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Description edit
Anita Shreve's All He Ever Wanted reads like Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own told from the perspective of the husband. The wife gains a measure of freedom, but how does the repressive, abandoned husband feel about that freedom? Set in the early 1900s in the fictional New England college... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Characters edit
- Phillip Asher: A man from Etna's past, who arrives at Thrupp College where Mr VanTassel teaches english and is in a position to become Dean, that is until Phillip Asher arrives to steal away his hopes of becoming Dean of Thrupp College
- Gerard Moxon: A professor at Thrupp College and only friend of Mr Van Tassel.
- Nicholas Van Tassel: pompous man, narrator, professor of rhetoric at Thrupp College, bachelor
- Thomas: Add a description of this character.
- Etna Bliss Van Tassel: met Nicholas in a fire, married him
- Samuel Asher: By innuendo, it is believed that he and Etna had had physical relations in her past. He was tall, blond and slender and betrothed to another woman at the time of their physical relations.
- Edward Ferald: Edward Ferald had been a wealthy student at Thrupp College. Nicholas Van Tassel had been his professor and disliked everything about him, his money, attitude and what he perceived lack of intelligence. Therefore he gave him a failing grade in English which Edward Ferald never forgot and at a later date he responded in the same manner.
- Miriam: Etna Bliss' sister who's married to a wealthy man. She treats Etna badly, almost as a servant to her and her children.
- Clara: The eldest child and only daughter of Nicholas Van Tassel and his wife Etna.
- Nicky: The Van Tassel's second child and only son.
- Mary: The maid
- William Bliss: Etna Bliss's uncle. He was a scholar and much admired professor at Thrupp College. Etna was living with her uncle when she first met Mr Van Tassel
- Abigail
- Meritable: Meritable was Mr Van Tassel's sister who lived in Florida. She was the only sibling fond of Nicholas Van Tassel.
- Nicodemus
- Arthur Hallock
- Mrs. Hazzard
- Drury
- Newman
Quotes edit
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“The heart has no mind, and the mind has not heart. They are two separate organs, often at war with each other.”
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“No, not at all. You must do a lot of entertaining.”
Etna
- Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
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How much of love is a trick of the mind, a mere feat of verbal acrobatics, to accommodate persons who just happen to cross our path and who suit our needs at one particular moment in time?
Highlighted by 7 Kindle customers -
Sometimes it seems to me that all of life is a struggle to contain the natural impulses of the body and spirit, and that what we call character represents only the degree to which we are successful in this endeavor.
Highlighted by 6 Kindle customers -
capable of loving greatly, an understanding that leaves one, paradoxically, with a feeling of gratitude and pride in spite of all the carnage.)
Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers -
passion both erodes and enhances character in equal measure, and not slowly but instantly, and in such a manner that what is left is not in balance but is thrown desperately out of kilter in both directions. The erosion the result of the willingness to do whatever is necessary to obtain the object of one’s desire, even if it means engaging in lies or deception or debasing what was once treasured.
Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
Setting & Locations edit
the early 1900s in a fictional New England college called Thrupp
- Exeter
- New Englander
- London
- New Hampshire
- New Haven
- Florida
- Massachusetts
- Europe
- Brockton
- Boston
- Canada
- Toronto
First Sentence edit
The fire began in the kitchen and spread to the hotel dining room.
Authors & Contributors edit
- Anita Shreve (Author)
First Edition edit
Original Language: English
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Country: USA
Publication Date: April 15, 2003
ISBN: 0316782262
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Country: USA
Publication Date: April 15, 2003
ISBN: 0316782262
Page Count: 320
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
- Dewey: 813.54
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