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.
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.
William Stoner grows up in rural Missouri, the son of farmers, before leaving home to attend the University of Missouri as a young man. Initially, Stoner studies agriculture so he can return home and grow the family farm. However, he soon falls in love with literature, so he switches his major.
Is Stoner by John Williams really a literary masterpiece? This in-depth review challenges popular praise and examines the novel’s emotional detachment and academic appeal.
Stoner (1965) by John Williams is a literary fiction novel that tells the story of an average man and highlights how beautiful an average life can be. It concerns a working-class man who becomes a professor in Missouri in post–WWI America. The novel was reissued in 1972, 2003, and 2006.
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Stoner is a deeply moving novel that follows the quiet life of William Stoner, an English professor. Readers praise Williams' beautiful prose and the book's ability to evoke strong emotions.