At the end of Charles Webb’s first novel, The Graduate, Benjamin Braddock rescues his beloved Elaine from a marriage made not in heaven but in California.It is now eleven years and 3,000 miles later, and the couple live in Westchester County, a suburb of New York City, with their two young sons whom they are educating at home. Through no accident, a continent now stands between them and the boys’ surviving grandparent, now known as Nan, but who in former days answered to Mrs. Robinson. As the story opens, the Braddock household is in turmoil as the Westchester School Board attempts to quash the unconventional educational methods the family is practicing. Desperate situations call for desperate remedies — even a cry for help to the mother-in-law from hell, who is only too happy to provide her loving services — but at a price far higher than could be expected.Charles Webb has a knack for pinpointing the horrors and absurdities of domestic life, and Home School displays all the precision and wit that made The Graduate such a long-lasting success.

Home School

Literature & Fiction

Webb, Charles

Genre Fiction

Hutchinson

The Graduate (Fiction - general)

Contemporary

Constable

The Graduate

Literary

Penguin

Finally, the sequel to the international bestseller and one of the most classic movies of all time, The Graduate, has arrived. 
At the end of Charles Webb’s first novel, The Graduate, Benjamin Braddock rescues his beloved Elaine from a marriage made not in heaven, but in California. For over forty years, legions of fans have wondered what happened to the young couple after The Graduate’s momentous final scene. The wait is over.
Eleven years and 3,000 miles later, Benjamin and Elaine live Westchester County, a suburb of New York City, with their two sons, whom they are educating at home. A continent now stands between them and the boys’ surviving grandparent, now known as Nan, but who in former days answered to Mrs. Robinson. The story opens with the household in turmoil as the Westchester School Board attempts to quash the unconventional educational methods the family is practicing. Desperate situations call for desperate remedies—even a cry for help to the mother-in-law from hell, who is only too happy to provide her loving services—but at a price far higher than could be expected.
At long last, the unforgettable characters that made The Graduate such a classic are back …and they’re better than ever—including, of course, the extraordinary Mrs. Robinson. Wryly observing the horrors and absurdities of domestic life, Home School has all the precision and wit that made The Graduate such a long-lasting success. 
 Praise for Charles Webb and Home School:
 "There's a lot of sharp, funny dialogue....those who remember the good old days will have some fun." --Hartford Courant “Charles Webb is a highly gifted and accomplished writer.” – Chicago Tribune "Brilliant...sardonic, ludicrously funny." --The New York Times on The Graduate
“Charles Webb's sequel to The Graduate sparkles with as much wit and invention as the original. Throughout the book, everything – dialogue, characterization, even incident – is pared down to a minimum, and yet the result, far from being undernourished, hums with richness and vitality. So here’s to you Mrs. Robinson, and to Charles Webb for doing such a fine job of resurrecting her.” --Sunday Telegraph (UK)
“[Home School] offers a witty and bitingly accurate tale of suburban frustration whose slightness is integral to its charm.” --Daily Mail (UK)
 “Distinctive, wry, spare and beautifully modulated.” --Daily Telegraph (UK) “Forty years overdue, the sequel to The Graduate was worth the wait. A great read.” 
--The London Paper (UK)
“By utilizing the same wry humor and pinpoint characterization of the first novel, and by delving even further into the dark motives of the iconic Mrs. Robinson, Webb has made this continuation of a classic believable and entertaining.” --The Works (UK)

United States

Thomas Dunne Books

New Cardiff

Seductive, funny and poignant, with a mesmerizing fairy-tale quality, NEW CARDIFF begins with a broken heart - Colin's. He and Vera had first met when they kicked together as their pregnant mothers sat next to each other in the doctor's waiting room. They became like Siamese twins. They had great sex, they were getting married - until Vera sent Colin an invitation to her marriage to someone else. Colin escapes to the New World to heal himself, but almost immediately the new work takes a hand. In New Cardiff he finds an innocence, a simplicity, a warmth, an eccentricity and a directness that seduces and transforms him. Mandy, his new lover, finds the perfect subjects for portraits without even being interested, the force is with her. So when Vera arrives to explain it had all been a joke she finds a very different Colin. Written largely in dialogue NEW CARDIFF is a paeon to oust the cynicism of the adult in favour of the simplicity of the child. To be called HOPE SPRINGS, the film stars Colin Firth, Minnie Driver and Heather Graham. An enchantingly written fable to teach us how to start again.

ABACUS +

Signet

After returning home, a college graduate finds the wife of his father's business partner eager to educate him

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.

Dramas & Plays

Dutton Adult

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