John Updike's highly acclaimed saga of desire and regret, first published in 1959, introduces Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, a typical Middle American--small-town Protestant, former basketball star, married man intent on making a name for himself in the community--whose life begins to unravel when he falls in love and deserts his wife. Caught between his sense of duty and his intimations of life's real depth, he is unable to commit himself to one or the other.

In this third installment of the "Serpent War Saga"--and the eighth book in the "Riftwar" series--never-ending war has thrown the world into chaos, leaving it vulnerable to attack from the Demon King. Macros, Pug, and their companions must now fight the evil on its own terms.

In this third installment of the "Serpent War Saga"--and the eighth book in the "Riftwar" series--never-ending war has thrown the world into chaos, leaving it vulnerable to attack from the Demon King. Macros, Pug, and their companions must now fight the evil on its own terms.

Doctorow's novel takes place in turn-of-the-century New York, and mingles real-life and fictional characters. The plot involves the Evelyn Nesbit-Stanford White intrigue, but also includes a black musician and his girlfriend, a Jewish peddler on the Lower East Side, and a coterie of wealthy Anglo-Saxons in pursuit of wealth. Time magazine called RAGTIME one of the 10 best books of the 1970s, and it was made into a successful musical.