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The Graduate
 
 
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The Graduate (Paperback)

~ Charles Webb (Author) "Benjamin Braddock graduated from a small Eastern college on a day in June..." (more)
Key Phrases: Elaine Robinson, Carl Smith, Verandah Room (more...)
2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)

List Price: $13.00
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  Kindle Edition, June 4, 2002 $5.59 -- --
  Hardcover, October 31, 1996 -- -- $3.55
  Paperback, April 1, 2002 $11.11 $3.82 $0.88
  Audio, CD, Unabridged $51.10 $7.99 $6.19
  Audio, Download Offsite Link $10.47 or less with new Audible membership

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  • This item: The Graduate by Charles Richard Webb

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Editorial Reviews

Review

The Plain Dealer (Cleveland): His novel makes you want to laugh and it makes you want to cry.

Chicago Tribune: A highly gifted and accomplished writer.

The New York Times: Brilliant...sardonic, ludicrously funny.


Product Description

The basis for Mike Nichols' acclaimed 1967 film starring Dustin Hoffman -- and for successful stage productions in London and on Broadway -- this classic novel about a naive college graduate adrift in the shifting social and sexual mores of the 1960s captures with hilarity and insight the alienation of youth and the disillusionment of an era.

The Graduate

When Benjamin Braddock graduates from a small Eastern college and moves home to his parents' house, everyone wants to know what he's going to do with his life. Embittered by the emptiness of his college education and indifferent to his grim prospects -- grad school? a career in plastics? -- Benjamin falls haplessly into an affair with Mrs. Robinson, the relentlessly seductive wife of his father's business partner. It's only when beautiful coed Elaine Robinson comes home to visit her parents that Benjamin, now smitten, thinks he might have found some kind of direction in his life. Unfortuately for Benjamin, Mrs. Robinson plays the role of protective mother as well as she does the one of mistress. A wondrously fierce and absurd battle of wills ensues, with love and idealism triumphing over the forces of corruption and conformity.


Product Details

  • Paperback: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Washington Square Press (April 2, 2002)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0743456459
  • ISBN-13: 978-0743456456
  • Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #284,216 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

More About the Author

Charles Richard Webb
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
Benjamin Braddock graduated from a small Eastern college on a day in June. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Elaine Robinson, Carl Smith, Verandah Room, Well Elaine, Benjamin Braddock, Well Benjamin, Los Angeles, Wendell Hall
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Customer Reviews

32 Reviews
5 star:
 (6)
4 star:
 (7)
3 star:
 (3)
2 star:
 (8)
1 star:
 (8)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
2.8 out of 5 stars (32 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, July 24, 2001
By www.DavidLRattigan.com (United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
  
This review is from: The Graduate (Hardcover)
This little novel really is quite good entertainment. Most of the book is just dialogue, reading much like a screenplay, so it is hardly going to rank up there as an all-time great novel. The conversations between Ben and his parents, Ben and Mrs Robinson etc. are tremendously witty, and I found myself laughing out loud on a number of occasions. Ben is a considerably darker character than he appears in the (perhaps superior) film version, being a cynical and disillusioned graduate going through a depression during which he loses interest in just about everything and resigns himself to a life of 'bumming around'. I think I would agree with Douglas Brode, the film critic who wrote of the movie that it was not a story about the generation gap, but rather about a young man who feels as alienated from his own peers as from his parents' generation. This comes across much more strongly in the book, and we also get a very strong sense of WHY he feels so distanced from the rest of his culture - the superficiality and hypocrisy of middle-class America (this is very much a book of its time) is evident, and the reader finds himself disgusted with the shallow attitudes of the milieu in which Benjamin finds himself.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An American Classic, July 20, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: The Graduate (Hardcover)
As for all those extremely negative Swiss reviews, I guess this book and the white suburban upper middle class American sub-culture it so accurately portrays do not come across as funny and as true to people from other cultures. That's understandable; I may not be able to fully relate to an accurate tale of European life. This apparent lack of universality is a valid complaint. But the book sure rings true to me. Benjamin's frustration and rebellion are all part of the normal search for meaning and self-fulfillment that many people go through. It's a classic American coming-of-age story complete with a profound identity crisis. And the discussion between Ben and his father about fighting fires and sleeping with prostitutes in frozen fields -- well, it wasn't in the movie and it makes me laugh out loud each time I read it. That part alone makes the book worthwhile.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Must read, April 12, 2002
By Shannon (Louisiana) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Graduate (Hardcover)
I found this book to be loaded with unspoken richness and multi-dimensional characters, especially Mrs. Robinson. Charles Webb has created a very complex woman trapped in a situation that she regrets but can only try to hold on to because it is all she has. At the same time he has the main character, Ben Braddock, trying to find puropse in his life after he has already accomplished everything everyone else wanted him to. At 20 he finds himself out of college with neumerous prospects for graduate school but feeling lost and empty inside becasue he has never stopped to understand who he is and what he wants out of life. In this state of internal turmoil and kindred spirit, Mrs. Robinson, finds him and makes him an offer he tries to refuse but eventually cannot. In the end this offer causes everyones lives to be turned inside out. I reccomend this book to everyone.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars "What?"
I have seen the movie a couple of times but have never read the book. Frankly I never even considered that there was a novel and was intrigued to see a new audiobook version on... Read more
Published 29 days ago by Michael P Mccullough

2.0 out of 5 stars The Graduate - fails
I'm not a fan of this book. Even knowing it was written by an individual who had recently graduate from college and it was supposed to be something fighting against the... Read more
Published 3 months ago by S. Ruck

5.0 out of 5 stars Criminally Underrated


Here are two things to get out of the way; one, I haven't seen the film, and two, I enjoyed this novel much more than 'Revolutionary Road' and is, in my opinion, in... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Jonathan Posner

3.0 out of 5 stars The book without the soundtrack?
In most cases, the book shines, the movie is ok, and the soundtrack is forgettable. This title seems to defy gravity. Read more
Published on February 19, 2007 by J. Beyda

4.0 out of 5 stars Good but not great
The book started out strong but kind of fell by the waist side at the end. I think it is because they dropped the character of Mrs. Read more
Published on March 19, 2006 by Joshua J. Moore

1.0 out of 5 stars This book is awful
I can finish just about any book, but from the minute I picked up this book to read it, I wanted to put it down. Read more
Published on January 12, 2006 by A. Holloway

2.0 out of 5 stars Mediocre novel about a disillusioned young man
Benjamin Braddock comes home after his college graduation with offers for other schools and even a major scholarship to finish his studies. Read more
Published on February 27, 2005 by gac1003

4.0 out of 5 stars It's what you make of it...
People don't like this book because they don't like to think. It's mostly dialogue - like a drama, or a screenplay. The reader has to fill in the details. Read more
Published on February 21, 2005 by Emily E. Gallant

2.0 out of 5 stars The Movie is Better
I read this book before watching the movie and its a little surprising that they made a classic movie out of this. Read more
Published on December 28, 2004 by Jane

4.0 out of 5 stars Hard to separate from the movie
As other reviewers have said, this book is only a classic because the movie is. THE GRADUATE is one of my favorite movies, and when I read this book I see Dustin Hoffman and Anne... Read more
Published on August 30, 2004 by J. Bosiljevac

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