Stoner is a novel by the American writer John Williams. Published on April 23, 1965 by Viking Press,[1] the novel received little attention on first release, but saw a surge of popularity and critical praise since its republication in the 2000s. It has been championed by authors such as Julian Barnes, Ian McEwan, Bret Easton Ellis, and John McGahern.[2][3]
Stoner has been categorized under the genre of the academic novel, or the campus novel.[4] Stoner follows the life of the eponymous William Stoner, his career and workplace politics, marriage to his wife Edith, affair with his colleague Katherine, and his love and pursuit of literature.
Plot
William Stoner is born on a small farm in 1891. One day his father suggests he should attend the University of Missouri to study agriculture. Stoner agrees, but following an encounter with Shakespeare's Sonnet 73 in Archer Sloane's English course, falls in love with literature. Without telling his parents, Stoner quits the agriculture program and studies the humanities. He completes his MA in English and begins teaching. In graduate school, he befriends fellow students Gordon Finch and Dave Masters. World War I begins, and Finch and Masters enlist, but despite Finch urging him to join the war, Stoner remains in school after a talk with Sloane. Masters is killed in France, while Finch sees action and becomes an officer. At a faculty party, Stoner meets and becomes infatuated with a young woman named Edith. He woos her and she cancels a trip to Europe so they can marry.
Hostility develops between them as she is uninterested in sex and Stoner insists, and proceeds anyway. After three years of marriage, Edith suddenly informs Stoner that she wants a baby, becomes passionately sexual for a brief period, but after their daughter Grace is born, she remains bedridden for nearly a year. Stoner largely cares for their child alone. He grows close to her: she spends most of her time with him in his study. Stoner gradually realizes that Edith is waging a campaign to separate him from his daughter emotionally. For the most part, Stoner accepts Edith's mistreatment. He begins to teach with more enthusiasm, but still, year in and year out, his marriage with Edith remains perpetually unsatisfactory. Grace becomes an unhappy, secretive child who smiles and laughs often but is emotionally hollow.
At the University, Finch becomes the acting dean. Stoner feels compelled by his conscience to fail a student named Charles Walker, a clos
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