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Many Marriages
There was a man named Webster who lived in a town of twenty-five thousand people in the state of Wisconsin. He had a wife named Mary and a daughter named Jane and he was himself a fairly prosperous manufacturer of washing machines. He was a rather quiet man inclined to have dreams which he tried to crush out of himself in order that he function as a washing machine manufacturer.
And so there was this Webster, drawing near to his fortieth year, and his daughter had just graduated from the town high school. It was early fall and he seemed to be going along and living his life about as usual and then this thing happened to him.
Down within his body something began to affect him like an illness. It is a little hard to describe the feeling he had. It was as though something were being born. Had he been a woman he might have suspected he had suddenly become pregnant.
And so there was this Webster, drawing near to his fortieth year, and his daughter had just graduated from the town high school. It was early fall and he seemed to be going along and living his life about as usual and then this thing happened to him.
Down within his body something began to affect him like an illness. It is a little hard to describe the feeling he had. It was as though something were being born. Had he been a woman he might have suspected he had suddenly become pregnant.
- GenresAmerican20th Century
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1922
About the author
Sherwood Anderson
473 books623 followersOften autobiographical, works of American writer Sherwood Anderson include
Winesburg, Ohio
(1919).
He supported his family and consequently never finished high school. He successfully managed a paint factory in Elyria before 1912 and fathered three children with the first of his four wives. In 1912, Anderson deserted his family and job.
In early 1913, he moved to Chicago, where he devoted more time to his imagination. He broke with considered materialism and convention to commit to art as a consequently heroic model for youth.
Mainly know for his short stories, most notably the collection Winesburg, Ohio. One can hear its profound influence on fiction in Ernest Miller Hemingway, William Faulkner, Thomas Clayton Wolfe, John Ernst Steinbeck, and Erskine Preston Caldwell.
Most important book collects 22 stories. The stories explore the inhabitants of a fictional version of Clyde, the small farm town, where Anderson lived for twelve early years. These tales made a significant break with the traditional short story. Instead of emphasizing plot and action, Anderson used a simple, precise, unsentimental style to reveal the frustration, loneliness, and longing in the lives of his characters. The narrowness of Midwestern small-town life and their own limitations stunt these characters.
Despite no wholly successful novel, Anderson composed several classic short stories. He influenced Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald and the coming generation.
He supported his family and consequently never finished high school. He successfully managed a paint factory in Elyria before 1912 and fathered three children with the first of his four wives. In 1912, Anderson deserted his family and job.
In early 1913, he moved to Chicago, where he devoted more time to his imagination. He broke with considered materialism and convention to commit to art as a consequently heroic model for youth.
Mainly know for his short stories, most notably the collection Winesburg, Ohio. One can hear its profound influence on fiction in Ernest Miller Hemingway, William Faulkner, Thomas Clayton Wolfe, John Ernst Steinbeck, and Erskine Preston Caldwell.
Most important book collects 22 stories. The stories explore the inhabitants of a fictional version of Clyde, the small farm town, where Anderson lived for twelve early years. These tales made a significant break with the traditional short story. Instead of emphasizing plot and action, Anderson used a simple, precise, unsentimental style to reveal the frustration, loneliness, and longing in the lives of his characters. The narrowness of Midwestern small-town life and their own limitations stunt these characters.
Despite no wholly successful novel, Anderson composed several classic short stories. He influenced Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald and the coming generation.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
October 30, 2017
Romanzo datato 1923 ove si racconta di un uomo che nel mezzo del cammin della sua vita si risveglia dal torpore dell'abitudine e vede all'improvviso con occhi nuovi... sicché giunge a lasciare la moglie insipida e il vecchio mondo per andare incontro al domani con una donna al fianco assai più giovane e stimolante. Già, perché quando un matrimonio langue, e uno si ritrova "a sentir molto freddo anche giacendo a letto, da uomo rispettabile, a fianco della rispettabile moglie", altri matrimoni sono possibili, e magari salvifici.
Anderson parla all'America puritana dell'epoca con parole ben diverse da quelle "meravigliose" dei tanti colleghi impegnati "a migliorare, ad elevare il popolo, richiamandolo costantemente al codice morale e alle virtù essenziali". E confessa pure, in una prefazione del libro dedicata espressamente ai lettori italiani, che la sua affermazione di libertà, e "corporeità", ebbe una sicura spinta - in quella fredda America - dal calore della casa di italiani ove scrisse il romanzo e, prima ancora, da quello del suo stesso sangue, "contaminato" da un'italica nonna.
Anderson parla all'America puritana dell'epoca con parole ben diverse da quelle "meravigliose" dei tanti colleghi impegnati "a migliorare, ad elevare il popolo, richiamandolo costantemente al codice morale e alle virtù essenziali". E confessa pure, in una prefazione del libro dedicata espressamente ai lettori italiani, che la sua affermazione di libertà, e "corporeità", ebbe una sicura spinta - in quella fredda America - dal calore della casa di italiani ove scrisse il romanzo e, prima ancora, da quello del suo stesso sangue, "contaminato" da un'italica nonna.
Want to Read
January 12, 2026A Book Owned by F. Scott Fitzgerald: https://static-prod.lib.princeton.edu...
March 14, 2017
Some years ago I got interested some early 20th Century writers, like Theodore Dreiser, who is great, and Sherwood Anderson.
Anderson’s most famous book is Winesburg Ohio (1919). I grew up in Ohio but never read the book back then even though I was aware of it by high school. It didn’t have an appealing cover, and gave off the impression of a wholesome Ohio small town setting.
Well, finally getting into it in my middle years was a bit of a revelation. It is one of these things from the period that, somewhat in relation to Edgar Lee Masters’s Spoon River Anthology, gives us a view behind the curtain of smalltown wholesome peacefulness. They showed us the lives of individuals in quiet desperation. This was somewhat radical for the period.
Anderson, in fact, was rather an experimentalist. And some of his work very good. Poor White is a fantastic experimental novel, of like rural USA. I never read anything like it.
So I returned to Anderson and read Many Marriages. It is not about someone, a man, who has had many marriages, but rather Anderson is telling us that this mismatched marriage that was gone into for all the wrong reasons, is just like many many others.
The novel occurs over one night as a middle-aged small town washing machine manufacturer goes into total rebellion mode and is ready to skip town with his secretary.
He goes home and behaves legitimately bizarrely in his bedroom where he hopes to be and is discovered by his wife and, soon to be a woman, daughter. (This reminds me a bit of Sister Carrie’s flight from Chicago with the older man with money.)
So there is lots of stream of consciousness stuff as he talks to wife and daughter and wonders if he is insane.
There is a strong, legitimate, tone of rebellion from the middle class, religious order of things that forced people into these situations. He goes over in his head the events years earlier that brought he and his wife to marriage.
There is something of the real in this too because this is similar to an event from the Anderson biography. He was a paint manufacturer in some town in Ohio, I don’t remember which (Clyde?), but abandoned his family for the writer’s bohemian life. It worked out for him and he ended up with a happy final marriage years later.
Written in 1923, this is a novel of that middle class, post WWI, male role rebellion. It’s from his point of view. He is somewhat self critical but does what he feels he must do anyway since he hated his sex-only-for-childbearing marriage from the beginning, this horrible situation he put himself into when still very young and innocent.
We hear from the daughter somewhat. Her fears, her confusion, and revulsion in her father's behavior that sometimes switches to admiration on this night that changes everything.
There is also a lot of guilt here and horrible results of this.
So the novel is really rather current although somewhat dated in the retro atmosphere of the mainstream Christian marriage. And there needs to be a wave of feminism to clean out some of the confusion. In this the wife is a home agent, of religion, of repressed feeling and sinful sexuality and he is out of there.
Anderson’s most famous book is Winesburg Ohio (1919). I grew up in Ohio but never read the book back then even though I was aware of it by high school. It didn’t have an appealing cover, and gave off the impression of a wholesome Ohio small town setting.
Well, finally getting into it in my middle years was a bit of a revelation. It is one of these things from the period that, somewhat in relation to Edgar Lee Masters’s Spoon River Anthology, gives us a view behind the curtain of smalltown wholesome peacefulness. They showed us the lives of individuals in quiet desperation. This was somewhat radical for the period.
Anderson, in fact, was rather an experimentalist. And some of his work very good. Poor White is a fantastic experimental novel, of like rural USA. I never read anything like it.
So I returned to Anderson and read Many Marriages. It is not about someone, a man, who has had many marriages, but rather Anderson is telling us that this mismatched marriage that was gone into for all the wrong reasons, is just like many many others.
The novel occurs over one night as a middle-aged small town washing machine manufacturer goes into total rebellion mode and is ready to skip town with his secretary.
He goes home and behaves legitimately bizarrely in his bedroom where he hopes to be and is discovered by his wife and, soon to be a woman, daughter. (This reminds me a bit of Sister Carrie’s flight from Chicago with the older man with money.)
So there is lots of stream of consciousness stuff as he talks to wife and daughter and wonders if he is insane.
There is a strong, legitimate, tone of rebellion from the middle class, religious order of things that forced people into these situations. He goes over in his head the events years earlier that brought he and his wife to marriage.
There is something of the real in this too because this is similar to an event from the Anderson biography. He was a paint manufacturer in some town in Ohio, I don’t remember which (Clyde?), but abandoned his family for the writer’s bohemian life. It worked out for him and he ended up with a happy final marriage years later.
Written in 1923, this is a novel of that middle class, post WWI, male role rebellion. It’s from his point of view. He is somewhat self critical but does what he feels he must do anyway since he hated his sex-only-for-childbearing marriage from the beginning, this horrible situation he put himself into when still very young and innocent.
We hear from the daughter somewhat. Her fears, her confusion, and revulsion in her father's behavior that sometimes switches to admiration on this night that changes everything.
There is also a lot of guilt here and horrible results of this.
So the novel is really rather current although somewhat dated in the retro atmosphere of the mainstream Christian marriage. And there needs to be a wave of feminism to clean out some of the confusion. In this the wife is a home agent, of religion, of repressed feeling and sinful sexuality and he is out of there.
August 20, 2024
There’s a disease called zoochosis which afflicts captive animals in zoos, causing them to pace in circles, excessively groom, and do other repetitive behavior. In a way, this is the story of a man in a quiet Wisconsin town named John Webster attempting to break free of his own zoochosis. He is small-time washing machine manufacturer, who, bored with his life and relationships, suddenly undergoes an existential awakening. He falls in love with his secretary, he wanders the town thinking strange thoughts, he sees himself and others as dusty houses which have been shut up for years.
It’s Sherwood Anderson most direct attempt to explain the story of his emotional breakdown and fugue state which led him to go from the advertising business to a writer. There’s a lot to like, especially in the first half, with typical beautiful Sherwood Anderson writing like:
Gorgeous. Unfortunately, the story grinds to a halt in the second half as John corners his wife and daughter and attempts to tell the story of his marriage and life to them and us over and over again, and the prose descends into metaphysical-psychological babble-talk. While this was probably therapeutic for Sherwood, it makes for poor reading.
John is also very unfair to his wife, whom he considers fat, old, not really alive inside, not the same woman he married, etc. It seems as though the story is self-aware of this, and perhaps there was someone in Sherwood's past he was similarly cruel to, but it uglies the spiritual awakening of the main character. On the other hand, sometimes you have to be selfish in order to protect yourself, and the state that John is in is ripe for selfish, resentful behavior. Take what you will from it; I just found that I liked John less after being exposed to every single one of his thoughts. (Although that might be true for all people; maybe we're only noble and pure down to a certain depth.)
It’s Sherwood Anderson most direct attempt to explain the story of his emotional breakdown and fugue state which led him to go from the advertising business to a writer. There’s a lot to like, especially in the first half, with typical beautiful Sherwood Anderson writing like:
A thing was created within him it was hard to explain, that he had not understood himself. One walked under the stars and in quiet streets of towns under trees and sometimes, on summer evenings, heard voices in the darkness. People, men and women, were sitting in the darkness on the porches of houses. There was an illusion created. One sensed in the darkness somewhere a deep quiet splendor of life and ran toward it. There was a kind of desperate eagerness. In the sky the stars shone more splendidly because of one's thoughts.
Gorgeous. Unfortunately, the story grinds to a halt in the second half as John corners his wife and daughter and attempts to tell the story of his marriage and life to them and us over and over again, and the prose descends into metaphysical-psychological babble-talk. While this was probably therapeutic for Sherwood, it makes for poor reading.
John is also very unfair to his wife, whom he considers fat, old, not really alive inside, not the same woman he married, etc. It seems as though the story is self-aware of this, and perhaps there was someone in Sherwood's past he was similarly cruel to, but it uglies the spiritual awakening of the main character. On the other hand, sometimes you have to be selfish in order to protect yourself, and the state that John is in is ripe for selfish, resentful behavior. Take what you will from it; I just found that I liked John less after being exposed to every single one of his thoughts. (Although that might be true for all people; maybe we're only noble and pure down to a certain depth.)
July 28, 2024
Sherwood Anderson (1871-1941)
«Many Marriages» / «Muchos matrimonios» (1923)
Novela de Anderson publicada tras sus dos famosas colecciones de cuentos «Winesburg, Ohio» y «The Triumph of the Egg».
Son 217 páginas cuya lectura he decidido abandonar con un 62% leído.
Narra la historia de un padre de familia y empresario de un pueblo de Wisconsin que lleva una vida mediocre hasta que un día experimenta una súbita epifanía y transformación interior. Se da cuenta de que odia su vida y nunca ha querido a su esposa. Decide cambiar.
•
El arranque de la novela promete. Nos parece que está a punto de desplegarse una historia original e inspirada que recuerda la subjetiva experiencia de los personajes de Kafka (a quien Anderson no leyó). A ratos, el pensamiento interior de John Webster, el personaje principal, trae a la mente a Leopold Bloom en «Ulises».
•
En esos capítulos iniciales el juego que hace el autor alternando largas subordinadas con frases cortas hace pensar que podemos estar ante un nuevo ejemplo del estilo narrativo cuidado, preciso y original de sus relatos cortos. La novela prometía.
•
Pero hacia la mitad del libro, la narración ha sido completamente engullida por un prosa mala, simple, repetitiva y llena de clichés que recuerda a la de Hemingway en «El viejo y el mar». La escena central en la habitación de John Webster con la imagen de la virgen y las velas es sencillamente ridícula, lo mismo que el inexplicado símbolo de la piedra verde. Esto y las reflexiones pseudopsicológicas recuerdan a ratos al peor Herman Hesse.
•
La impresión que me deja este libro es la de un autor que escribió excelentes relatos cortos y que cuando se animó a escribir una novela lo que hizo fue coger lo que podría hacer sido una buena historia de 10.000-15.000 palabras y diluirla metiendo un montón de paja y ralentizando la acción, que a menudo se estanca o da vueltas en círculos durante páginas y páginas.
•
O sea, como quien le echa agua a la sopa cuando le llegan invitados imprevistos a casa 🙂
«Many Marriages» / «Muchos matrimonios» (1923)
Novela de Anderson publicada tras sus dos famosas colecciones de cuentos «Winesburg, Ohio» y «The Triumph of the Egg».
Son 217 páginas cuya lectura he decidido abandonar con un 62% leído.
Narra la historia de un padre de familia y empresario de un pueblo de Wisconsin que lleva una vida mediocre hasta que un día experimenta una súbita epifanía y transformación interior. Se da cuenta de que odia su vida y nunca ha querido a su esposa. Decide cambiar.
•
El arranque de la novela promete. Nos parece que está a punto de desplegarse una historia original e inspirada que recuerda la subjetiva experiencia de los personajes de Kafka (a quien Anderson no leyó). A ratos, el pensamiento interior de John Webster, el personaje principal, trae a la mente a Leopold Bloom en «Ulises».
•
En esos capítulos iniciales el juego que hace el autor alternando largas subordinadas con frases cortas hace pensar que podemos estar ante un nuevo ejemplo del estilo narrativo cuidado, preciso y original de sus relatos cortos. La novela prometía.
•
Pero hacia la mitad del libro, la narración ha sido completamente engullida por un prosa mala, simple, repetitiva y llena de clichés que recuerda a la de Hemingway en «El viejo y el mar». La escena central en la habitación de John Webster con la imagen de la virgen y las velas es sencillamente ridícula, lo mismo que el inexplicado símbolo de la piedra verde. Esto y las reflexiones pseudopsicológicas recuerdan a ratos al peor Herman Hesse.
•
La impresión que me deja este libro es la de un autor que escribió excelentes relatos cortos y que cuando se animó a escribir una novela lo que hizo fue coger lo que podría hacer sido una buena historia de 10.000-15.000 palabras y diluirla metiendo un montón de paja y ralentizando la acción, que a menudo se estanca o da vueltas en círculos durante páginas y páginas.
•
O sea, como quien le echa agua a la sopa cuando le llegan invitados imprevistos a casa 🙂
September 24, 2026
El títol del llibre i la imatge de la coberta poden portar a engany sobre el tema i la intenció de l'obra.
Es tracta d'una narració que conté des del principi fins el final una defensa de la introspecció, de la reflexió que l'ésser humà hauria de fer sobre la seva vida.
Apareix la dicotomia entre allò que les persones fem i diem i allò que existeix, que viu en nosaltres i sol quedar soterrat en el nostre interior. Allò que pot aparèixer en algun moment de la nostra vida o bé no aparèixer mai, tapat per un mode de viure comú, mecànic, insuls, convencional.
Els lectors anem avançant en el coneixement d'aquests postulats gràcies als pensaments, monòlegs i diàlegs de dos personatges: marit i muller, així com també la filla de la parella.
L'autor fa una apologia del sentir, del viure tal com hom sent, de percebre amb tots els sentits, d'analitzar els sentiments, de submergir-se en la vida, de no sentir-se lligat pels costums i les convencions.
M'ha agradat i el final m'ha semblat adequat, d'acord amb tot allò que es narra.
Es tracta d'una narració que conté des del principi fins el final una defensa de la introspecció, de la reflexió que l'ésser humà hauria de fer sobre la seva vida.
Apareix la dicotomia entre allò que les persones fem i diem i allò que existeix, que viu en nosaltres i sol quedar soterrat en el nostre interior. Allò que pot aparèixer en algun moment de la nostra vida o bé no aparèixer mai, tapat per un mode de viure comú, mecànic, insuls, convencional.
Els lectors anem avançant en el coneixement d'aquests postulats gràcies als pensaments, monòlegs i diàlegs de dos personatges: marit i muller, així com també la filla de la parella.
L'autor fa una apologia del sentir, del viure tal com hom sent, de percebre amb tots els sentits, d'analitzar els sentiments, de submergir-se en la vida, de no sentir-se lligat pels costums i les convencions.
M'ha agradat i el final m'ha semblat adequat, d'acord amb tot allò que es narra.
July 15, 2015
Hace unos meses estaba haciendo tiempo en una librería esperando a que empezara la lectura que varios autores iban a hacer. Como soy adicto a los libros revisé casi todas las bateas habidas y por haber. Nada me atraía de sobremanera. Es decir, había libros que me interesaron pero nada que me llevara al impulso de comprármelo esa noche. En uno de los estantes laterales apareció una colección de la Editorial Gallo Nero donde encontré Muchos Matrimonios de Sherwood Anderson. Al autor lo conocía de nombre porque sabía que en Argentina estaba editado el libro de cuentos Winesburg, Ohio. Sin embargo me atrajo el título, la tapa y que en la contratapa F. Scott Fitzgerald la haya definido como una de las mejores novelas de Anderson.
La novela es una crítica a la monogamia pero especialmente a las convenciones sociales. Anderson publica esta novela a comienzos de la década del ‘20 del siglo pasado dentro del ámbito puritano de Estados Unidos. En tal sentido, era consciente de que iba a contramano de lo que la cultura y el público bienpensante imaginaba sobre lo que estaba bien y lo que estaba mal en relación a los matrimonios. La trama comienza con un tema archi-trillado: un tipo que se va con su joven secretaria. Los primeros capítulos son solo una descripción de lo que le ocurre internamente al personaje principal en relación al descubrimiento de una nueva mujer en su vida y al rodeo que da para comunicar a su familia que se iba a marchar con ella. Nada nuevo hasta ahí. Hasta que en la mitad del libro aparece la escena en que finalmente él comunica la decisión y es ahí donde Anderson saca a relucir el impresionante talento que tiene para la narración. Porque el narrador no sólo transmite el clima de esa situación sino que se permite digresiones constantes y pertinentes que hacen ágil la lectura. Digresiones que siempre vuelven al cauce de la trama, que le permiten divagar en alucinaciones constantes dentro del inconsciente de los personajes. Anderson se vuelve repetitivo en algunas afirmaciones para generar tensión y nunca le esconde al lector lo que está por venir, sino que busca atraparlo con los titubeos que ocurren en la cabeza de los personajes en relación a su porvenir. Un libro absolutamente disfrutable.
La novela es una crítica a la monogamia pero especialmente a las convenciones sociales. Anderson publica esta novela a comienzos de la década del ‘20 del siglo pasado dentro del ámbito puritano de Estados Unidos. En tal sentido, era consciente de que iba a contramano de lo que la cultura y el público bienpensante imaginaba sobre lo que estaba bien y lo que estaba mal en relación a los matrimonios. La trama comienza con un tema archi-trillado: un tipo que se va con su joven secretaria. Los primeros capítulos son solo una descripción de lo que le ocurre internamente al personaje principal en relación al descubrimiento de una nueva mujer en su vida y al rodeo que da para comunicar a su familia que se iba a marchar con ella. Nada nuevo hasta ahí. Hasta que en la mitad del libro aparece la escena en que finalmente él comunica la decisión y es ahí donde Anderson saca a relucir el impresionante talento que tiene para la narración. Porque el narrador no sólo transmite el clima de esa situación sino que se permite digresiones constantes y pertinentes que hacen ágil la lectura. Digresiones que siempre vuelven al cauce de la trama, que le permiten divagar en alucinaciones constantes dentro del inconsciente de los personajes. Anderson se vuelve repetitivo en algunas afirmaciones para generar tensión y nunca le esconde al lector lo que está por venir, sino que busca atraparlo con los titubeos que ocurren en la cabeza de los personajes en relación a su porvenir. Un libro absolutamente disfrutable.
June 15, 2022
A tedious enterprise
I am going to have to read up on this book. I don't know the author's intent, but I know how I felt. I came to despise John Webster thoroughly. He was a selfish, self-centered oaf who chose to live his entire life deluding himself to the point of destroying his wife. Who knows what he did to his daughter? And it took a lot of repetition to get there. By the end of the book, I didn't care about any of the characters. I just desperately wanted the book to end. I actually feel terrible about hating it as much as I did.
I am going to have to read up on this book. I don't know the author's intent, but I know how I felt. I came to despise John Webster thoroughly. He was a selfish, self-centered oaf who chose to live his entire life deluding himself to the point of destroying his wife. Who knows what he did to his daughter? And it took a lot of repetition to get there. By the end of the book, I didn't care about any of the characters. I just desperately wanted the book to end. I actually feel terrible about hating it as much as I did.
Read
December 20, 2014Interesting, if not 100% successful. A washing machine manufacturer walks away from his upright, respectable life in a small Wisconsin town circa 1915. In many ways, a novel-length examination of the same sort of secret dreams and yearnings explored in "Winesburg." Some unintentional comedy along the way, mostly deriving from the author's weird fetishistic obsession with nudity, but by and large an excellent book, written with the same insight and absolute lack of pretension as "Winesburg."
April 5, 2020
Honestamente no me funciona leer libros de época para encontrar verdades de las relaciones de pareja porque no conecto con muchas ideas y conceptos que han cambiado demasiado del momento en que se escribió el libro hasta hoy. Este libro no solo me produjo mucho aburrimiento sino también me pareció soso y sobrevalorado. Siento mucho haber dedicado mi tiempo a tratar de conectar con unas ideas tan superfluas y falsamente ambiciosas.
November 23, 2013
Sherwood Anderson influenced Ernest Hemingway. This book was first published in 1923. It's very well written and quite risque for its time. I liked it. Anderson's use of words and the visuals I got from reading his words at times seemed like something out of a Twilight Zone episode. His descriptions take you to another place. Very enjoyable, but I like odd stuff sometimes.
February 4, 2021
Mucha teatralidad para retratar la inmadurez de un hombre hastiado de las convenciones. Mucha sobriedad para analizar el derribo de la moral. Capítulo aparte la hija, Jane, quien merece más atención y ser protagonista de una historia del género de moda: el postapocalíptico.
January 9, 2019
NO ME HA GUSTADO, MUY REPETITIVO, ESCENTRICO
March 19, 2026
Sherwood Anderson wrote some great short stories, and his Winesburg, Ohio, a collection of interrelated stories, is a 20th century American classic. His novels seem to be less consistent. In Many Marriages, a man has a midlife crisis and decides to run off with his secretary, speechifying while flights of fancy run through his mind, creating characters while projecting his own thoughts onto the people around him and not seeing them as having their own subjectivity. An odd novel, and one that seems to have an autobiographical component.
May 10, 2023
I just finished "Winesburg Ohio". That was an odd book and so is this one. The writing is very good, the story must be closely based on his own life. I think he had a good idea of what was going on in his head and the courage to write it down. An intense day or so in the life of John Webster as he breaks from his unhappy marriage and makes a romantic run for it leaving a mess behind.
For dreamers everywhere....
For dreamers everywhere....
April 23, 2021
Una historia de un señor muy señoreado que se despierta un día y se hace consciente de sí mismo. Le rodean 4 mujeres que hacen de comparsa para contar su historia pero de las que no sabemos nada en ningún momento porque al protagonista no le interesan más allá que para enmarcar su soliloquio. Yo, mi, me, conmigo en señoro.
June 9, 2021
I read 2/3 of the book and just couldn’t go on, the beginning wasn’t that bad, but later on it just became so repetitive, confusing and completely without a point; it felt like the author didn’t really know what he was going for and decided to pile one thing on top of the other. It could’ve been a shorter and more palatable story.
October 16, 2026
Una disección exhaustiva de la crisis de la mediana edad, la infidelidad y la ruptura de pareja. Posiblemente demasiado reflexivo a veces y un poco androcéntrico de más, pero con la virtud de hablar del desencanto de la clase media y el fin del sueño americano antes de que Cheever, Yates y Updike lo convirtieran casi en un subgénero de la literatura estadounidense.
February 12, 2025
F. Scott Fitzgerald la definió como una de las mejores novelas de Sherwood Anderson. El libro (1922) abraza la tesis del fracaso de la institución del matrimonio, por ello vetado en librerías de EEUU y de Inglaterra, “cancerberos de las convenciones”. Imprescindible @audible_com #7
November 15, 2017
Not one of his best works but still worth the time to read. He has such a way with words that is like reading an Artist's Canvas.
August 26, 2019
Mmmm... Entrega una clara ay sentida situación de los personajes. Me quedó faltando un "algo" al final.
June 7, 2022
This may have been controversial at its release, but it has not aged well . No nuance.
February 13, 2019
“Der foregik et kapløb henimod dødens port mellem sjælen og legemet, og sjælen kom næsten altid først.”
"Many Marriages"/"Mange ægteskaber" fra 1923 fremstår på flere måde lidt bedaget i dag, men den har nu stadig noget over sig, først og fremmest på grund af Andersons sprog.
Læs hele min anmeldelse på K's bognoter: https://bognoter.dk/2019/02/22/sherwo...
"Many Marriages"/"Mange ægteskaber" fra 1923 fremstår på flere måde lidt bedaget i dag, men den har nu stadig noget over sig, først og fremmest på grund af Andersons sprog.
Læs hele min anmeldelse på K's bognoter: https://bognoter.dk/2019/02/22/sherwo...
June 19, 2023
Un solo tema, un solo protagonista, un unico e lungo monologo interiore sulla riscoperta che quest’ultimo fa di sé stesso. Da sempre un uomo conformista, in perenne stato di letargo, che ha condotto la propria vita secondo ciò che la società gli dettava senza mai preoccuparsi della propria felicità e dei propri dei sentimenti.
Il libro avrebbe sicuramente acquistato più spessore se, invece di concentrarsi su uno sproloquio del protagonista che analizza a ritroso la propria vita quasi in delirio, avesse analizzato il momento che gli ha permesso di aprire gli occhi sulla propria esistenza, e le scelte concrete che prende per effettuare il cambiamento. Purtroppo quello che emerge leggendo è più la descrizione di una crisi di mezz’età, di un uomo con un’aziendina mediocre che si innamora della sua segretaria giovane e che abbandona la sua famiglia senza una vera e propria prospettiva di vita alternativa. Inoltre, tutti gli altri personaggi del libro sono senza personalità, a partire dalla moglie del protagonista alla sua amante. Questo contribuisce solo ad accrescere (almeno a parer mio) non solo la frustrazione verso di loro, che quasi non hanno neanche il diritto di parola, ma anche verso l’uomo, che chiaramente ha un ruolo nella storia solo perché le persone che lo circondano sono delle nullità.
Il libro avrebbe sicuramente acquistato più spessore se, invece di concentrarsi su uno sproloquio del protagonista che analizza a ritroso la propria vita quasi in delirio, avesse analizzato il momento che gli ha permesso di aprire gli occhi sulla propria esistenza, e le scelte concrete che prende per effettuare il cambiamento. Purtroppo quello che emerge leggendo è più la descrizione di una crisi di mezz’età, di un uomo con un’aziendina mediocre che si innamora della sua segretaria giovane e che abbandona la sua famiglia senza una vera e propria prospettiva di vita alternativa. Inoltre, tutti gli altri personaggi del libro sono senza personalità, a partire dalla moglie del protagonista alla sua amante. Questo contribuisce solo ad accrescere (almeno a parer mio) non solo la frustrazione verso di loro, che quasi non hanno neanche il diritto di parola, ma anche verso l’uomo, che chiaramente ha un ruolo nella storia solo perché le persone che lo circondano sono delle nullità.
April 12, 2008
There's a looseness about this book--it is unclear if there is ever a defined plot rather than just a rambling trodding forward. It seems like he wanted to work in many of his common themes, society changing forcing people to abandon what they have been and try to fit in to the new impersonal world focused soley on production and greed. But it never really succeeds nor feels like it is clear how this was all supposed to come together.
October 22, 2016
a high 2.5
Parts of this were a bit confusing, like overlapping ripples of a singular splash...
Sherwood could have given this more space in a larger novel- but probably should have condensed it into one (much) short(er!) story.
It was also difficult for me to buy into the idea of this rich married man, having had many woman- struggling so much to leave his wife.
SA totally lost me when the household servant also pledged her devotion to Mr. Webster...gag me.
Parts of this were a bit confusing, like overlapping ripples of a singular splash...
Sherwood could have given this more space in a larger novel- but probably should have condensed it into one (much) short(er!) story.
It was also difficult for me to buy into the idea of this rich married man, having had many woman- struggling so much to leave his wife.
SA totally lost me when the household servant also pledged her devotion to Mr. Webster...gag me.
January 3, 2017
Una de esas novelas que te sacude, te remueve, te cambia, en definitiva. La mejor forma de empezar el año, ahora a mantener el nivel.
June 23, 2023
No recordo perquè la vaig deixar a mitges, però per alguna cosa deuria ser. Crec que m'avorria
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