Stoner (1965, this
edition 2012) is the fictional story of William Stoner. It is set in Columbia, Missouri,
America – mainly in the University of Missouri – from 1910 to 1956.
Stoner is a humble
man, from rural beginnings, who is advised to study agriculture. At 19, in
1910, he leaves home to attend university forty miles (60 kilometres) away –
the University of Missouri. When he takes an English literature class he switches
courses, and never returns to inherit the family farm. During his studies he
also forms strong friendships with two men: Gordon Finch and Dave Masters.
During the Second World War Stoner does not enlist. Gordon and Dave go to war,
and Dave dies in action in France. Stoner graduates and becomes assistant
lecturer in English at the University of Missouri. Gordon returns to a promoted
position in the university English department.
Thus Stoner’s life at
the University of Missouri is the only life he knows – from study to a career –
never leaving, never travelling, never going on any adventure. His teaching
life is his all.
He marries a banker’s
daughter: Edith Elaine Bostwick. She is beautiful, educated, and privileged –
but unstable. In 1923, they have a daughter, Grace, whom Stoner virtually
raises and cares for.
This is a story about
the relentless dedication to work – one work, one life. Not one of distinctions
and achievements, but rather a steady, diligent, laborious approach to work –
for love, not money – and neither come easily to Stoner, for he has difficult students
and new bosses, especially his arch-enemy Hollis Lomax.
It is also the story
about a marriage to the wrong woman. He knew this during their honeymoon. He
learns that ‘the person one loves at first is not the person one loves at last,
and that love is not an end but a process through which one person attempts to
know another.’ But he does have other loves: his teaching and his daughter. But
even here, there is no passion in his love – it is a deadpan love – no flame,
no flicker, only warm embers.
Stoner’s perennial
presence has a negative effect on people – either silence or anger. To respond
to them he becomes quietly defiant at changes within the university and at
home. But then, he acquires the status of ‘legend.’ ‘The legend was defined,
however, by his manner in class. Over the years it had grown more and more
absent and yet more and more intense.’
John Williams
(1922-1994) makes this hauntingly depressive, sad novel into one that is
disturbingly a study in human psychology – acquiescence, inertia, passivity, defeat,
defiance, insulation, and stoicism. These emotions and emotionlessness lead to
much debate about whether a character should ‘do’ something – in this case,
Stoner does not – except that he remains in his misery, enduring it, for the
‘love’ of his work and because of his vows of commitment to marriage. Stoner is
not a likeable character, but none of them are. Williams writes in the style of
the protagonist – flat, emotionless, bleak, and relentlessly frustrating. The
confrontational scenes between Stoner and Lomax are excrutiating, as if being
witness to the argument and feeling uncomfortably numb. Yet there is something
strangely attractive about this novel.
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