A Garden of Earthly Delights (Wonderland Quartet #1)

Joyce Carol Oates, Elaine Showalter

Rated: 3.79 of 5 stars
3.79 · 14 ratings · 432 pages · Published: 22 Apr 2003
A Garden of Earthly Delights by Joyce Carol Oates, Elaine Showalter
Joyce Carol Oates’s Wonderland Quartet comprises four remarkable novels that explore social class in America and the inner lives of young Americans. In A Garden of Earthly Delights , Oates presents one of her most memorable heroines, Clara Walpole, the beautiful daughter of Kentucky-born migrant farmworkers. Desperate to rise above her haphazard existence of violence and poverty, determined not to repeat her mother’s life, Clara struggles for independence by way of her relationships with four very different men: her father, a family man turned itinerant laborer, smoldering with resentment; the mysterious Lowry, who rescues Clara as a teenager and offers her the possibility of love; Revere, a wealthy landowner who provides Clara with stability; and Swan, Clara’s son, who bears the psychological and spiritual burden of his mother’s ambition.

A masterly work from a writer with “the uncanny ability to give us a cinemascopic vision of her America” ( National Review ), A Garden of Earthly Delights is the opening stanza in what would become one of the most powerful and engrossing story arcs in literature.

A Garden of Earthly Delights is the first novel in the Wonderland Quartet. The books that complete this acclaimed series, Expensive People , them, and Wonderland , are also available from the Modern Library.
Amazon Other stores
As an Amazon Associate thebooknaut.com earns from qualifying purchases

Tagged as:

    romance tags

    crime tags

    literary-fiction tags

    historical-fiction tags

    fantasy tags

    sci-fi tags

    action-adventure tags

    thriller tags

    horror tags

    Collections/Custom tags

    Report duplicate books, missing or wrong information

    The 'Wonderland Quartet' series

    3.71 · 56 ratings
    literary-fiction · book · classics · literary · fiction · historical-fiction · female-author · adult · coming-of-age · contemporary · family · 20th-century · psychological · crime · humor · satire · children
    Wonderland Quartet reading order and complete book list  ❯

    Reviews

    A Garden of Earthly Delights by Joyce Carol Oates, Elaine Showalter

    Report duplicate books, missing or wrong information