Stoner – John Edward Williams (1965)

This wasn’t a book I had planned on reading this month. In fact when I collected together the little pile of books I intended to read during June I had never heard of either Stoner or John Edward Williams. Then Vintage books started offering free copies of Stoner on Twitter – and I was curious.

It seems – from what little I can find out – that Stoner has become a bit of a forgotten American classic. I think it might now be under-going something of a renaissance. Recently I saw a wonderful review of another modern Vintage American classic ‘Time will Darken It’ by William Maxwell on Booksnob’s blog. The back cover of Stoner advertises the other book – and I must say I am tempted. I have been hugely impressed by this book – the prose is glorious – but the relationship which develops between the reader and Stoner is what makes it such a wonderful read. I apologise in advance – for the number of quotes I am including – but they do give a wonderful flavour of this excellent novel.

“An occasional student who comes upon the name may wonder idly who William Stoner was, but he seldom pursues his curiosity beyond a casual question. Stoner’s colleagues, who held him in no particular esteem when he was alive, speak of him rarely now; to the older ones, his name is a reminder of the end that awaits them all, and to the younger ones it is merely a sound which evokes no sense of the past and no identity with which they can associate themselves or their careers.”

In 1910 at the age of nineteen young William Stoner leaves his parents farm to begin a course of agricultural study at the University of Missouri. In his second year – Stoner transfers to a literature course. William Stoner discovers literature and his life is transformed – he stays at the University to study for his doctorate – never returning as originally planned to his parent’s farm – and later becomes a teacher at the same university. It is Stoner’s love for his literature and in particular for his job at the University that is at the heart of this novel. Stoner isn’t the best teacher that ever was, but at the University he finds himself and his spiritual home, and as the years pass he strives to be a better teacher.

“Sometimes, immersed in his books, there would come to him the awareness of all that he did not know, of all that he had not read; and the serenity for which he labored was shattered as he realized the little time he had in life to read so much, to learn what he had to know.”

In the years before the First World War – Stoner is befriended by Gordon Finch and David Masters, Masters is killed during the war, Finch come home a decorated soldier – resumes his place at the university and rises to become dean of faculty. Over the next forty years Finch remains a good friend of Stoner’s an ally, and when he’s able, a protector amid the storms and conflicts that punctuate Stoner’s career. Yet Masters and his belief in the University and what it meant to him – stays with Stoner for the rest of his life.

“It’s for us that the University exists, for the dispossessed of the world; not for the students, not for the selfless pursuit of knowledge, not for any of the reasons that you hear. We give out the reasons, and we let a few of the ordinary ones in, those that would do in the world; but that’s just protective coloration. Like the church in the Middle Ages, which didn’t give a damn about the laity or even about God, we have our pretenses in order to survive. And we shall survive – because we have to.”

Not long after the end of the war – Stoner meets Edith Bostwick – and is almost instantly smitten. He marries Edith but it is not long before he realises that his marriage is a mistake. Edith is a beautiful, educated young lady of good family, unstable and often cold. Stoner is simply unprepared for life with Edith, her coolness and unpredictable behaviour – in the face of his naïve love is desperately sad.

“In her white dress she was like a cold light coming into the room. Stoner started involuntarily toward her and felt Finch’s hand on his arm, restraining him. Edith was pale, but she gave him a small smile. Then she was beside him, and they were walking together. A stranger with a round collar stood before them; he was short and fat and he had a vague face. He was mumbling words and looking at a white book in his hands. William heard himself responding to silences. He felt Edith trembling beside him.

In time Stoner becomes a father – the next great love in his life – his daughter Grace. At times when Edith is away or ill – Stoner cares for Grace alone, their relationship becomes close, and Edith – when she notices is jealous enough to disrupt it. This is just one of the many battles William Stoner must fight during his lifetime. The other small conflicts are at the University. When first studying at the University, Stoner had worked under instructor Archer Sloane – a man who in introducing him to his beloved literature changed his life. Sloane is another figure in Stoner’s life that he can never forget, but he is replaced by Hollis Lomax – a man who is behind all the conflicts that blight Stoner’s career – and even intrude into his personal life. Stoner does find love – an unexpected and unlooked for affair brings him great happiness – for a painfully brief time.

“In his forty-third year William Stoner learned what others, much younger, had learned before him: that the person one loves at first is not the person one loves at last, and that love is not an end but a process through which one person attempts to know another.”

Stoner – is the story of a man – an unremarkable man – and yet he is a kind of hero. This is a story of love – but it is not a love story, the love William Stoner has for the women in his life, for literature and the university, and the great love he had for his job. Stoner’s life is just like that of most of us – we have our loves, disappointments sadnesses those daily routines that go unremarked for years and years. William Stoner enjoys some small quiet victories in his life, but after he is gone there remains little to prove that he ever lived.

Stoner is wonderful novel, and I thank Vintage for extolling its virtues and sending me a copy – actually they sent me two in error – I gave the other to someone at work – a teacher.