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Pages are clean with normal wear. May have limited markings & or highlighting within pages & or cover. Includes dustjacket if applicable. May have some wear & creases on the cover. The spine may also have minor wear. Does not come with CD DVD if applicable. Access code has been used if applicable. Does not come with any supplementary materials. Pages are clean with normal wear. May have limited markings & or highlighting within pages & or cover. Includes dustjacket if applicable. May have some wear & creases on the cover. The spine may also have minor wear. Does not come with CD DVD if applicable. Access code has been used if applicable. Does not come with any supplementary materials. See less
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John Updike
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Rabbit Angstrom: A Tetralogy (Everyman's Library, No. 214) Hardcover – October 17, 1995

by John Updike (Author, Introduction)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 124 ratings
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The four novels in the acclaimed Rabbit series—including the Pulitzer Prize winners Rabbit is Rich and Rabbit at Rest—brought together in a single volume, from one of the most gifted American writers of the twentieth century.

When we first met him in Rabbit, Run (1960), the book that established John Updike as a major novelist, Harry (Rabbit) Angstrom is playing basketball with some boys in an alley in Pennsylvania during the tail end of the Eisenhower era, reliving for a moment his past as a star high school athlete. Athleticism of a different sort is on display throughout these four magnificent novels—the athleticism of an imagination possessed of the ability to lay bare, with a seemingly effortless animal grace, the enchantments and disenchantments of life. Updike revisited his hero toward the end of each of the following decades in the second half of this American century; and in each of the subsequent novels, as Rabbit, his wife, Janice, his son, Nelson, and the people around them grow, these characters take on the lineaments of our common existence. In prose that is one of the glories of contemporary literature, Updike has chronicled the frustrations and ambiguous triumphs, the longuers, the loves and frenzies, the betrayals and reconciliations of our era. He has given us our representative American story. This Rabbit Angstrom volume is composed of the following novels: Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; Rabbit is Rich; and Rabbit at Rest.
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  1. Print length
    1519 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Everyman's Library
  4. Publication date
    October 17, 1995
  5. Dimensions
    5.27 x 2.12 x 8.3 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0679444599
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0679444596
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

FROM THE INTRODUCTION BY THE AUTHOR written especially for this edition:
“The character of Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom was for me a way in-a ticket to the America all around me … [These four related novels] became a kind of running report on the state of my hero and his nation . . . A some point between the second and third of the series, I began to visualize four completed novels that might together make a single coherent volume, a mega-novel. Now, thanks to Everyman's Library, this volume exists, titled, as I had long hoped, with the name of the protagonist, an everyman who, like all men, was unique and mortal.”

“Taken together, this quartet of novels has given its readers a wonderfully vivid portrait of one Harry (Rabbit) Angstrom . . . The books have also created a Kodachrome-sharp picture of American life . . . from the somnolent 50s . . . into the uncertainties of the 80s.”
—THE NEW YORK TIMES

“The being that most illuminates the Rabbit quartet is not finally Harry Angstrom himself but the world through which he moves in his slow downward slide, meticulously recorded by one of the most gifted American realists . . . The Rabbit novels, for all their grittiness, constitute John Updike's surpassingly eloquent valentine to his country.”
—Joyce Carol Oates, THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

From the Inside Flap

Four works in one volume

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Everyman's Library; First Edition (October 17, 1995)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 1519 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0679444599
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0679444596
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.1 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.27 x 2.12 x 8.3 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 124 ratings

About the author

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John Updike

John Updike

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John Updike was born in 1932, in Shillington, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Harvard College in 1954, and spent a year in Oxford, England, at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art. From 1955 to 1957 he was a member of the staff of The New Yorker, and since 1957 lived in Massachusetts. He was the father of four children and the author of more than fifty books, including collections of short stories, poems, essays, and criticism. His novels won the Pulitzer Prize (twice), the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Rosenthal Award, and the Howells Medal. A previous collection of essays, Hugging the Shore, received the 1983 National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. John Updike died on January 27, 2009, at the age of 76.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
124 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the book interesting and addictive. They also say it creates a feeling of reality in the locations and settings. Opinions are mixed on the value for money, with some finding it well worth reading, while others say it's weaker.

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InsightValue for money
5 customers mention "Insight"5 positive0 negative

Customers find the book insightful, saying it looks at life broadly and deeply. They also say it's interesting and addictive, describing in vivid detail even simple things. Readers describe the book as an interesting study of humanity. They appreciate the unique style and say the novels are outstanding.

"...I purchased this book and I am pleased. The novels are outstanding and Everyman’s Library is a quality printing." Read more

"...Updike creates such a feeling of reality in the locations and settings that it made me feel like I could find "the towns" in which most of..." Read more

"John Updike does better what most all great novelists do: he looks at life so broadly and deeply and carefully and patiently that he goes beyond..." Read more

"...Not a goodie two-shoes but something. Rabbit is an interesting study in humanity and John takes you from high school to the grave in his series..." Read more

14 customers mention "Value for money"9 positive5 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the value for money of the book. Some mention it's well worth reading, interesting, and great for literary students or fans. However, others say it's weak, unentertaining, and flawed.

"...I enjoyed the book very much, and since I am now much older, I enjoyed it even more...." Read more

"...While what happens in this book is certainly interesting, it's Updike's asides that make it such a classic...." Read more

"...The format of "Rabbit Angstrom -- the four novels" is physically impossible!..." Read more

"...tense" writing and characters' development and actions was well worth reading, and once you get into the series it is hard to decide to stop..." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

MJ
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book Series
Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2024
Verified Purchase
I recently reread Updike’s book, In the Beauty of the Lilies. I enjoyed the book very much, and since I am now much older, I enjoyed it even more. I remembered the Rabbit books fondly and decided to reread them. I purchased this book and I am pleased. The novels are outstanding and Everyman’s Library is a quality printing.
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Kim Koch
5.0 out of 5 stars its updike
Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2024
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its updike
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Kirk McElhearn
5.0 out of 5 stars An American classic - if Proust were writing about modern America, this is what he would have written
Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2009
Verified Purchase
Amazon tells me, at the top of the page, that I ordered this book back in 2002. It's nice of them to remind me. It's not often that I reread something this thick so few years after the first go-through, but the memory of this book remained engraved in my mind. I had recently been thinking of rereading it, and Updike's death prompted me to pull it out and crack it open.

While the first reading was a kind of epiphany, the second reading is much more: bits of enlightenment shine through the pages as the four novels go by. Watching Harry Angstrom's life go by, in such a short time - it took me maybe two weeks to read the second time through - is, in a way, like watching my own. Not that my life is like his, but bits of it are. Seeing Rabbit in his mid-20s, then mid-30s, mid-40s and finally, at the end, in his mid-50s, just a few years older than me, makes me think that has life is a template for all our lives. Sure, we don't have the same experiences - few people have as many affairs or such close knowledge of death - but so much of this book speaks to me deep down.

Reading about any life is profound, but reading about one this rich is almost cathartic. Rabbit is the quintessential American, with the same desires, fears and insights of so many of us. Yet he stands above us in his manner of observing the world - Updike's manner, of course. While what happens in this book is certainly interesting, it's Updike's asides that make it such a classic. His almost Proustian observations of Rabbit's life and times - any American's experience of these four decades - is subtle and haunts the entire 1500 pages of this book. I can think of no better book to sum up the American experience of the late 20th century. I miss you, John Updike. Thank God you wrote so much.
21 people found this helpful
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Kim Crosser
4.0 out of 5 stars Four books - four reviews. Interesting, addicting
Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2016
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The protagonist - Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom - is perhaps the most self-centered, selfish person I have encountered in literature.
This is a collection of the four "Rabbit" novels. Each novel was written at the end of a decade and reflects the environment/tone of that decade.
***** (five stars) The first novel - "Rabbit Run" - made Updike a best-selling author. The style of the novel was somewhat unique, with the writing consistently in the present, active tense, and with virtually all the novel written from the "live" point-of-view of Rabbit Angstrom (except for a critical section centered on his wife - Janice). This is the strongest of the four IMO, but some of that may be the novelty of the material and the "active tense" writing. This one feels like one of those exceptional novels where the writer invented a set of characters and turned them loose, then followed them as they became real and experienced life. Characters behave unexpectedly, but do so with a core truth to their characters.
*** (three stars) "Rabbit Redux" came out a decade later, towards the end of the 60's. This is the weakest novel. It seems to be Updike's apologia for racism and includes too many monologues devoted to slavery and racism in American history. It seems forced, and Rabbit's interaction and motives seem out of joint with the character from the other three books. Instead of writing what happens to his characters, Updike seems to be telling them what they must do, and it makes this book much less satisfying than "Rabbit Run".
**** (four stars) "Rabbit is Rich" came out another decade later. While not really rich, Rabbit is now comfortably in the middle class and can afford some of the trappings of money - membership in a medium-level country/golf club, a nice house in a suburb, a new Toyota sedan (he works/runs a Toyota dealership). This book has unsettling shifts with Rabbit's son, and the conflicts are slower to develop. I found myself more than once looking forward to getting to the final book, as this one has points where things just take too much time. However, at least I didn't encounter the same jarring situations where characters behaved inconsistently with their intrinsic natures, as in "Rabbit Redux".
**** (four stars) "Rabbit at Rest" is the final book, another decade later. This one moved along at a good pace, the characters were consistent (even though more than a bit frustrating - many times I wanted to slap some sense into a couple of the characters, but they were behaving consistently with how they had developed through the four books). The ending felt a bit too much like Updike wanted to go out with a bang rather than a whimper, but getting there was worth the read.

Overall - I am glad I finally read the "Rabbit" novels. The first one's consistent "active tense" writing and characters' development and actions was well worth reading, and once you get into the series it is hard to decide to stop before the end.
Updike creates such a feeling of reality in the locations and settings that it made me feel like I could find "the towns" in which most of the books' actions occurred. When the characters are walking or driving around the town, you can almost picture the scene and know what street/bridge they will cross shortly.
Recommended - but be prepared to sacrifice a lot of hours for a lot of pages...
28 people found this helpful
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Roemer McPhee
5.0 out of 5 stars Cumulative colossus.
Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2012
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John Updike does better what most all great novelists do: he looks at life so broadly and deeply and carefully and patiently that he goes beyond convincing, to become illuminating, and moving. Updike stated that he wanted to "meditate" at length on "middles," and by that he meant middle America, and with Rabbit Angstrom and his thirty years' course he certainly has accomplished it. Superhumanly determined, Updike has captured real life and put it in a glass.

Updike is the only novelist who shocks me. I have actually been shocked by this realization. I have figured out that the shock comes from the genius Updike's deep, spot-on realism. I love bad language, and I want to be kind to myself by thinking that it is because bad language is so frequently what people use, and certainly, the way people so often think to themselves. It is real, and so it registers, and it is shocking and fantastic at the same time when it is encountered. Here, I think, is a key insight into Updike: he sees with crystal clarity, and he reports fully, and he is afraid of nothing.

For me, the ultimate moment in the "Rabbit" tetralogy is when Harry Angstrom lays his daughter-in-law. Here is the thoroughly believable Harry at his nearly unbelievable. For me, Harry stretches here but does not break the bounds of plausibility. It is the limit of the characterization of the great protagonist Harold C. Angstrom. It is also something much less profound at the same time, and something all readers of Updike will instantly recognize, and a central part of Harry. As Harry himself might announce to all of us, "A stiff prick has no conscience."
6 people found this helpful
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Hans-Jürgen73
3.0 out of 5 stars Drucktyp
Reviewed in Germany on December 11, 2014
Verified Purchase
Diese Rezension bezieht sich nur auf den Druck, nicht de Roman. Etwas enttäuschend da der Schrifttyp für Hardcoverausgabe sehr klein ist. Daher nur bedingt empfehlenswert.
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