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Discover an American masterpiece. This unassuming story about the life of a quiet English professor has earned the admiration of readers all over the globe.
William Stoner is born at the end of the nineteenth century into a dirt-poor Missouri farming family. Sent to the state university to study agronomy, he instead falls in love with English literature and embraces a scholar s life, so different from the hardscrabble existence he has known. And yet as the years pass, Stoner encounters a succession of disappointments: marriage into a proper family estranges him from his parents; his career is stymied; his wife and daughter turn coldly away from him; a transforming experience of new love ends under threat of scandal. Driven ever deeper within himself, Stoner rediscovers the stoic silence of his forebears and confronts an essential solitude.
John Williams s luminous and deeply moving novel is a work of quiet perfection. William Stoner emerges from it not only as an archetypal American, but as an unlikely existential hero, standing, like a figure in a painting by Edward Hopper, in stark relief against an unforgiving world.
William Stoner is born at the end of the nineteenth century into a dirt-poor Missouri farming family. Sent to the state university to study agronomy, he instead falls in love with English literature and embraces a scholar s life, so different from the hardscrabble existence he has known. And yet as the years pass, Stoner encounters a succession of disappointments: marriage into a proper family estranges him from his parents; his career is stymied; his wife and daughter turn coldly away from him; a transforming experience of new love ends under threat of scandal. Driven ever deeper within himself, Stoner rediscovers the stoic silence of his forebears and confronts an essential solitude.
John Williams s luminous and deeply moving novel is a work of quiet perfection. William Stoner emerges from it not only as an archetypal American, but as an unlikely existential hero, standing, like a figure in a painting by Edward Hopper, in stark relief against an unforgiving world.
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. He reluctantly joined the war effort, enlisting in the Army Air Corps, and managing to write a draft of his first novel while there. Once home, Williams found a small publisher for the 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 remained on the staff of the creative writing program at the University of Denver until his retirement in 1985. During these years, he was an active guest lecturer and writer, publishing two volumes of poetry and three novels, Butcher’s Crossing, Stoner, and the National Book Award–winning Augustus.John McGahern (1934-2006) was one of the most acclaimed Irish writers of his generation. His work, including six novels and four collections of short stories, often centered on the Irish predicament, both political and temperamental. Amongst Women, his best-known book, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and made into a popular miniseries. His last book, the memoir All Will Be Well, was published shortly before his death.
©The University of Denver
Warum wird dieses Buch erst jetzt berühmt? Mit "Stoner" hat John Williams 1965 einen Klassiker geschrieben, der jetzt auch auf Deutsch zu entdecken ist.
Eine "amerikanische Offenbarung" nannte eine französische Zeitung John Williams' "Stoner". Der Roman war bereits 1965 erschienen; doch erst 2006 mit der Neuausgabe in der legendären Reihe "New York Review Book Classics" fand er weltweit Beachtung. C. P. Snow, der Autor von "Die zwei Kulturen", begann seine Eloge in der "Financial Times" mit dem Satz: "Why isn't this book famous?" Eine der möglichen Antworten wäre, weil die Hauptfigur, der zurückhaltende Literaturprofessor William Stoner, nicht hineinpasste in die literarische Szene der sechziger Jahre. Eine andere, weil dieser Sohn bitterarmer Farmer aus dem Mittelwesten aus der Zeit gefallen ist, geradezu einzigartig in seiner stoischen Ruhe und Schicksalsergebenheit. "Hemingway ohne Lärm", so hat ein Kritiker den Stil von Williams zu beschreiben versucht. Auf jeden Fall hat Williams eine wunderbar klare Sprache, die ohne große Worte auskommt, aber fähig ist, tiefste Empfindungen auszudrücken. Es geht um nichts Geringeres als Liebe und den Sinn und die Würde des Lebens.
John Williams (1922 bis 1994) hat Gedichte und vier Romane geschrieben - einer davon, "Augustus", wurde mit dem Pulitzerpreis ausgezeichnet. "Stoner" ist der erste, der jetzt ins Deutsche übersetzt wurde. Williams ist wie Stoner ein passionierter Hochschullehrer gewesen. Seine Seminare und Schreibkurse waren berühmt, wie auch seine exzessiven Trinkgelage, die seine Gesundheit ruinierten. Mag sein, dass er im Universitätsbetrieb von Denver Intrigen und ähnliche Enttäuschungen erfahren musste wie sein Alter Ego in Columbia.
Den Mikrokosmos Universität, abgehoben vom Alltäglichen, eine Brutstätte von Feindschaften, aber auch eine Zuflucht, wo Wissenschaft absolute Hingabe verlangt und dafür tiefe Befriedigung schenken kann - Williams hat ihn minutiös beschrieben. Er fand hier nach den Schrecken des Krieges, die er als Pilot in Indien und Burma erlebte, zu sich selbst. Seinen Stoner lässt er allerdings, anders als dessen beide Freunde, nicht in den Krieg ziehen: "Er bringt es nicht über sich, die Deutschen zu hassen." Wie sein verehrter Lehrer Sloane ist er überzeugt davon, dass der "Krieg in einem Volk etwas tötet, das nie mehr wiederbelebt werden kann ... Der Gelehrte sollte nicht gebeten werden, das zu zerstören, was er sein Leben lang aufzubauen versucht hat."
William Stoner hat in seiner Jugend nichts anderes kennengelernt als die Arbeit auf den kargen Feldern seines Vaters, von der die kleine Familie kaum leben konnte. Und es scheint kein Ende zu nehmen mit der Schinderei: Um ein landwirtschaftliches College besuchen zu könnenen, muss er für Kost und Logis das Vieh seiner Verwandten versorgen, ehe er in seiner ungeheizten Dachkammer lernen kann. Nach zwei Semestern öffnet sich für ihn mit einem Sonett Shakespeares wie ein Wunder die Tür zu den Schätzen von Literatur und Philosophie. Endlich hat er gefunden, was er gesucht hat und was er nun beharrlich ergründen will. Er wechselt seine Studienfächer, und nachdem er sein Examen bestanden hat, erhält er auch einen bescheiden dotierten Lehrauftrag.
Es sind immer wieder die mit größtmöglicher Genauigkeit beschriebenen Bilder und Porträts, die sich einprägen, Szenen wie die beim fast wortlosen Abschied Stoners von seinen Eltern, von denen er sich unter Schmerzen entfremdet hat. Oder seine Erscheinung auf dem Campus: eine hagere, von harter Arbeit früh gebeugte Gestalt in einem abgetragenen dunklen Anzug, ein Außenseiter, der den Betrieb und jede Geselligkeit scheut, seine Pflichten aber gewissenhaft und oft mit ansteckender Begeisterung erfüllt. Ein durch und durch Bescheidener auf dem Jahrmarkt der Eitelkeiten, der nicht zuletzt deshalb Gelassenheit und Würde ausstrahlt.
Dass sein möglicher Aufstieg in eine höhere Gesellschaftsschicht durch die Ehe mit der Tochter eines Bankiers scheitert, ist vorauszusehen. Doch zum ersten Mal liebt er, alles andere ist ihm gleichgültig. Er versucht nur äußerlich, sich den Ansprüchen seiner Frau anzupassen. Nach einem Monat weiß er jedoch, dass er blind gewesen war, überwältigt von Gefühlen, die seine frigide Ehefrau nicht erwidert. Es gibt keinerlei Übereinstimmung zwischen den Eheleuten. Und die verwöhnte, frustrierte, zänkische Frau - sie ist nicht frei von schizoiden Zügen - entwickelt sich zu einem zerstörerischen Monster. Für Stoner beginnt ein intimes, fast lebenslanges Martyrium. Wehrlos nimmt er Demütigungen und Niedertracht hin. Selbst als die einzige Tochter, die er anfangs mit großer Liebe allein versorgt hat, von ihm ferngehalten wird, protestiert er nicht, auch nicht, als ihn seine Frau aus dem Haus drängt. Die Universitätsbibliothek und sein schmales Studierzimmer sind von nun an sein Refugium, in dem er forschen, entdecken und schreiben kann. Die großen Gestalten der Literatur werden ihm vertrauter als seine Familie und seine Kollegen an der Universität, wo nur ein einziger Freund zu ihm hält.
Mit Anfang vierzig fühlt er sich einsam und ausgebrannt. "Vor sich sah er nichts, auf das er sich zu freuen wünschte, und hinter sich nur wenig, woran er sich gern erinnerte." Doch dann wird er unerwartet durch eine neue Liebe von diesem "Gewicht der Verzweiflung" befreit. Als "Akt der Menschwerdung" empfindet er seine Vereinigung mit Katherine. Es gelingt ihm, mit ihr vertraut zu werden voller Hingabe, Zärtlichkeit und Ruhe. Sie sprechen eine gemeinsame Sprache und stimmen auch mit Lust beim gemeinsamen Lernen überein. "Wie alle Liebespaare redeten sie viel über sich selbst, als könnten sie so die Welt besser verstehen, die sie möglich gemacht hatte."
Einmal sprechen sie von ihrem Glück, doch da ahnen sie schon, dass es gefährdet ist durch die bigotte Moral der Universitätsgesellschaft in den sechziger Jahren. Vor der Zerstörung ihrer Existenzgrundlage scheuen sich beide. Selten ist eine Liebesbeziehung so zart und anrührend beschrieben worden. Sie endet lautlos und ohne jede Hoffnung im "Chaos des Möglichen". Stoner gibt Katherine auf wie sie ihn. Ihm bleibt die tröstliche Gewissheit, dass er wenigstens ein einziges Mal vollendetes Glück erfahren hat. Seine Resignation ist frei von Bitterkeit, doch sein Körper reagiert mit schwerer Krankheit. Danach vergräbt er sich mehr und mehr in seinem abgeschotteten Gelehrtendasein.
Gegen Ende seines Lebens findet er zurück zu Frau und Tochter. "Sie hatten sich das Leid vergeben, das sie einander zugefügt hatten, und betrachteten selbstversunken, was aus ihrem gemeinsamen Leben hätte werden können." Kurz vor seinem Tod zieht er ein Fazit. Er bekennt sich zu seinem Scheitern in der Ehe, aber auch zu seiner Wehrlosigkeit als Hochschullehrer gegenüber seinen intriganten Kollegen, die seine Karriere an der Hochschule verhindert hatten. Doch was er getan hat, hat er gern getan. Unfähig zu kämpfen, ist er sich doch selbst treu geblieben. Nein, er ist kein Versager, und das Eingeständnis von Schwäche ist keine Kapitulation, er behält seine Würde: "Mit plötzlicher Kraft fühlte er seine Macht. Er war er selbst, und er wusste, was er gewesen war."
John Williams ist nun als der große Unbekannte der amerikanischen Literatur entdeckt worden, sein "Stoner" gilt als Klassiker der Moderne. An der Qualität des Romans ist nicht zu zweifeln. Es sind gerade die leisen Töne und die tiefe menschliche Weisheit seines scheuen Helden, die ihn so liebenswert machen. Bleibt noch zu loben, dass der Übersetzer Bernhard Robben makellose Arbeit geleistet hat.
MARIA FRISÉ
John Williams: "Stoner". Roman.
Aus dem Amerikanischen von Bernhard Robben. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, München 2013. 351 S., geb., 19,90 [Euro].
Alle Rechte vorbehalten. © F.A.Z. GmbH, Frankfurt am Main
A beautiful, sad, utterly convincing account of an entire life I m amazed a novel this good escaped general attention for so long. Ian McEwan
One of the great unheralded 20th-century American novels Almost perfect. Bret Easton Ellis
Stoner is a novel of an ordinary life, an examination of a quiet tragedy, the work of a great but little-known writer. Ruth Rendell
A beautiful and moving novel, as sweeping, intimate, and mysterious as life itself. Geoff Dyer
I have read few novels as deep and as clear as Stoner. It deserves to be called a quiet classic of American literature. Chad Harbach
The most beautiful book in the world. Emma Straub
"A poignant campus novel from the mid-'60s an unjustly neglected gem." Nick Hornby, People
The book begins boldly with a mention of Stoner s death, and a nod to his profound averageness: Few students remembered him with any sharpness after they had taken his courses. By the end, though, Williams has made Stoner s disappointing life into such a deep and honest portrait, so unsoftened and unromanticized, that it s quietly breathtaking. The Boston Globe
Williams descriptions of the experience of reading both elucidate and evince the pleasures of literary language; the minute, strange, and unexpected combinations of letters and words in which Stoner finds joy are re-enacted in Williams own perfect fusion of words. n+1
Stoner, by John Williams, is a slim novel, and not a particularly joyous one. But it is so quietly beautiful and moving, so precisely constructed, that you want to read it in one sitting and enjoy being in it, altered somehow, as if you have been allowed to wear an exquisitely tailored garment that you don t want to take off. The Globe and Mail
One of the great forgotten novels of the past century. I have bought at least 50 copies of it in the past few years, using it as a gift for friends...The book is so beautifully paced and cadenced that it deserves the status of classic. Colum McCann, Top 10 Novels, The Guardian
Stoner is undeniably a great book, but I can also understand why it isn t a sentimental favorite in its native land. You could almost describe it as an anti-Gatsby...Part of Stoner s greatness is that it sees life whole and as it is, without delusion yet without despair...The novel embodies the very virtues it exalts, the same virtues that probably relegate it, like its titular hero, to its perpetual place in the shade. But the book, like professor William Stoner, isn t out to win popularity contests. It endures, illumined from within. Tim Kreider, The New Yorker
It s simply a novel about a guy who goes to college and becomes a teacher. But it s one of the most fascinating things that you ve ever come across. Tom Hanks, Time
Stoner is written in the most plainspoken of styles...Its hero is an obscure academic who endures a series of personal and professional agonies. Yet the novel is utterly riveting, and for one simple reason: because the author, John Williams, treats his characters with such tender and ruthless honesty that we cannot help but love them. Steve Almond, Tin House
The best book I read in 2007 was Stoner by John Williams. It s perhaps the best book I ve read in years. Stephen Elliott, The Believer
John Williams s Stoner is something rarer than a great novel it is a perfect novel, so well told and beautifully written, so deeply moving, that it takes your breath away. The New York Times Book Review
Williams didn t write much compared with some novelists, but everything he did was exceedingly fine...it s a shame that he s not more often read today...But it s great that at least two of his novels [Stoner, Butcher s Crossing] have found their way back into print. The Denver Post
A masterly portrait of a truly virtuous and dedicated man. The New Yorker
Why isn t this book famous...Very few novels in English, or literary productions of any kind, have come anywhere near its level for human wisdom or as a work of art. C. P. Snow
Serious, beautiful and affecting, what makes Stoner so impressive is the contained intensity the author and character share. Irving Howe, The New Republic
A quiet but resonant achievement. The Times Literary Supplement
Perhaps the greatest example of minimalism I ve ever read...Stoner is a story of great hope for the writer who cares about her work. Stephen Elliott
Stoner by John Williams, contains what is no doubt my favorite literary romance of all time. William Stoner is well into his 40s, and mired in an unhappy marriage, when he meets Katherine, another shy professor of literature. The affair that ensues is described with a beauty so fierce that it takes my breath away each time I read it. The chapters devoted to this romance are both terribly sexy and profoundly wise. The Christian Science Monitor
I m not a big rereader, but I just reread Stoner by John Williams, and marveled once again at its remarkable combination of omniscience and intimacy. Jess Walter
My favorite book ever is this book by John Williams . I want more people to read this . It had me thinking about my life more than any other book has. I was like, I just don t want to get to the end. Booksaresick, TikTok
One of the great unheralded 20th-century American novels Almost perfect. Bret Easton Ellis
Stoner is a novel of an ordinary life, an examination of a quiet tragedy, the work of a great but little-known writer. Ruth Rendell
A beautiful and moving novel, as sweeping, intimate, and mysterious as life itself. Geoff Dyer
I have read few novels as deep and as clear as Stoner. It deserves to be called a quiet classic of American literature. Chad Harbach
The most beautiful book in the world. Emma Straub
"A poignant campus novel from the mid-'60s an unjustly neglected gem." Nick Hornby, People
The book begins boldly with a mention of Stoner s death, and a nod to his profound averageness: Few students remembered him with any sharpness after they had taken his courses. By the end, though, Williams has made Stoner s disappointing life into such a deep and honest portrait, so unsoftened and unromanticized, that it s quietly breathtaking. The Boston Globe
Williams descriptions of the experience of reading both elucidate and evince the pleasures of literary language; the minute, strange, and unexpected combinations of letters and words in which Stoner finds joy are re-enacted in Williams own perfect fusion of words. n+1
Stoner, by John Williams, is a slim novel, and not a particularly joyous one. But it is so quietly beautiful and moving, so precisely constructed, that you want to read it in one sitting and enjoy being in it, altered somehow, as if you have been allowed to wear an exquisitely tailored garment that you don t want to take off. The Globe and Mail
One of the great forgotten novels of the past century. I have bought at least 50 copies of it in the past few years, using it as a gift for friends...The book is so beautifully paced and cadenced that it deserves the status of classic. Colum McCann, Top 10 Novels, The Guardian
Stoner is undeniably a great book, but I can also understand why it isn t a sentimental favorite in its native land. You could almost describe it as an anti-Gatsby...Part of Stoner s greatness is that it sees life whole and as it is, without delusion yet without despair...The novel embodies the very virtues it exalts, the same virtues that probably relegate it, like its titular hero, to its perpetual place in the shade. But the book, like professor William Stoner, isn t out to win popularity contests. It endures, illumined from within. Tim Kreider, The New Yorker
It s simply a novel about a guy who goes to college and becomes a teacher. But it s one of the most fascinating things that you ve ever come across. Tom Hanks, Time
Stoner is written in the most plainspoken of styles...Its hero is an obscure academic who endures a series of personal and professional agonies. Yet the novel is utterly riveting, and for one simple reason: because the author, John Williams, treats his characters with such tender and ruthless honesty that we cannot help but love them. Steve Almond, Tin House
The best book I read in 2007 was Stoner by John Williams. It s perhaps the best book I ve read in years. Stephen Elliott, The Believer
John Williams s Stoner is something rarer than a great novel it is a perfect novel, so well told and beautifully written, so deeply moving, that it takes your breath away. The New York Times Book Review
Williams didn t write much compared with some novelists, but everything he did was exceedingly fine...it s a shame that he s not more often read today...But it s great that at least two of his novels [Stoner, Butcher s Crossing] have found their way back into print. The Denver Post
A masterly portrait of a truly virtuous and dedicated man. The New Yorker
Why isn t this book famous...Very few novels in English, or literary productions of any kind, have come anywhere near its level for human wisdom or as a work of art. C. P. Snow
Serious, beautiful and affecting, what makes Stoner so impressive is the contained intensity the author and character share. Irving Howe, The New Republic
A quiet but resonant achievement. The Times Literary Supplement
Perhaps the greatest example of minimalism I ve ever read...Stoner is a story of great hope for the writer who cares about her work. Stephen Elliott
Stoner by John Williams, contains what is no doubt my favorite literary romance of all time. William Stoner is well into his 40s, and mired in an unhappy marriage, when he meets Katherine, another shy professor of literature. The affair that ensues is described with a beauty so fierce that it takes my breath away each time I read it. The chapters devoted to this romance are both terribly sexy and profoundly wise. The Christian Science Monitor
I m not a big rereader, but I just reread Stoner by John Williams, and marveled once again at its remarkable combination of omniscience and intimacy. Jess Walter
My favorite book ever is this book by John Williams . I want more people to read this . It had me thinking about my life more than any other book has. I was like, I just don t want to get to the end. Booksaresick, TikTok