Daily Archives for: October 30th, 2017

Christina Stead: Quotes from a Curmudgeon

By | On October 30, 2017 | Updated December 18, 2022 | Comments (0)

Christina Stead (1902 –  1983), the Australian-born  novelist and short story writer, was best known for the novel The Man Who Loved Children. Following is a selection of quotes from this talented but somewhat embittered author.

The author of fifteen novels and numerous short stories, Stead never gained the success she felt she deserved. Viewed as  a misanthrope and curmudgeon, she was a largely unapproachable person who revealed little of herself even as she self-invented. She destroyed many of her personal papers, making it more difficult to preserve her legacy.

In her works, the main characters were often based on herself and the stories very close to her own life. Read More→

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The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead (1940 / 1965)

By | On October 30, 2017 | Updated December 18, 2022 | Comments (0)

The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead, the Australian author, was originally published in 1940. But it wasn’t until this novel was reissued twenty-five years later, in 1965, that it received critical acclaim and a wide audience.

Sam Pollit the title character, is the father and husband in the dysfunctional Pollit family. Supposedly, he was inspired by Stead’s father, a marine biologist. Egotistical, perhaps even narcissistic, Sam dominates the blended family, especially his wife Henny and older daughter Louie.

When it was first published, The Man Who Loved Children was set in Sydney. The reissued edition changed the venue to Washington, D.C. as a way to appeal more to American readers. Read More→

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