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The 158 Pound Marriage
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The 158 Pound Marriage Paperback - 1982

by Irving


About this book

The 158-Pound Marriage, author John Irving's third published novel, revolves around an unidentified narrator, a college professor, and a mediocre novelist. The narrator met his wife Utch, an orphaned survivor of WWII, in Vienna while doing research. They are a relatively happy couple; their family rounded out by two children. At a faculty party, they meet Severin Winter, a Viennese-born professor and coach of the college wrestling team, and his wife, Edith. The couple's interests (Edith is an aspiring fiction writer, and Severin has a commonality with Utch's upbringing in Austria) and resulting infatuations between the couples lead to after-dinner partner-swapping. At first, the swinging goes smoothly, but eventually, uneven feelings and obsessions throw the couples off track. The title, The 158-Pound Marriage, refers to the 158-pound weight class in wrestling, which Severin, the coach, feels is the most competitive. The book is small, only 176 pages, compared to Irving's later weighty tomes, like the 610 page The World According to Garp (1978) and The Cider House Rules (1985), which is 973 pages.

From the publisher

The darker vision and sexual ambiguities of this erotic, ironic tale about a mnage a quatre in a New England university town foreshadow those of The World According to Garp; but this very trim and precise novel is a marked departure from the author's generally robust, boisterous style. Though Mr. Irving's cool eye spares none of his foursome, he writes with genuine compassion for the sexual tests and illusions they perpetrate on each other; but the sexual intrigue between them demonstrates how even the kind can be ungenerous, and even the well-intentioned, destructive.

First line

HASH(0x11143680)

First Edition Identification

The First edition of The 158-Pound Marriage was published on August 12, 1974, by Random House. "First Edition" is stated to copyright page, and number line begins with 2, per Random House's custom of identifying first edition (98765432). The American edition has a $5.95 printed on the front flap of the dust jacket. This is a scarce novel in first edition state, of which only around 2,600 were printed.

Details

  • Title The 158 Pound Marriage
  • Author Irving
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition Mass Market Pape
  • Publisher POCKET, New York, New York, U.S.A.
  • Date October 3, 1982
  • ISBN 9780671468118

About the author

John Irving has been nominated for a National Book Award three times--winning once, in 1980, for the novel The World According to Garp. In 1992, Mr. Irving was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma. In 2000, he won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules--a film with seven Academy Award nominations.
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The 158 Pound Marriage
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The 158 Pound Marriage

by John Irving

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158 Pound Marriage
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158 Pound Marriage

by Irving, John

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The 158 Pound Marriage
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The 158 Pound Marriage

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The 158 Pound Marriage
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The 158-Pound Marriage
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The 158-Pound Marriage

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The 158 Pound Marriage
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The 158 Pound Marriage
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The 158 Pound Marriage

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ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
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The 158 Pound Marriage
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The 158 Pound Marriage

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The 158 Pound Marriage
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

The 158 Pound Marriage

by Irving, John

  • Used
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  • Paperback
Condition
Used - Good
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780671468118 / 0671468111
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Pocket, 1982-10-03. Paperback. Good. Prompt shipment, with tracking. we ship in CLEAN SECURE NEW boxes Good. Pages little tan, some creasing. *
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