1
of
1
Stoner
A special edition of the literary classic
Series: Vintage Quarterbound Classics
Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.
Check link for latest rating. ( 228,166 ratings, 29,159 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still
learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Summary
Read More
Format: Hardback
$3600
$4000
Elsewhere:
Unit price
/
Unavailable
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER
Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks
Found a better price? Request a price match
Stoner
$3600
$4000
Elsewhere:
Unit price
/
Unavailable
Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
still learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Description
Vintage Quarterbound Classics - Bound to be beautiful
A beautiful hardback edition of the iconic forgotten classic, the story of one man's ordinary, extraordinary life.
William Stoner enters the University of Missouri at nineteen to study agriculture. A seminar on English literature changes his life, and he never returns to work on his father's farm. Stoner becomes a teacher. He marries the wrong woman. His life is quiet, and after his death, his colleagues remember him rarely.
Yet with truthfulness, compassion and intense power, this novel uncovers a story of universal value - of the conflicts, defeats and victories of the human race that pass unrecorded by history - and in doing so reclaims the significance of an individual life.
A beautiful, sad, utterly convincing account of an entire life - Ian McEwan
A brilliant, beautiful, inexorably sad, wise and elegant novel - Nick Hornby
A terrific novel of echoing sadness - Julian Barnes
Vintage Quarterbound Classics - Bound to be beautiful
Series: Vintage Quarterbound Classics
View all-
Midnight's Children
VINTAGE QUARTERBOUND CLASSICS - Bound to be beautiful A beautiful hardback edition of a modern Indian classic and winner of 'The Best of the Booker' - the best novel from Booker Prize history. Born at the stroke of midnight at the exact moment of India’s independence, Saleem Sinai is a special child. However, this coincidence of birth has consequences he...Hardback$3600Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Beloved
Vintage Quarterbound Classics - Bound to be beautiful A beautiful hardback edition of the Pulitzer-prize winning novel, from the great Toni Morrison. Sethe is now miles away from Sweet Home - the farm where she was kept as a slave for many years. Unable to forget the unspeakable horrors that took place there, Sethe is haunted by the violent spectre...Hardback$3600Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Catch-22
VINTAGE QUARTERBOUND CLASSICS- Bound to be beautiful A beautiful hardback edition of one of the most subversive anti-war novels ever written - reading Catch-22 is a rite of passage. Set in the closing months of World War II, this is the story of a bombardier named Yossarian who is frantic and furious because thousands of people he has never met...Hardback$3600Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
I Capture the Castle
VINTAGE QUARTERBOUND CLASSICS - Bound to be beautiful A beautiful hardback edition of one of the funny, heartbreaking, iconic coming-of-age novels. 'I write this sitting in the kitchen sink' is the first line of this timeless, witty and enchanting novel about growing up. Cassandra Mortmain lives with her bohemian and impoverished family in a crumbling castle in the middle of...Hardback$3600Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
If on a Winter's Night a Traveller
VINTAGE QUARTERBOUND CLASSICS - Bound to be beautiful A beautiful hardback edition of Calvino's genre-switching masterwork. A book of surprise and adventure but you, the reader, are the hero. You go into a bookshop and buy If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino. You like it. But alas, there is a printer's error in your copy. You...Hardback$3600Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Stoner
Vintage Quarterbound Classics - Bound to be beautiful A beautiful hardback edition of the iconic forgotten classic, the story of one man's ordinary, extraordinary life. William Stoner enters the University of Missouri at nineteen to study agriculture. A seminar on English literature changes his life, and he never returns to work on his father's farm. Stoner becomes a teacher. He...Hardback$3600Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
Vintage Quarterbound Classics - Bound to be beautiful A beautiful hardback edition of Angela Carter's feminist retelling of fairy tales—masterful, seductive, and luminous. From familiar fairy tales and legends—Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, Puss in Boots, Beauty and the Beast, vampires and werewolves—Angela Carter has created an absorbing collection of dark, sensual, fantastic stories. 'Magnificent set pieces of fastidious sensuality' Ian...Hardback$3600Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The Woman in Black and Other Ghost Stories
VINTAGE QUARTERBOUND CLASSICS Beautiful editions of great books to last a lifetime A beautiful hardback edition of one of the scariest and most ingenious novels ever written. Arthur Kipps, a junior solicitor, is summoned to attend the funeral of Mrs Alice Drablow, the sole inhabitant of Eel Marsh House. The house stands at the end of a causeway, wreathed in...Hardback$3600Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Trainspotting
VINTAGE QUARTERBOUND CLASSICS- Bound to be beautiful A beautiful hardback edition of the hilarious, dark, ingenious novel that changed the face of British fiction. Choose us. Choose life. Choose mortgage payments; choose washing machines; choose cars; choose sitting oan a couch watching mind-numbing and spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fuckin junk food intae yir mooth. Choose rotting away, pishing and shiteing...Hardback$3600Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Slaughterhouse 5
VINTAGE QUARTERBOUND CLASSICS – Bound to be beautiful A beautiful hardback edition of one of the most funny, moving and brilliant novels of the twentieth century. 'A book to read and reread. He is a true artist' – New York Times Billy Pilgrim – hapless barber's assistant, successful optometrist, alien abductee, senile widower and soldier – has become unstuck in...Hardback$3600Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The House of the Spirits
VINTAGE QUARTERBOUND CLASSICS - Bound to be beautiful A beautiful hardback edition of a Latin American classic - the enthralling saga of three generations of a proud and passionate family, secret loves and violent revolution. 'Extraordinary... Powerful... Sharply observant, witty and eloquent' New York Times As a girl, Clara del Valle can read fortunes, make objects move as if they...Hardback$3600Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The Night Circus
Vintage Quarterbound Classics - Bound to be beautiful A beautiful hardback edition of the modern fantasy classic, from the bestselling author of The Starless Sea. 'The only response to this novel is simply- wow. It is a breathtaking feat of imagination, a flight of fancy that pulls you in and wraps you up in its spell' - The Times The...Hardback$3600Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
Stoner by John Williams is widely praised for its understated and poignant portrayal of an ordinary man's life in academia. The novel's exploration of themes such as personal failure, resilience, and the quiet dignity of its protagonist resonates with readers, offering a profound reflection on the human condition. Critics often commend Williams's elegant prose, character depth, and the book's emotional impact, leading it to be considered a classic in modern literature.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781784879143
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 05 October 2023
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Vintage Classics
Audience: General / adult, Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 31.0mm
Width: 138.0mm
Height: 204.0mm
Weight: 374g
Pages: 320
About the Author
John Williams was an author, editor and professor. Born in 1922 in Texas, he served in the United States Army Air Force from 1942 to 1945 in China, Burma and India. His first novel, Nothing But the Night, was published in 1948. After receiving his PhD in 1954, Williams returned to the University of Denver where he first studied to teach literature and creative writing for thirty years. It was during this time that he wrote the novels Butcher's Crossing (1960) and Stoner (1965). His last novel, Augustus, won the National Book Award in 1973. John Williams died in Arkansas in 1994.
Also by John Williams
View all-
Stoner
Stoner by John Williams is a profound exploration of the quiet, unassuming life of William Stoner, a man whose story unfolds with poignant simplicity and deep emotional resonance. Set in the early 20th century, the novel begins with Stoner's modest upbringing on a small farm in Missouri. Seeking a way out of the relentless labour of agricultural life, he enrols...Paperback$2300Elsewhere:$2600Unit price /UnavailableBackorderShips early August -
Butcher's Crossing
Butcher's Crossing by John Williams is an evocative exploration of the American frontier, cutting through the romanticised veneer of the Wild West with a tale both stark and introspective. This powerful narrative delves into the depths of human ambition and the brutal realities of nature, presented through the eyes of an idealistic young man seeking his own frontier experience. Will...Paperback$2300Elsewhere:$2600Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Augustus
Augustus tells the story of Octavian, a shy and scholarly youth of nineteen who, on the death of his great-uncle, Julius Caesar, suddenly finds himself heir to the vast power of the Roman Empire. He is destined to rule that world astonishingly well, given the odds and intrigues against him. He would later be known as Augustus Caesar (63 B.C....Paperback$2400Elsewhere:$2600Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Stoner
Discover an American masterpiece. This unassuming story about the life of a quiet English professor has earned the admiration of readers all over the globe. William Stoner is born at the end of the nineteenth century into a dirt-poor Missouri farming family. Sent to the state university to study agronomy, he instead falls in love with English literature and embraces...Hardback$6700Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
Stoner
Discover an American masterpiece. This unassuming story about the life of a quiet English professor has earned the admiration of readers all over the globe. William Stoner is born at the end of the nineteenth century into a dirt-poor Missouri farming family. Sent to the state university to study agronomy, he instead falls in love with English literature and embraces...Paperback$4900Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
The Ritz London
The dining room has long attracted old-world grandees and now enjoys a new stream of gastronauts eager to try Williams' "Menu Surprise" for the first time ... Extraordinary standards. - British GQ [John William's] distinctive classical British dishes match their beautiful surroundings. - Telegraph These establishments have long and illustrious histories, but the cooking at both has never been better...Hardback$10000Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks
More from General Fiction
View all-
The Wedding People
'BEST READ OF THE YEAR SO FAR' THE TIMES 'BOOKS AS FUN AS THIS ONE ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN' GUARDIAN Phoebe Stone arrives at a grand beachside hotel in Rhode Island wearing her best dress and least comfortable shoes. Immediately she is mistaken for one of the wedding people — but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall...Paperback$2399Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Theo of Golden
THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING PHENOMENON'For anything to be truly good, there must be love in it. Nothing is what it's supposed to be if love is not at the core.' One morning, a stranger arrives in the town of Golden. No one knows who he is or where he came from…His name is Theo and he's arrived there by chance –...Paperback$2899Elsewhere:$3499Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseOn Mystic Lake
One of the greatest storytellers of our time - Delia Owens, author of Where the Crawdads Sing Annie Colwater's only child has just left home for school in England. On that same day, her husband of twenty years confesses that he's in love with a younger woman. Left alone in the beautiful California house which was once a home, Annie...Paperback$3100Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseLand
Inspired by the mapping of Ireland in the mid nineteenth century, Land, the new novel from the author of Hamnet, is at once intimate and epic: a portrait of a family navigating a legacy of upheaval and loss with love and hope. On a windswept peninsula stretching out into the Atlantic, Tomás and his reluctant son, Liam, are working for the great...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Mistborn Trilogy Boxed Set
The Mistborn Trilogy Boxed Set by Brandon Sanderson is a landmark fantasy series that has captivated readers worldwide. Renowned for its innovative magic system, intricate world-building, and compelling characters, this trilogy is a must-have for any fantasy enthusiast. Immerse yourself in a world shrouded in ash, where a once-hopeful land is ruled by the tyrannical Dark Lord, known as the...Set$6800Elsewhere:$7500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseYesteryear
A BOLD AND BITING SATIRE. WILL HAVE YOU GASPING TO THE FINAL PAGE — Nita Prose WICKEDLY FUNNY, BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN AND FRIGHTENINGLY PERCEPTIVE — Abigail Dean INVENTIVE, ADDICTIVE, A WILD RIDE — Ashley Audrain SHOT THROUGH WITH HUMOUR AND LACED WITH DARKNESS — Clare Mackintosh The Stepford Wives meets The Handmaid's Tale — Hannah Deitch My name was Natalie Heller...Paperback$2999Elsewhere:$3699Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Signed BookplateNew ReleaseLight Wielder
THE EPIC CONCLUSION TO METAL SLINGER, AKA THE BOOK WITH THE PLOT TWIST THAT BROKE THE INTERNET Sail the seas. Master the blade. Protect your heart. What would you do to have it all? READERS ARE GOING WILD FOR *METAL SLINGER* ‘The BEST plot twist to ever grace my Kindle’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘The author is a mastermind. Romantasy is back!!!!’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The Deal
Welcome to Briar U! Get ready for your newest obsession . . . Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy! Read The Deal now for the perfect fake-dating romance! She's about to make a deal with the college bad boy . . . Hannah Wells has finally found someone who turns...Paperback$2499Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Project Hail Mary
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING NOVEL A BARACK OBAMA READING PICK A lone astronaut. An impossible mission. An ally he never imagined. 'The most enjoyable hard SF I have read in years' GUARDIAN 'Weir's finest work to date... This is the one book I read last year that I am certain I can recommend to anyone, no matter who, and know...Paperback$2099Elsewhere:$2800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Project Hail Mary
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, the SUNDAY TIMES and NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of The Martian, offers a gripping new adventure in hard science fiction. With endorsement from notable figures such as Barack Obama and a slew of five-star reviews, this novel promises a thrilling and intellectually stimulating journey. Ryland Grace, a lone astronaut, finds himself on a...Paperback$2399Elsewhere:$2400Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseThe Bookshop Detectives 3: Murder and Mojitos
Art Deco glamour, a Cuban crime queen and a grammar-obsessed killer collide in the #1 best-selling Bookshop Detectives’ high-stakes final instalment. The Bookshop Detectives are on the case! Booksellers Garth and Eloise Sherlock (and their cowardly dog, Stevie) have been roped into hosting Murder and Mojitos, a glamorous Art Deco festival event starring Cuba’s queen of crime fiction. Between flapper...Paperback$3000Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The Goal
Welcome to Briar U!Get ready for your newest obsession . . . Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy!Read The Goal now for the perfect forced proximity romance! She's good at achieving her goals . . . College senior Sabrina James has her whole future planned out: graduate from college, kick...Paperback$2499Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today
Why buy from us?
Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!
Service & Delivery
Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 80,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.
Auckland Bookstore
We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.
Our Gifting Service
Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.
General Fiction lists from the team
Explore our curated lists from our heroes to find your next read!
-
![]()
![]()
![]()
Hannah's listGeneral Fiction
Gothic Reads for Dark Nights
With the advent of movie adaptations like Wuthering Heights and Frankenstein, it looks like pop culture is seeing a revival of the...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Shirl's listGeneral Fiction
Shirl's Top 10 Most Recommended Books
These are my Top 10 books that I always recommend to my friends and whānau when they ask for recommendations for getting...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Lizzy's listGeneral Fiction
Books to Escape a Reading Slump
A reading slump can be a frustrating feeling and hard to break out of, but we've gathered together a list of crowd...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![Star Shipped]()
Lizzy's listGeneral Fiction
Lizzy's Pride Fiction Picks!
June marks Global Pride Month so in case you're looking for your next great fiction read, here's a list of some of...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Lizzy's listGeneral Fiction
Readers’ Top 100 Novels of All Time - from The Guardian
There was some controversy when The Guardian released their critics and authors list of the top 100 novels of all time, but...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Shirl's listGeneral Fiction
Shirl's Favourite Books of 2026
The first half of 2026 has been packed with brilliant books, making it hard to choose favourites but here are a few...View the list
