ePub Pictures from an Institution download

by Randall Jarrell

Author:

Randall Jarrell

ISBN13:

978-0380496501

ISBN:

038049650X

Language:

English

Publisher:

Avon Books (October 1, 1980)

Category:

Fiction

ePub file:

1388 kb

Fb2 file:

1126 kb

Other formats:

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Rating:

4.7

Votes:

564

Randall Jarrell English

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Pictures from an Institution book.

Pictures from an Institution book. Randall Jarrell’s classic novel was originally published to overwhelming critical acclaim in 1954, forging a new standard for campus satire-and instantly yielding comparisons to Dorothy Beneath the unassuming surface of a progressive women’s college lurks a world of intellectual pride and pomposity awaiting devastation by the pens of two brilliant and appalling wits.

Pictures from an Institution is a 1954 novel by American poet Randall Jarrell. It is an academic satire, focusing on the oddities of academic life, in particular the interpersonal relationships among the characters and their private lives. The nameless narrator, a Jarrell-like figure who teaches at a women's college called Benton, makes humorous observations about his students and, especially, his fellow academics, in particular the offensively tactless novelist Gertrude, modeled on Mary McCarthy.

Randall Jarrell’s classic novel was originally published to overwhelming critical acclaim in 1954, forging a new standard for campus satire-and instantly yielding comparisons to Dorothy Parker’s razor-sharp barbs. Like his fictional nemesis, Jarrell cuts through the earnest conversations at Benton y, but with mischief nowhere more wicked than when crusading against the vitriolic heroine herself.

Randall Jarrell Pictures from an Institution UCP cover. Browse more book selections in Literary books at Books-A-Million’s online book store

Randall Jarrell Pictures from an Institution UCP cover. Browse more book selections in Literary books at Books-A-Million’s online book store. of Speculation by Jenny Offill: A unnamed female narrator in Brooklyn discovers her husband has been having an affair.

Randall Jarrell’s classic novel was originally published to overwhelming critical acclaim in 1954. 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.

An excerpt from Pictures from an Institution by Randall Jarrell. One of the wittiest books of modern times. Move over Dorothy Parker. Picture. s 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. 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.

Randall Jarrell’s classic novel was originally published to overwhelming critical acclaim in 1954, forging a new standard for campus satire-and instantly yielding . Pictures from an Institution - Randall Jarrell. A delight of true understanding.

Poet and critic Randall Jarrell was born in Nashville, Tennessee. He also published a satirical campus novel, Pictures from an Institution (1954), translations of Chekov, Goethe, and the Grimm Brothers, as well as a number of children’s books during his lifetime. Jarrell earned his BA from Vanderbilt University, studying with poets associated with the Fugitive movement of Southern writing including John Crowe Ransom and Robert Penn Warren. But according to William Pritchard, Jarrell showed little interest in Fugitive or ‘Southern’ political and cultural ideas.

Randall Jarrell (May 6, 1914 - October 14, 1965) was an American poet, literary critic, and novelist. He was the 11th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. Jarrell was a native of Nashville, Tennessee. Jarrell also published a satiric novel, Pictures from an Institution, in 1954 (nominated for the 1955 National Book Award) - drawing upon his teaching experiences at Sarah Lawrence College, which served as the model for the fictional Benton College - and several children's stories, among which The Bat-Poet (1964) and The Animal Family (1965) are considered prominent (and feature illustrations by Maurice Sendak).

Randall Jarrell, 1914-1965 Pictures from an Institution: A Comedy, 1954. Image: Paul Evans, 1931-1987. Welded and wrought steel fountain sculpture with abstract floral and geometric elements . 956-57. Jeremy Hunt is Director of the AAJ Press (Art & Architecture Journal, Press) – a writer and consultant on art and public space View all posts by jeh. Author jehPosted on August 10, 2014August 11, 2014Categories 20th Century, North America, Novel - 1900-1999Tags a comedy, benton college, miss rasmussen, pictures from an institution, randall jarrell. Leave a Reply Cancel reply.

Zavevidi

The early stages of this are a rapid-fire quip-fest, as if the author were trying to compete with "Gertrude" herself. In fact, a lot of the quips double back on themselves in the same sentence so frequently that it is almost fatiguing. However, I noticed the same trend that is highlighted in the NY Times review from the time it was published: as the book goes on, the quips slow down and the book becomes more affecting. As the semester winds to a close and everyone departs (some for good), the author's affection for "Benton" and the time spent with "Gertrude" become apparent.

Daiktilar

This is the famous send-up of academic life at a small women's college modeled on Sarah Lawrence and featuring the acerbic woman novelist, Gertrude Johnson, based on Mary McCarthy. Its wit and sophistication demonstrate that academic pretentiousness and political correctness cannot be claimed as inventions of the 60s, 70s, 80s etc. This book was published in 1952 and is still as timely today as the day it was written. At Benton College, explains Jarrell, "just as ordinary animal awarenesss has been replaced in man by consciousness, so consciousness had been replaced, in most of the teachers..., by social consciousness."

Gertrude is merciless as she sends up the foibles of her faculty "colleagues." But Gertrude has a foible of her own, and not only that her "French was so bad that anyone could understand every word of it": "Gertrude knew the price of every sin and the value of none." There is no place in her world for the good or the simple, as Jarrell performs a send-up of his own on the cynical novelist. At the same time -- and despite the sweet Constance, the kind and elegant Miss Batterson, or the modest, modernist twelve-tone composer Gottfried Rosenbaum -- Jarrell portrays the world of Benton with nearly unremitting sarcasm himself.

When Gertrude tries to write her novel about Benton drawn from her anthropological observation of its denizens, she attempts to endow it with a lively plot. But anyone who has read thus far (p. 215) in Jarrell's plotless book knows that, as the narrator informs Gertrude, "nothing ever happens at Benton." The one character in this novel who dies has to get a job somewhere else in order to get the thing done. As the title indicates these chapters are sketches, "pictures from an institution." Though they go nowhere, they remain caustic, richly imagined, and absolutely devastating of human pretense. The book is least convincing when it is being kind, as for example when a clumsy and pompous studio art teacher abruptly produces a work of beauty. But even such reversals are effective because they train one to adjust to the unexpected. A book best savored by being read slowly.

Dikus

This is satire of the American university scene, presumably in the 1950's. It's brilliant. The author, Randall Jarrell is a poet, and he may be close to the persona of the narrator, also a poet. The narrator stands outside the circle of professors to some extent and takes a rather detached view of them. His observations are uncanny and you could almost guess that a poet wrote the novel; it's uniquely expressive. Whole pages are quotable. Furthermore, this is more than satire. There is a positive element in the novel represented, at the top, by the composer, a benevolent and cultured old Viennese Jew, and his wife. At first, the old composer seems as if he might be a caricature, like the poor old professor in "The Blue Angel." Eventually, we see that he and his wife have qualities that none of the other characters (possibly excepting the narrator and his wife) have a chance of acquiring. Above all, they have balance, culture, and kindness. The malicious novelist hates the old composer because she can't pigeon-hole him, and she secretly suspects that he sees through her. Altogether, this is one of the best American novels of the last century.

Wyameluna

While quite a venerable publication, and in some ways dated, it still rings true as to academic politics and behind the scenes goings on at universities. As a 35 year professor myself, I attest to its exposition of academic silliness, escapades, egos and political intrigue. As the common observation notes, "Academic politics are so vicious because so little is at stake." This book takes a snide look at such goings on. Probably not for the non-academic person, nor for the new generation of young academics, but perfect for us older, cynical, weathered academics. It does, sometimes, lag or lapse into sort of uninteresting side tales, but these are minor and not numerous. The positives outweigh the negatives.

DEAD-SHOT

I'm an old fuddy-duddy who reads almost exclusively non-fiction. I couldn't put this book down, however, for its wit and wisdom. I don't want to get political here, but a lot reminds me of today's posturing of people I don't much admire.

Moronydit

Written with extraordinary wit (one-liners and observations to die) by a masterful wordsmith with a remarkable eye, the book meanders past its middle and unravels.

Fiarynara

The one novel written by master poet Randall Jarrell is a seminal masterpiece skewering academia. The English have many such classics, such as Lucky Jim and novels by David Lodge and Tom Sharpe, but Jarrell's work I consider to be the best American attempt at such satire.

It's still in print, which tells you something. This is a book about Mary McCarthy's year teaching at Sarah Lawrence. It rebuts her book _The Groves of Academe_, which he considered to be a nasty hatchet job which held to scorn people he loved. It is Randall Jarrell's only work of fiction. He had the post that is now Poet Laureate of the United States.

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