Plot: William Stoner, professor and academic, is an overlooked, forgotten person. He discovers his passion for literature in college, leading him to become a scholar. His mundane life includes a joyless marriage, an affair justified by a loss of faith in love, a daughter whom he cannot protect, and a realization of the insignificance of himself. It isn't until his life, marriage, family, career, and scholarly importance disintegrates that he truly feels his identity and his sense of self. It takes a deathbed and a life of doubts and settlements to arrive here, and it is powerful in its implications.[1]
Character list:
- William Stoner: scholar and main character
- Edith: Stoner's wife
- Grace: Stoner's daughter
- Archer Sloane: Instructor who introduced Stoner to his passion for literature[2]
Theme: Love [1]
Critical Reception (Contemporary):
Steve Almond raves in The New York Times Magazine about Stoner: "I devoured it in one sitting. I had never encountered a work so ruthless in its devotion to human truths and so tender in its execution."[1]