or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
94 used & new from $2.76

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Express Checkout with PayPhrase
What's this? | Create PayPhrase
Sorry!
The Rules of Attraction
 
 
Tell the Publisher!
I’d like to read this book on Kindle

Don’t have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here.
 
  

The Rules of Attraction (Paperback)

~ (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (137 customer reviews)

List Price: $14.95
Price: $10.17 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $4.78 (32%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Want it delivered Tuesday, November 10? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
35 new from $6.70 57 used from $2.76 2 collectible from $10.17

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
  Hardcover -- $41.74 $1.97
  Paperback $10.17 $6.70 $2.76
  MP3 CD, Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged $17.99 $16.75 $34.01
  Audio, Download Offsite Link $18.71 or less with new Audible membership

Best Value

Buy The Rules of Attraction and get Deadwood at an additional 5% off Amazon.com's everyday low price.

The Rules of Attraction + Deadwood
Buy Together Today: $20.48

Show availability and shipping details

  • This item: The Rules of Attraction

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • Deadwood

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details


Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Less Than Zero

Less Than Zero

by Bret Easton Ellis
3.6 out of 5 stars (234)  $9.13
Glamorama (Vintage Contemporaries)

Glamorama (Vintage Contemporaries)

by Bret Easton Ellis
3.3 out of 5 stars (311)  $10.85
The Informers (Movie Tie-in Edition) (Vintage Contemporaries)

The Informers (Movie Tie-in Edition) (Vintage Contemporaries)

by Bret Easton Ellis
3.1 out of 5 stars (82)  $11.86
Lunar Park

Lunar Park

by Bret Easton Ellis
3.3 out of 5 stars (123)  $10.20
American Psycho

American Psycho

by Bret Easton Ellis
Explore similar items

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This tale of privileged college students at their self- absorbed and childish worst is the very book that countless students have dreamed of writing at their most self-absorbed and childish moments. With one bestseller to his credit, Less Than Zero author and recent Bennington College graduate Ellis has had the unique opportunity of seeing his dream become a realityand all those other once-and-future students can breathe a sigh of relief that it didn't happen to them. Through a series of brief first-person accounts, the novel chronicles one term at a fictional New England college, with particular emphasis on a decidedly contemporary love triangle (one woman and two men) in which all possible combinations have been explored, and each pines after the one who's pining after the other. Theirs is a world of physical, chemical and emotional excessan adolescent fantasy of sex, drugs and sturm und drangwherein characters are distinguished only by the respective means by which they squander their health, wealth and youth. Despite its contemporary feel and flashy structurethe book begins and ends midsentencethe narrative relies on the stalest staples of melodrama and manages to pack in a suicide, assorted suicide attempts, an abortion and the death of a parent without giving the impression that anything is happeningor that any of it matters. Major ad/promo.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


From Library Journal

Two years after his debut best seller, Less Than Zero ( LJ 6/1/85) , Ellis returns with a very different novel. Though still about college students (Ellis graduated only last year), this story is told through numerous student diaries, illustrating the "accidents" that often form the basis of modern relationships. Here, misunderstandings, differing perceptions, and often just bad hearing cause pairings to begin or end, proving Ellis's implied thesis that there are no "rules." Ellis has his pretensions (the book starts and finishes in the middle of a sentence, and one diary entry is in easy French), but he successfully fleshes out his characters and creates involving situations. This should be a hit like the last, especially with college students. For public and academic collections. Susan Avallone, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; First Vintage Contemporaries Edition, June 1998 edition (June 30, 1998)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 067978148X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0679781486
  • Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (137 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #15,621 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category: (What's this?)

    #3 in  Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( E ) > Ellis, Bret Easton

More About the Author

Bret Easton Ellis
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Visit Amazon's Bret Easton Ellis Page

Look Inside This Book
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover


What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The Rules of Attraction
71% buy the item featured on this page:
The Rules of Attraction 4.0 out of 5 stars (137)
$10.17
American Psycho
11% buy
American Psycho 3.6 out of 5 stars (1,092)
$10.20
Less Than Zero
8% buy
Less Than Zero 3.6 out of 5 stars (234)
$9.13
Glamorama (Vintage Contemporaries)
4% buy
Glamorama (Vintage Contemporaries) 3.3 out of 5 stars (311)
$10.85

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(6)
(5)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

 

Customer Reviews

137 Reviews
5 star:
 (65)
4 star:
 (38)
3 star:
 (11)
2 star:
 (10)
1 star:
 (13)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (137 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Book Full of Dirty Purity, July 20, 2000
By "goldrobotboy" (Iowa City, IA) - See all my reviews
This is one of the most gorgeous books I have ever read. Ellis is a smart enough writer not to make it gorgeous in the conventional sense, one where swelling sentences and gushing adjectives are mistaken for beauty. Instead, Ellis uses sheer simplicity and straightforward dialogue to convey just how deeply jaded the characters in the novel are. Every character is longing for something more, but trying to go after it in a self-destructive and obsessive compulsive fashion. It is a dead on accurate portrayal of college life, of the religion of namedropping, gossip, misdirected desire, and the search of a place to belong. The characters are expertly drawn and given voices that have more emotion and chracter in them than those found in most films. It is funny and sad at the same time. When you finish the book, you realize it starts in the middle of a sentence and ends in the middle of a sentence, a subtle yet heartbreaking technique that suggests people have felt this way since the beginning of time and that they always will.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars to date, this is Ellis' best work, June 24, 2001
By man_invisible (Dork, PA) - See all my reviews
  
After reading every other book in Bret Easton Ellis' backcatalog, I picked up "The Rules of Attraction" expecting more of his overused trademarks: cocaine, sex, vacuous characters. I was really surprised when, in the first few pages, this shaped up to be an incredibly involving novel with some semblance of humanity incorporated into the vacant lives of beautiful college kids searching for love. The story is told through POV segments of various characters, including Sean Bateman (good-looking, hard-drinking, narcissistic), Paul Denton (openly bisexual, provides the novel with genuine morality), and Lauren Hynde (fretting over her boyfriend, who's off in Europe). Their weekly activities of going to parties, getting drunk/high, and getting laid are chronicled in a hell-as-repetition way, with Ellis incorporating bits of stark, unexpected humor that catches the reader off guard. "The Rules of Attraction" flows with a fluid consistency, so that even events that seem to repeat aren't marred by their redundancy and instead seem fresh. What Ellis does--which doesn't happen in many of his novels--is make us sympathetic toward these characters, even though they can be relentlessly egotistical and plain down stupid, we are curious about what their futures hold. It's only in the last 30 or so pages that the novel begins to wear out, with inexplicable motivations and emotions that drift with the consistency of mood swings coming to surface. Despite this, "The Rules of Attraction" is still a damn good novel--one of the best I've read in a while--and it's doubtful Ellis will ever be able to top it.
Comment Comment (1) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
23 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars I always knew it would be like this., November 22, 2003
Where "Less than Zero" lacked in direction and "American Psycho" lacked in consistancy, "The Rules of Attraction" picks up to pieces to form Bret Easton Ellis' most intriguing and important novel to date. Unlike his other novels, I never once felt the need to question the direction of the plot, I was instead lost in the unique and profound story told by the different views of these college students who attended a liberal arts school in New England. Sure like all Ellis' novels, there's drugs, sex, and a lost sense of identity. But unlike his other novels, "The Rules of Attractions" keeps fresh chapter after chapter. I think it had alot to do with how the book was written, with different commentaries by all the characters in the novel. Sometimes the diiferent perspectives of the characters contridicted the other and miscommunications with the conversations were to say the least, really humorous. This is really a touching, sad, funny, and remarkable novel. I guess there are some people who probably can't stomach Ellis' style of heavy drug use and sex. All I can really say if you are that type of reader is: Deal with it. Rock'n'Roll.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Sadistic fortune telling
We all know the masterpiece of that author, viz. American Psycho (please watch the uncut unrated video version: the extra five minutes make a real difference), and I was curious... Read more
Published 11 days ago by Jacques COULARDEAU

3.0 out of 5 stars Not bad.
I'm stuck between giving this book 3 and 4 stars. I'd give it 4, but it took me over 6 months to finally finish it. Read more
Published 17 days ago by Violet

1.0 out of 5 stars I got gypped
The book I received was missing the first 12 pages. It was perfectly bound (nothing was torn out), likely a printing error. But that still leaves me in the lurch.
Published 19 days ago by Nicholas Cerminaro

1.0 out of 5 stars Book Quality Terrible!
It would be way too kind to describe what I received as a book. It looked like it had been photocopied and glued together. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Richard J. Wilmoth

5.0 out of 5 stars Dark look at self-absorbed students
Hard-hitting, incredibly nasty exploration of the deranged private lives of privileged kids at an elite New England university. Read more
Published 4 months ago by J. Shurin

2.0 out of 5 stars Can't follow the rules
Reading The Rules of Attraction is like watching Mtv. "The Real World: Camden University." Ugh! Read more
Published 6 months ago by zl21

3.0 out of 5 stars Odd but to be expected
I read this book based on it being the same author as "American Psycho".

It was set in the 70's and revolved around college kids who were all linked together (but... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Hoolia

2.0 out of 5 stars What a let down
After reading American Psycho and Lunar Park I was keen to read this particular novel. I found it repetitive and meaningless - a series of anecdotes and empty characters. Read more
Published 11 months ago by R. Churchman

5.0 out of 5 stars One of best fiction books I've read
Rules of Attraction is a first-person narrative that alternates between a few egocentric, hedonistic college students as they become intertwined in a love triangle. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Chris Hardiman

5.0 out of 5 stars Did the Eighties Ever End?
I bought this book almost exactly 20 years ago, back in 1988. The first time I read it, my reaction was: this is a real piece of trash. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Joe Banks

Only search this product's reviews



Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Discussion Replies Latest Post
Best historical novel on race, gender, class, sexuality? 4 10 days ago
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   




Product Information from the Amapedia Community

Beta (What's this?)

The Rules of Attraction

A novel by Bret Easton Ellis   please stress that this book begins on page 13  and in mid sentence it is NOT a publisher defect  thanks

(Report this)
Created on Sep 26, 2006, last edited on Dec 03, 2006.

 Explore and Edit at Amapedia.com opens new browser window



Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject

 

Feedback

If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.
 Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
Is there any other feedback you would like to provide?

Your comments can help make our site better for everyone.


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.