New York: Random House, 1974. First Edition, First Printing. Hardcover. Octavo, 245 pages. In Very Good minus condition with a Very Good minus dust jacket. Dust jacket protected with a mylar covering. Spine dark green with white and orange lettering. Slight scratches exteriorly with mild soiling to the rear, minor wear to the edges and light age toning to the flaps. Boards have slight sun fading and mild tilt to the spine. Text block has very slight age toning to the edges. Deckled fore edge. First Edition, First Printing. 1371443. FP New Rockville Stock.

Synopsis

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.

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Details

Bookseller: Second Story Books, ABAA (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #: 1371443
Title: THE 158-POUND MARRIAGE
Author: Irving, John
Format/Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Used
Quantity Available: 1
Edition: First Edition, First Printing
ISBN 10: 0394484142
ISBN 13: 9780394484143
Publisher: Random House
Place of Publication: New York
Date Published: 1974

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Second Story Books, ABAA

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Second Story Books, ABAA

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Flap(s): The portion of a book cover or cover jacket that folds into the book from front to back. The flap can contain biographical...
Text Block: Most simply the inside pages of a book. More precisely, the block of paper formed by the cut and stacked pages of a book....
First Edition: In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
Octavo: Another of the terms referring to page or book size, octavo refers to a standard printer's sheet folded four times, producing...
Spine: The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
Edges: The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...
Fore Edge: The portion of a book that is opposite the spine. That part of a book which faces the wall when shelved in a traditional...
Jacket: Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...