The 158-Pound Marriage
by Irving, John
- Used
- good
- Hardcover
- Signed
- first
- Condition
- Good/Very Good
- ISBN 10
- 0394484142
- ISBN 13
- 9780394484143
- Seller
-
Rockville, Maryland, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
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
- Seller
- Bren-Books.com (US)
- Seller's Inventory #
- 4547
- Title
- The 158-Pound Marriage
- Author
- Irving, John
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Good
- Jacket Condition
- Very Good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First Edition
- ISBN 10
- 0394484142
- ISBN 13
- 9780394484143
- Publisher
- Random House Inc
- Place of Publication
- New York, New York, U.S.A.
- Date Published
- 1974
- Keywords
- MAN WOMAN RELATIONSHIPS FICTION MARRIED
- Bookseller catalogs
- fiction-literature;
Terms of Sale
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Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- 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....
- Bookplate
- Highly sought after by some collectors, a book plate is an inscribed or decorative device that identifies the owner, or former...
- Price Clipped
- When a book is described as price-clipped, it indicates that the portion of the dust jacket flap that has the publisher's...
- 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...
- FFEP
- A common abbreviation for Front Free End Paper. Generally, it is the first page of a book and is part of a single sheet that...