Synopses & Reviews
Beneath the unassuming surface of a progressive womens college lurks a world of intellectual pride and pomposity awaiting devastation by the pens of two brilliant and appalling wits. Randall Jarrells classic novel was originally published to overwhelming critical acclaim in 1954, forging a new standard for campus satire—and instantly yielding comparisons to Dorothy Parkers razor-sharp barbs. Like his fictional nemesis, Jarrell cuts through the earnest conversations at Benton College—mischievously, but with mischief nowhere more wicked than when crusading against the vitriolic heroine herself.
“A most literate account of a group of most literate people by a writer of power. . . . A delight of true understanding.”—Wallace Stevens
“Im greatly impressed by the real fun, the incisive satire, the closeness of observation, and in the end by a kind of sympathy and human warmth. Its a remarkable book.”—Robert Penn Warren
“Move over Dorothy Parker. Pictures . . . is less a novel than a series of poisonous portraits, set pieces, and endlessly quotable put-downs. Read it less for plot than sharp satire, Jarrells forte.”—Mary Welp
“One of the wittiest books of modern times.”—New York Times
“[T]he father of the modern campus novel, and the wittiest of them all. Extraordinary to think that ‘political correctness was so deliciously dissected 50 years ago.”—Noel Malcolm, Sunday Telegraph
“A sustained exhibition of wit in the great tradition. . . . Immensely and very devastatingly shrewd.”—Edmund Fuller, Saturday Review
“[A] work of fiction, and a dizzying and brilliant work of social and literary criticism. Not only ‘a unique and serious joke-book, as Lowell called it, but also a meditation made up of epigrams.”—Michael Wood
Review
Move over Dorothy Parker. 'Pictures' . . . is less a novel than a series of poisonous portraits, set pieces, and endlessly quotable put-downs. Read it less for plot than sharp satire, Jarrell's forte." Sunday Telegraph
Review
“[A] work of fiction, and a dizzying and brilliant work of social and literary criticism. Not only ‘a unique and serious joke-book, as Lowell called it, but also a meditation made up of epigrams.” Mary Welp
Review
“Im greatly impressed by the real fun, the incisive satire, the closeness of observation, and in the end by a kind of sympathy and human warmth. Its a remarkable book.”
Michael Wood
Review
"[T]he father of the modern campus novel, and the wittiest of them all. Extraordinary to think that 'political correctness' was so deliciously dissected 50 years ago." Noel Malcolm
Review
“[An] exquisite, unerring comedy of manners. . . . [P]erhaps the funniest book I have ever read.”
Cathleen Schine
Review
"Mr. Jarrell is on the side of the angels. His is a divine meanness, and he exposes his female writing devil punitively, matching her stream of poinsonous wisecracks with a series of coruscating cracks of his own worthy of Dorothy Parker at her most hilarious and deadly." New York Review of Books
Review
"One of the wittiest books of modern times." Francis Steegmuller, - New York Times Book Review
Synopsis
"The father of the modern campus novel, and the wittiest of them all. Extraordinary to think that 'political correctness' was so deliciously dissected 50 years ago."Noel Malcolm,
Sunday Telegraph"Move over Dorothy Parker. Pictures . . . is less a novel than a series of poisonous portraits, set pieces, and endlessly quotable put-downs. Read it less for plot than sharp satire, Jarrell's forte."Mary Welp
"I'm greatly impressed by the real fun, the incisive satire, the closeness of observation, and in the end by a kind of sympathy and human warmth. It's a remarkable book."Robert Penn Warren
About the Author
Randall Jarrell (1914-1965) was the author of six volumes of poetry and the recipient of the National Book Award for Poetry in 1961. Pictures from an Institution is his only novel.
Table of Contents
1. The President, Mrs., and Derek Robbins
2. The Whittakers and Gertrude
3. Miss Batterson and Benton
4. Constance and the Rosenbaums
5. Gertrude and Sidney
6. Art Night
7. They All Go