, with their third child, and the baby was due soon. "Pearl! Pearl!" Carleton yelled. His heart was beating like something trapped in his rib cage. He was angry, excited. Always you feel that mean little thrill of relief, you arent hurt. . . . Though once Carleton had been hurt, the first season hed gone out on the road, his nose broken in a similar crash and the truck driver who was also the recruiter had set it for Carleton with his fingers--"See, a nose will begin healing right away its broke. It aint bone its cartlige. If you dont make it straight it will grow in crooked like a boxers nose." Carleton had laughed to see his new nose grown in just slightly crooked at the bridge, but in a way to give his face more character, he thought, like something carved; otherwise, he thought he looked like everybody else, half the Walpole men, long narrow faces with light lank hair and stubbly bearded chins and squinting bleached-blue eyes that looked as if they reflected the sky, forever. When Carleton moved quickly and jerkily his face seemed sharp as a jackknife, but he could move slowly too; he had inherited someones grace--though in him it was an opaque resistance, like a man moving with effort through water. Not that Carleton Walpole gave much of a damn how he looked. He was thirty, not a kid. He had responsibilities. With his broke nose, people joked that Carletons looks had improved, he had a swagger now like his hero Jack Dempsey. This time, Carleton hadnt been hurt at all. A little shaken, and pissed as hell, his dignity ruffled like a rooster thats been kicked. Hed been squatting on his heels with other men at the rear of the truck chewing tobacco and spitting out onto the blacktop road that stretched behind them like a grimy tongue. Where were they bound for?--Texarkana. That was just a word, a sound. A place on a map Carleton mightve seen, but could not recall. How many days exactly theyd been on the road, he could not recall. How many weeks ahead, hed have to ask. (Not Pearl. Used to, Pearl had kept track of such details, now she was letting things slide as bad as the other women.) Well, there was paperwork--somewhere. A contract. Carleton wasnt going to think about it, not now. It was enough to console himself I have a contract, I cant be cheated because thered been a season when he had not had a contract, and he had been cheated. Enough to think I have a savings account because it was true, alone of the sorry bunch of bastards in this truck Carleton was certain he was the only one with a bankbook, issued from the First Savings & Loan Bank of Breathitt, Kentucky. Not that Carleton needed to speak of it, he did not. He was not a man to boast, none of the Walpoles were. But there the fact was, like an underground stream. Waiting for local law enforcement, waiting for a tow truck to haul the truck out of the ditch, goddamn. Everybody was excited, talking loudly. Where the hell was Pearl? Carleton was helping women climb up out of the truck. A woman looking young as a girl herself handed him her two-year-old; with a laugh and a grunt he swung the kid over the side like she weighed no more than a cat. Carletons upper arm muscles were ropey, and strong; his shoulders were narrow, but strong; his back and his neck were starting to give him trouble, from stoop-picking, but he wasnt going to give in to moaning and groaning like an old man. "Pa, hey." There were Carletons kids, banged up but O.K. Sharleen, shoving and giggling. Mike, only three, was bawling as usual, but he didnt look as if hed been hurt--his face wasnt bleeding. Carleton picked him up and swung him around kicking, set him down out of harms way by some women who could tend to him. There was a smell of spilled whiskey mixed with the smells of gasoline and hog shit and mud and it was like you could get drunk just breathing, feeling your heart beat hard. Carleton touched his face, Christ he was bleeding, some. Was he? He clambered down into the drainage ditch to wash his hands, and wet his face. Maybe hed banged his lower lip. Bit his lower lip. Most likely thats what he had done, when the brakes began to squeal, and the truck went into its skid, those seconds when you dont know what the hell will happen next. Up front, the driver of the old Ford truck with Kentucky license plates was shouting at the driver of the hog truck with Arkansas license plates. Carleton laughed to see, both these guys had fat bellies. Their driver had a cut eye. Carleton checked to see was anybody dead up front, lying in the road in the rain, sometimes you saw newspaper photos like that, and hed seen one of a Negro man lying flat on his back in some place in Mississippi and white men banded around the body grinning and waving at the camera, and it made you sick-feeling but excited too, but the drivers kid brother, a smart-ass bastard who rode up front sucking Colas like a baby at a teat, was walking around unharmed, Carleton was disappointed to see. This kid started saying to Carleton, like Carleton had come to accuse him, "It wasnt our fault! It was that sonuvabitchs fault! He come around the turn in the fuckin middle of the road, ask Franklin, go ask him, dont look at me, it aint none of our fault." Carleton pushed the kid aside. He was taller than this kid, and taller than fat-ass Franklin, and the less friendly he was with them, the more they were respectful of him, and maybe scared. For they seemed to see something in Carleton Walpoles face. The other driver was cursing at Franklin. He was a squat fattish man with a bald head and eyes like suet and he talked funny like there was mush in his mouth. The cab of his truck was smashed inward but the rear looked unharmed. Too bad, Carleton was thinking, the hogs hadnt got loose. Not a one of them had got loose. Christ hed have liked to see that, hogs piling out of a broke truck and landing hard on their delicate-looking hooves (that were not delicate in fact but hard and treacherous as a horses hooves) and squealing in crazed outrage as a hog will do then running off into the countryside. And some of those hogs weighing two hundred pounds which was a nice lot of hog. Carleton smiled to think of how that wouldve been, hogs running away squealing not taken to the slaughterhouse where the poor beasts were awaited. The hog driver was cursing and whining and half-sobbing holding his belly with his elbows like a pregnant woman clutching herself. This driver was alone with his truck: they could gang up on him, and he knew it, and there was the thrill of anticipation that they might, but it would maybe be a mistake, they were in Arkansas and not Kentucky and the local law enforcement was Arkansas, and you had to know it, you had to acknowledge it. So nothing would come of the possibility like a match that didnt get lit and dropped into hay. Not this time. Carleton saw with satisfaction that the hog trucks motor was steaming beneath the wrecked hood, the left front fender twisted against the tire so youd need a corkscrew to untwist it. How bad off their truck was nobody could see since it was lying on its side like a stunned beetle in the ditch. The last time theyd had trouble like this, it had been raining too: outside Owensboro, Kentucky. Whenever there was an accident or motor trouble everyone was disgusted and angry and threatening to quit but a few hours later they forgot. It was hard to remember anything overnight. And if you moved on, after a few hours on the road you forgot what happened behind you in some other county or state or time. Franklin was promising now hed make the purchase of a new truck, if they could get to Texarkana he would get the money by wire he was saying, louder and more sincere than hed made the promise last time, and Carleton shook his head, Jesus! you wanted to believe him even if you knew better. There was a philosophy that said: The more accidents you had, the less in store for you. Like the philosophy credited to Jack Dempsey: The more punches a man takes, the closer he is to the end. Because a man has only a fixed number of punches he can take in his lifetime. "Pa? Momma wants you." It was Sharleen pulling at his arm. Carleton went with her to the back of the truck, worried now. What about Pearl? But there was Pearl squa Details ISBN0812968344 Author Elaine Showalter Short Title GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS Language English ISBN-10 0812968344 ISBN-13 9780812968347 Media Book Format Paperback Year 2003 Residence Princeton, NJ, US Birth 1938 Pages 448 DOI 10.1604/9780812968347 Series Number 1 Country of Publication United States UK Release Date 2003-04-22 AU Release Date 2003-04-22 NZ Release Date 2003-04-22 US Release Date 2003-04-22 Publisher Random House USA Inc Series The Wonderland Quartet Publication Date 2003-04-22 Imprint Modern Library Inc DEWEY 813.54 Audience General We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:9297328;

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