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Description edit see section history

Disgrace --set in post--apartheid Cape Town and on a remote farm in the Eastern Cape--is deft, lean, quiet, and brutal. A heartbreaking novel about a man and his daughter, Disgrace is a portrait of the new South Africa that is ultimately about grace and love. At fifty--two Professor David... read more

Characters/People edit see section history

  • David Lurie: A professor, who is disgraced following the seduction of one of his students.
  • Lucy: David's daughter who lives in the countryside.
  • Melanie Isaacs: The university student David gets involved with.
  • Bev Shaw: Lucy's friend and veterinarian.
  • Byron: Lord Byron- Lurie is struggling to write an opera about Lord Byron’s time in Italy and his relationship with Teresa Guiccioli
  • Teresa: Lord Byron’s mistress in Italy- Contessa Teresa Guiccioli
  • Soraya: A prostitute that Lurie ‘visits’
  • Rosalind: Lurie’s ex-wife, Lucie’s mother
  • Ettinger: Lucy’s neighbour
  • Bill Shaw: Bev Shaw’s husband
  • Desiree: Lurie’s ex-wife
  • Petrus: Lucy’s hired hand, who had recently purchased a portion of her land.
  • Katy: An abandoned bull dog that lives on Lucy’s farm.
Show all 13 characters
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Quotes edit see section history

  • “One wants to leave something behind. Or at least a man wants to leave something behind. It's easier for a woman.”
    David Lurie
  • “...by comparison with being a mother, being a father is a rather abstract business.”
    David Lurie
  • “He speaks Italian, he speaks French, but Italian and French will not save him here in darkest Africa”

First Sentence edit see section history

For a man of his age, fifty-two, divorced, he has, to his mind solved the problem of sex rather well.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Twenty three chapters

Series & Lists edit see section history

This book is in Outstanding books by Nobel Prizes in Literature. (community list)
This is book 1999 of 46 in Booker Prize Winners. (authoritative list)

Preceded by Amsterdam, and followed by The Blind Assassin.

This book is in Book Lover's Cook Book, The. (authoritative list)
This is book 77 of 1271 in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. (authoritative list)

Preceded by The Ground Beneath Her Feet, and followed by Sputnik Sweetheart.

This book is in Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read. (authoritative list)
This is book 21 of 29 in Biblioteka XX. stoljeće (Jutarnji list). (edition-based publisher list)

Preceded by Lady Chatterley's Lover, and followed by Darkness at Noon.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. J. M. Coetzee (Author)

Other Contributors:

  1. Joop van Helmond (Translator)
  2. Frans van der Wiel (Translator)
  3. Reinhild Böhnke (Translator) - German Translation

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Secker & Warburg
Country: Add the country of publication.
Publication Date: 1999
ISBN: 0-436-20489-4
Page Count: 218

Classification edit see section history


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