The 158-Pound Marriage
by Irving, John
- Used
- very good
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Very Good/good -
- Seller
-
Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York: Random House, 1974. First edition. Hardcover. Very Good/good -. First printing. The third book by the author of "The World According to Garp" and "The Cider House Rules." The dustjacket has edgewear along the top edge with some chipping and some small tears and is price clipped but still a bright green. Book itself is clean and unmarked. A reasonably decent copy.
Synopsis
The 158-Pound Marriage, author John Irving's third published novel, revolves around an unidentified narrator, a college professor, and a mediocre novelist. The narrator met his wife Utch, an orphaned survivor of WWII, in Vienna while doing research. They are a relatively happy couple; their family rounded out by two children. At a faculty party, they meet Severin Winter, a Viennese-born professor and coach of the college wrestling team, and his wife, Edith. The couple's interests (Edith is an aspiring fiction writer, and Severin has a commonality with Utch's upbringing in Austria) and resulting infatuations between the couples lead to after-dinner partner-swapping. At first, the swinging goes smoothly, but eventually, uneven feelings and obsessions throw the couples off track. The title, The 158-Pound Marriage , refers to the 158-pound weight class in wrestling, which Severin, the coach, feels is the most competitive. The book is small, only 176 pages, compared to Irving's later weighty tomes, like the 610 page The World According to Garp ( 1978) and The Cider House Rules (1985), which is 973 pages.
Read More: Identifying first editions of The 158-Pound Marriage
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Details
- Bookseller
- Great Northern Books
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 10805
- Title
- The 158-Pound Marriage
- Author
- Irving, John
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Jacket Condition
- good -
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First edition
- Publisher
- Random House
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 1974
- Bookseller catalogs
- Fiction;
Terms of Sale
Great Northern Books
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Great Northern Books
Biblio member since 2010
Minneapolis, Minnesota
About Great Northern Books
I sell a wide range of books including modern fiction, poetry, university press, children's, cookbooks, and law books exclusively online.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Chipping
- A defect in which small pieces are missing from the edges; fraying or small pieces of paper missing the edge of a paperback, or...
- Price Clipped
- When a book is described as price-clipped, it indicates that the portion of the dust jacket flap that has the publisher's...
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