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Summary From NYRB Classics


Stoner is the story of a man and his fate: his pursuit of love and his faith in the value of honest work. In beautiful, clear prose, John Williams writes a remarkably original, thoughtful, and moving variation on the classic American story of the “self-made man.” William Stoner is the only son of a dirt-poor Missouri farmer who is sent to college to study agriculture and discovers there the life of the mind. He makes his first friends there, is mentored by an English professor who awakens in him a deep love of teaching and learning, and decides never to go back to his old way of life. But it is not so easy to leave the past behind — Stoner is haunted by the distance that opens between him and his parents—or to find a way into the future. He falls in love with and marries Edith, a girl from a far more privileged background, but he is mystified when their marriage turns cold and uncommunicative, while the birth of their one child only divides them further; soon there is nothing of his home life left. Stoner takes refuge in his work but has battles to wage there too. Charles Walker, a conniving and unqualified student, has the support of Professor Lomax, a powerful member of the department; when Stoner upholds the principles of academic rigor and seriousness by refusing to pass Walker, Lomax begins a lifetime of professional retaliation and personal revenge against him. Later in life, when Stoner finds genuine love in the company of Katherine Driscoll, a graduate student, it is Lomax who makes sure to subvert their connection. Stoner tells a seemingly simple story of ordinary life, of disappointment, compromise, and endurance. The magic of John Williams’s novel is that it transforms what would appear to be a chronicle of failure into a tale of unexpected triumph, the triumph of a man’s stoic determination and dignity in spite of the destructive agencies of the world.


Discussion Questions From NYRB Classics


1. The first page of the book gives away the whole story, in a way, and yet it also draws you in. Is this a different approach than you’re used to? What are you curious about while you read the rest of the novel? Do you think back to Stoner’s fate while you’re reading, and does that change your feelings about what’s happening in the story? Do you like this kind of opening or not?

2. What do you think about Stoner’s relationship to his parents? Why does his father encourage him to go to school, and do you think Stoner’s decision to stay at the university
is a disappointment to his father or not? How is Stoner affected by the death of his father?

3. Edith is described as doing many unsympathetic things, but the novel also describes her own lonely, unhappy childhood [pp. 54–55], and at the end Stoner forgives her [p. 272]. Is he right to forgive her? Do you sympathize with Edith or not? Does her character seem realistic? Do you think the descriptions of her “war” against Stoner are fair or unfair?

4. In one of Stoner’s few confrontations with Edith, she says that she loves her husband and child, and he realizes that she means it [pp. 125–126]. Is she telling the truth? In what way? Does that make the whole situation better or worse?

5. When Edith’s father commits suicide, her mother says mysteriously, “They were very close...much closer than they seemed” [p. 116]. What do you think she means by this? How
is Edith like her father?

6. Do you think Stoner is a good father to Grace? Why or why not?

7. In the book there are many beautiful descriptions of places, both outdoors and indoors, to which Stoner feels closely connected. He builds his study, for example, to define “an image that was ostensibly of a place but which was actually of himself” [p. 100]. Are there other
places that have such important meaning for him? Which places do you see in that way in your own life?

8. What happens to turn Stoner into a good teacher, and why is this such a deep change for him [pp. 112–113]? Are there connections between this description of authentic, enthusiastic teaching and Williams’s style in the book as a whole?

9. Why does Stoner, in spite of all the consequences, insist on opposing Walker? What values is he trying to uphold? Is he right to be so stubborn, or should he have given in?
10. Two of the most important characters in the book, Charles Walker and Dr. Hollis Lomax, are physically deformed. Why do you think Williams chose to make them
deformed? Do you think this deformity has a deeper meaning? Later, when Stoner is in love with Katherine, “it occurred to him that he had never before known the body of another; and it occurred to him further that that was the reason he had always somehow separated the self of another from the body that carried that self around” [p. 196]. Is this related? What is Stoner’s own body like? Edith’s? Grace’s?

11. Stoner says that his relationship with Katherine made him look closely at the familiar, ridiculous figure of a man having a midlife crisis and an affair with a younger woman, “but the longer he looked, the less familiar it became. It was not himself that he saw, and he knew suddenly that it was no one” [p. 202]. Does Stoner’s story change your view of this cliché as well? Are there people it really does apply to? If it is true of no one, then where do clichés
like this come from?

12. Why doesn’t Stoner run away with Katherine? Do you think he should have? Why? What do you think would have happened?
13. Much of the fate of the characters in this book seems determined by their childhood. In what way are people free to change or escape their upbringings? Stoner, Edith, Grace: do they define themselves or are they determined by their pasts?

14. John Williams said in an interview that “I think [William Stoner] is a real hero. A lot of people who have read the novel think that Stoner had such a sad and bad life. I think he had a very good life.” Do you agree? In what ways is Stoner’s life successful or heroic?


About the Author From NYRB Classics


John Williams (1922–1994) was born and raised in Northeast
Texas. Despite a talent for writing and acting, Williams flunked out of a local junior college after his first year and reluctantly joined the war effort, serving in the United States Army Air Force in China, Burma, and India from 1942 to 1945. Once home, Williams found a small publisher for his first novel and enrolled at the University of Denver, where he was eventually to receive both his B.A. and M.A., and where he was to return as an instructor in 1954. Williams founded the creative writing program at the University of Denver and remained on its staff until he retired to Arkansas in 1985.

I admit that the title of this book did catch my attention and then when I read what it was about and some of the reviews I was quite intrigued. Thus far I am really enjoying it. It is one of those books that seems like it should be boring and yet because of how it is written, somehow it isn't.

One of things that really baffles me is what compelled Edith to rush into marriage with Stoner?

It does not seem that she ever had any affection or love for him. She was young, attractive, from an affluent family and her own family advised against tne marriage so it us not as if she was desperate to be married or pressured into it. It seems like she would have had other opportunities for more suitable prospects.

At first I thought it was because she was pregnant and wanted to marry to save herself from disgrace, than I thought maybe she had some chronic illness and new she would not live long and didn't want to burden her family with it or something because she became ill shortly after the marriage but neither of thise things proved to be the case.

It seems to me as if she agreed to the marriage out of some form of self-punishment though I don't know the reasoning why.

Her agreeing to marry him doesn't make any rational sense.

This is one of my all time favourite books. It just seems like one everyone should read and I really can't put my finger on why that is. I suggested it to one of my book clubs recently and everyone hated it, I mean loathed it. And, I have to admit my 2nd time around with the audible version was not even close to reading it the old fashioned way and more irritating than enjoyable. Stoner isn't the most sympathetic character, but maybe I identified with his slow, plodding, refusal to stop living. Maybe life doesn't always have to be about excitement and adventure. Maybe it's about duty and persistence?

I'm just starting this and really looking forward to it!

It is really good so far. Such an ordinary story, really, but told so well. It is hard to put down.

Silver wrote: "I admit that the title of this book did catch my attention and then when I read what it was about and some of the reviews I was quite intrigued. Thus far I am really enjoying it. It is one of those..."

I am trying to figure out Edith, myself. She is definitely not right and I am not sure why. I am trying very hard to feel sympathy for her but it isn't very easy.

Diane wrote: " ..."I am trying to figure out Edith, myself. She is definitely not right and I am not sure why. I am trying very hard to feel sympathy for her but it isn't very easy.

She does seem to be unbalanced particularly as the story progresses. I keep waiting for something that will explain her marriage.

Perhaps she had a poor relationship with her father and got married to get away, then realized that she really couldn't identify with men in general. Just a theory.

Diane wrote: "Perhaps she had a poor relationship with her father and got married to get away, then realized that she really couldn't identify with men in general. Just a theory."

It is possible but I don't think anything in the story really suggests that.

Though I did think that maybe she had no interst in marrying at all so she figured she might just as well marry Stoner.

Allyson wrote: Stoner isn't the most sympathetic character, but maybe I identified with his slow, plodding, refusal to stop living. Maybe life doesn't always have to be about excitement and adventuree: "..."

I never thought of Stoner as unsympathetic. He seems like a good decent person. It was impressive I thought the way he too over the role of primary caretaker for his daughter. And he was a rather indulgent and patient husband to a difficult, ungrateful, selfish and possibly mentally unstable wife.

I wonder if there is an imlplication that Edith was sexually abused by her father. I think it would explain a lot.

Her rush to get married, her dread/disinterest in physical intimacy and her seemingly unbalanced mental and emotional sate.

I wonder at the mysterious words spoken by her mother at the funeral

"They were very close"
"Closer than they seem"

And the complete transformation Edith goes through after her father's death.

Silver wrote: "I wonder if there is an imlplication that Edith was sexually abused by her father. I think it would explain a lot.

Her rush to get married, her dread/disinterest in physical intimacy and her seem..."

I thought the same thing. It would explain a lot about the way she is.

I think that was the first time she went home for any length of time, then came the sudden transformation, and the destruction of all the toys given to her by her father.

I feel bad for Grace with Edith now using her for her war against Stoner. She doesn't even care what Grace really wants. I cringed when Edith started "girlifying" everything of Graces.

It seems to me that one dimension of this story is about the things that Stoner endures and the choices he makes to continue enduring. Just when you want to categorize him as a follower who has no backbone that just goes along with everyone else's plans, you are reminded that he could have studied farming and gone home to run the family ranch or he could have not had an affair. Moreover, he could have resisted the urge to court Edith in the first place, I mean that takes backbone and courage. Why does he remain so calm and cool when challenged with Edith's mental disorder, the ordeal with Sloane and his cheating student, and his daughter's pregnancy. He seems to care about some things enough to take a stand but other things that seem to require him to put his foot down, he just endures. Was he just being a good and dutiful husband? Maybe, but he did have an affair. Why hold the line on the cheating student? What difference did it make in the end? Is he really a great man with an incredible moral compass and great self control? I want to believe that is the case, that he is a good man with a high moral character who follows through with his endeavors even when they are failing for the simple reason that they are right. But the same thing that makes this not true for me, his infidelity, also makes him real.

I just finished reading Stoner. I really liked this novel, because in a way, it felt like I could relate. I am an English major, so in a way, I could see where William Stoner's thought process is lying. While there were choices he made that I disagreed with, when all is said and done, everyone is human. Stoner just seemed to dance to his own tune and was willing to stick to what he believed, despite enduring a lot of crap for it. One thing this novel succeeded at was creating despicable characters that were easy to despise. I thought that Edith was a raging lunatic, but it goes to show you that Stoner only saw a physical attraction to which he replied with marriage. Hollis Lomax also seems to be a caricature of what we see as the push for complete political correctness. His ailment seemed to be what created a special bias for Charles. I just loved when Stoner stuck it to Lomax by restructuring his freshman composition class he was handed.

I agree with you, Silver, on the issue of Grace. Edith seemed to force herself upon Grace and turn her against her father, making Edith's character even more despicable. Grace never had much of an opportunity to make her own decisions, because her mother had an influence that was more like blackmail. This led Grace to make poor decisions that included getting pregnant out of wedlock and become an alcoholic.

I saw this as a scholarly novel. It will attract a specific group of people, while others may not get a great deal out of this. I enjoyed it and possessed sympathy for Stoner, despite his dry disposition.

I 'read' this book last year and very much enjoyed it. I say 'read' as it was my first audiobook from the library and it worked very well in that format. My review is here:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...