The Marriage Plot

By Jeffrey Eugenides
(Large Print Press, Paperback, Large Print, 9781594135576, 711pp.)

Publication Date: September 2012

Other Editions of This Title: Paperback, Hardcover, Paperback, Paperback, Hardcover, Paperback, Hardcover, Compact Disc

Categories: Literary

Selected by Indie Booksellers for the November 2011 Indie Next List

“Have all the great love stories already been written? What relevance do Jane Austen or George Eliot have for today's woman? In the 1980s, Madeline is wrestling with these questions both for her college thesis and as a woman fielding the attentions of two young men. Leonard is charismatic, flawed, and tragic, so Madeline is, of course, drawn to him; Mitchell is a seeker who is trying to figure out how he fits into the general scheme of the universe, and he is totally smitten by Madeline. Eugenides has brilliantly succeeded in writing a new love story for our times!”

-- Deon Stonehouse, Sunriver Books, Sunriver, OR

A 'Marriage Plot' Full Of Intellectual Angst

Tuesday, Oct 11, 2011

Jeffrey Eugenides' third novel, The Marriage Plot, charts the lives of three young adults as they finish college, fall in love and navigate the real world after graduating from Brown University in 1982. Eugenides, also a Brown alum, based some of the novel on his own experiences directly after college. More at NPR.org

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Conversation Starters from ReadingGroupChoices.com

The opening scene features a litany of the books Madeleine loves. What were your first impressions of her, based on her library? How are her beliefs about love transformed throughout the novel?

When Phyllida fell in love with Alton, she gave up her dream of becoming an actress in Hollywood. What sustains the Hannas’ marriage despite this sacrifice? How are Alwyn and Madeleine influenced by their parents’ marriage? Is Alwyn’s marriage to Blake a bad one?
In Jeffrey Eugenides’s depiction of Brown University culture in the 1980s, what does it take for the students to impress one another and their professors? What might Roland Barthes and Jacques Derrida have to say about the signs in Dr. Zipperstein’s Semiotics 211 class?
Why is Madeleine more attracted to Leonard than to Mitchell? As she copes with Leonard’s instability and her feelings of guilt, how does mental illness shape the relationship?
What does Mitchell hope to discover as a student of religion? What role does religion play in his quest to be loved? Is his ideal—a religion devoid of myth and artificial social structures—attainable?
What does sex mean to Madeleine, Leonard, and Mitchell? Over the course of the novel, what do they discover about fantasy versus reality and the tandem between physical and emotional satisfaction?
What recurring themes did you detect in Mitchell’s trip overseas as he tries to manage his money, his love life, and Larry? Does he return to America a stronger, changed person or an amplified version of his college self?
What does Alwyn try to teach her little sister about being a woman by sending the Bachelorette’s Survival Kit? What does the kit help a woman survive?
Madeleine’s parents are affluent and have enough free time to stay very involved in her life. Does this liberate her, or does it give her less freedom than Leonard, who is often left to fend for himself?
In their chosen career paths after college, what are Leonard and Madeleine each trying to uncover about life? Does his work on the yeast-cell experiment have anything in common with her work on Victorian novels?
Would you have said yes to Leonard’s marriage proposal?
How does the novel’s 1980s setting shape the plot? Do twenty-first-century college students face more or fewer challenges than Madeleine did?
Discuss the novel’s meta-ending (an ending about endings). Does it reflect reality? What were your expectations for the characters?
Eugenides’s previous fiction has given us unique, tragicomic perspectives on oppressive families, gender stereotypes, and the process of trying to discover our true selves. How does The Marriage Plot enhance your reading of Eugenides’s other works?
Who did you become during your first year after college?

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