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The 158-Pound Marriage

The 158-Pound Marriage

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The 158-Pound Marriage

by John Irving

  • Used
  • near fine
  • Hardcover
  • Signed
  • first
Condition
Near Fine
Seller
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
Item Price
$450.00
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About This Item

New York: Random House, 1974. First Edition 1st Printing. Hardcover. Near Fine. First Edition/First Printing. Hardcover. Near Fine book in a Nearly fine priced dust jacket.. Signed by the author on the title page. Book has a slight spine lean and sticker residue on the inside front board. The Jacket has a touch of wear to the spine ends and some wrinkling to the bottom front panel. Third novel from the author.

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.

Read More: Identifying first editions of The 158-Pound Marriage

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Details

Bookseller
MDS Books CA (CA)
Bookseller's Inventory #
001487
Title
The 158-Pound Marriage
Author
John Irving
Format/Binding
Hardcover
Book Condition
Used - Near Fine
Quantity Available
1
Edition
First Edition 1st Printing
Publisher
Random House
Place of Publication
New York
Date Published
1974

Terms of Sale

MDS Books

30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.

About the Seller

MDS Books

Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Biblio member since 2013
Mississauga, Ontario

About MDS Books

Modern First Editions, Fiction, Poetry.

Glossary

Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

Fine
A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
Jacket
Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
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...
Title Page
A page at the front of a book which may contain the title of the book, any subtitles, the authors, contributors, editors, the...
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....

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