|
| Ragtime: A Novel | 
| Author: E.l. Doctorow
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $7.99
You Save: $6.96 (47%)
New (37) Collectible (5) from $7.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  120 reviews
Sales Rank: 28607
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.8
ISBN: 0812978188
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780812978186
ASIN: 0812978188
Publication Date: May 8, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new item. Over 3.5 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Order with confidence. Code: A20081118105433W
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Published in 1975, Ragtime changed our very concept of what a novel could be. An extraordinary tapestry, Ragtime captures the spirit of America in the era between the turn of the century and the First World War.
The story opens in 1906 in New Rochelle, New York, at the home of an affluent American family. One lazy Sunday afternoon, the famous escape artist Harry Houdini swerves his car into a telephone pole outside their house. And almost magically, the line between fantasy and historical fact, between real and imaginary characters, disappears. Henry Ford, Emma Goldman, J. P. Morgan, Evelyn Nesbit, Sigmund Freud, and Emiliano Zapata slip in and out of the tale, crossing paths with Doctorow's imagined family and other fictional characters, including an immigrant peddler and a ragtime musician from Harlem whose insistence on a point of justice drives him to revolutionary violence.
The Modern Library has played a significant role in American cultural life for the better part of a century. The series was founded in 1917 by the publishers Boni and Liveright and eight years later acquired by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer. It provided the foundation for their next publishing venture, Random House. The Modern Library has been a staple of the American book trade, providing readers with affordable hardbound editions of important works of literature and thought. For the Modern Library's seventy-fifth anniversary, Random House redesigned the series, restoring as its emblem the running torch-bearer created by Lucian Bernhard in 1925 and refurbishing jackets, bindings, and type, as well as inaugurating a new program of selecting titles. The Modern Library continues to provide the world's best books, at the best prices.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 115 more reviews...
 Powerful and Thought Provoking!! October 9, 2008
This novel by E.L. Doctorow traces the lives of (memorable) universal characters at the turn of the century. It never lost me when I was reading it and held onto me tight every step of the way. It did not allow me to put it down. Wonderful reading. Highly Recommended
 DO NOT ORDER FROM THIS SELLER September 11, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I paid for a book that I never received. The seller ignored all of my attempts to contact them.
If only all books were this great! May 10, 2008
This book is exceptional. It is one of those books that rivets your mind; makes you realize how ordinary other books are by comparison.Sentence builds on sentence creating fantastic images making this book a joy to the senses.
Doctorow brilliantly recreates the Ragtime era using actual events and people from the time and interweaving with three fictional families;one WASP, Tateh and his daughter who are poor jewish migrants, and Coalhouse Walkers entanglement with the WASP family.
I normally condemn books written about the past as 'unauthentic' or 'lacking the realism' of the age discribed. 'Ragtime' and Doctorow show me that I was talking out of my hat! This really is superb. Anyone giving this less than 5 stars must be a green with envy writer wishing they could write like E L Doctorow!
History? Fiction? Fictory? Who cares, it's great! May 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Give this one a few chapters to hook you, as Doctorow's style here won't suit everyone's tastes. There is very little dialogue, and often he employs repetitive staccato sentences in brief summary descriptions, like: "He came in. He sat down. He counted his change. He put it in his pocket and left." Now, the way he does it actually fits each scene perfectly, but occasionally you'll notice it.
That small criticism aside, however, RAGTIME is teeming with historical figures and random tidbits while telling a rollicking story. Along the way you'll meet Houdini, Henry Ford, J. P. Morgan, George Washington Carver, Emma Goldman, Evelyn Nesbitt and many more. You'll get lost in another time and never want to come back.
And while you're reading, ask yourself two simple questions: First, who is telling this story? And second, how do they know all these things? You'll be glad you paid attention.
 average March 14, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
I read this book within 24 hours as I had a paper due the next day on it. I give Doctorow credit for his poetic writing, it however seemed out of place in a dramatic novel, and did not make this a fun read. The sexual themes seemed placed if only to make things for interesting for a time, until the climax of the book near the final chapters. I was left disappointed, and if I had high expectations for the book in the first place, I would have called it's reading a waste of time all together. However, I was forced to read it- perhaps I have no taste for the genre.
|
|
|
Wildlife, nature and the Environment
Sponsored Links
Learn how to get your own Amazon Book shop | |
