The Man Who Loved Children, Christina Stead
The Man Who Loved Children, Christina Stead
1 Rating(s)
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The Man Who Loved Children

Author: Christina Stead

Narrator: C. M. Hébert

Unabridged: 17 hr 3 min

Format: Digital Audiobook (DRM Protected)

Published: 01/05/2010

Synopsis

Sam and Henny Pollit have too many children, too little money, and too much loathing for one another. As Sam uses the children’s adoration to feed his own voracious ego, Henny watches in bleak despair, knowing the bitter reality that lies just below his mad visions. A chilling novel of the relations between parents and children, husbands and wives, The Man Who Loved Children is acknowledged as a contemporary classic.

About Christina Stead

Christina Stead (1902–1983) born in Australia, was the author of over a dozen works of fiction and the recipient of the Patrick White Prize.

About C. M. Hébert

C. M. Hébert is an Earphones Award winner and Audie Award nominee. She is the recording studio director for the Talking Books Program at the Library of Congress’ National Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. She lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with her husband, daughter, cat, and assorted fish.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Paul on September 22, 2017

Gentle warning note added here because it seems fans of this book can find the below review a little disheartening. So if you're a fan, you might want to skip this review. But, everybody knows that one reader's dogpile is another reader's marzipan souffle with attendant hummingbirds. I myself canno......more

Goodreads review by Lark on January 30, 2019

Two days after having read The Man Who Loved Children and I'm finally settling down. I don't think I've ever changed a 1 star review to a 5 star review before, but there it is. I've moved from feeling "this is a brilliant book, but I hate it" to feeling: "I may hate this book, but it's brilliant." Mo......more

Goodreads review by Flora on March 01, 2008

It's a travesty that this novel isn't one of those twentieth-century classics that everyone's heard of and has either read or knows they must read, like "The Sound and the Fury" or "Ulysses." Sure, people, praise it, but in the same way that Jonathan Franzen praises Alice Munro: with patronizing awe......more

Goodreads review by Lars on October 09, 2010

Jonathan Franzen—everyone who reads knows who he is, don’t they? Second novel as wildly popular as the first, cover of TIME. Yet no one seems to admit that they like him. Say what you like about his prickly personality, Franzen always seems willing to subsume his ego in the service of unrecognized wr......more

Goodreads review by Zanna on December 28, 2015

After my first day of reading this I concluded that Sam Pollit is the most extravagantly awful character I've ever met. Better acquaintance did nothing to ameliorate my first impression, so how does Christina Stead make it bearable to spend over 500 pages with him? Because Sam's awfulness, his sexis......more

Quotes

“This crazy, gorgeous family novel is one of the great literary achievements of the twentieth-century.” Jonathan Franzen

“Told in a gush of extravagant language such as is not heard in the age of television…[Hébert gives] every word its proper attention and [shows] great sensitivity to the emotional content (usually high) of every line of dialogue.” AudioFile

“Simply as a portrait of an extraordinary family, the book probably has no equal. And what a family!…Although the larger-than-life domestic scenes may not always be pleasant to read, they are nevertheless unforgettable. Listening to them might actually be better than reading them…with [audio], the splendid writing can be fully appreciated. C.M. Hébert reads the challenging text with skill and understanding.” Library Journal

Awards

  • Time Magazine's Best 100 English-Language Novels from 1923–2005
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