A Fair Maiden is a 2010 novella [1] by Joyce Carol Oates that chronicles the relationship between teenage nanny Katya Spivak and the much older, affluent artist Marcus Kidder. The novel's themes and plot are reminiscent of Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita . [2]
While walking her employers' two children, sixteen year-old nanny Katya Spivak is approached by an old man, Marcus Kidder, who seems to take an interest in her. Mr. Kidder invites Katya to his house, and though the initial visits seem harmless, their relationship gradually develops into something of a darker nature.
Reviewing the book for The Washington Post , Jane Smiley compared Oates' prolific production to a large museum, and described this book as "a work that is not going to get a room of its own, or even a wall of its own, but it will fit neatly into the portrait gallery, and it deserves contemplation." [3] Some other reviews were less positive. Publishers Weekly called the book "derivative and unpolished". [4] Elizabeth Day in The Guardian said the book was a "disappointment" and that Oates had not succeeded in her effort to rework the themes of Lolita. [2] Wendy Brandmark of The Independent noted some "fine moments" in the book but thought it was "too controlled". [5]
Joyce Carol Oates is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and non-fiction. Her novels Black Water (1992), What I Lived For (1994), and Blonde (2000), and her short story collections The Wheel of Love (1970) and Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories (2014) were each finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. She has won many awards for her writing, including the National Book Award, for her novel them (1969), two O. Henry Awards, the National Humanities Medal, and the Jerusalem Prize (2019).
Them is a novel by Joyce Carol Oates, the third in the Wonderland Quartet she inaugurated with A Garden of Earthly Delights. It was published by Vanguard in 1969 and it won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction in 1970.
Hortense Calisher was an American writer of fiction and the second female president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Black Water is a 1992 novella by the American writer and professor Joyce Carol Oates. It is a roman à clef based on the Chappaquiddick incident, in which U.S. senator Ted Kennedy crashed a car and caused the death by drowning of passenger Mary Jo Kopechne. The novella was a 1993 Pulitzer Prize finalist for fiction.
Raymond Joseph Smith was an American educator, author, and book editor. He was for more than 30 years the editor of Ontario Review, a literary magazine, and the Ontario Review Press, a literary book publisher. He was married to the American author Joyce Carol Oates.
Zombie is a 1995 novel by American writer Joyce Carol Oates, which explores the mind of a serial killer. It was based on the life of Jeffrey Dahmer.
First Love: A Gothic Tale is a novella by American novelist and essayist Joyce Carol Oates and illustrator Barry Moser. It tells the story of Josie S_____, a girl who goes to stay at her aunt's mansion in upstate New York. While there, she has an incestuous relationship with her cousin, Jared. The novella deals with two of the more common recurring themes in Oates' work: "teenage initiation and perplexing and problematic love."
Blonde is a bestselling 2000 biographical fiction novel by Joyce Carol Oates that presents a fictionalized take on the life of American actress Marilyn Monroe.
By the North Gate is a collection of short stories by Joyce Carol Oates. It was the author's first book, first published by Vanguard Press in 1963.
I Am No One You Know: Stories is a short story collection by Joyce Carol Oates. It was published in 2004 by Ecco Press, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. There are 19 stories in this collection.
Freaky Green Eyes (2003) is the third young adult fiction novel written by Joyce Carol Oates. The story follows the life of 15-year-old Francesca "Franky" Pierson as she reflects on the events leading to her mother's mysterious disappearance. Through what she calls Freaky's thoughts, Franky accepts the truth about her mother's disappearance and her father's hand in it.
Marriages and Infidelities is a collection of 25 works of short fiction by Joyce Carol Oates published by Vanguard Press in 1972.
Desperate Lives is a 1982 American made-for-television drama film about drug use in a high school. The film has a very strong anti-drug message.
The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares is a collection of short stories and the title novella by Joyce Carol Oates. Published in 2011 by Mysterious Press, it contains several works that Oates had worked on over a period of fifteen years.
List of the published work of Joyce Carol Oates, American writer.
Hazards of Time Travel is a 2018 dystopian, social science fiction novel by Joyce Carol Oates. It tells the story of Adriane Strohl, a 17-year-old living in a dystopian America in 2039. After her incendiary graduation speech, she is sent back to re-education in the year 1959. Oates began writing it in 2011.
The Office of Historical Corrections is a short-story collection by American writer Danielle Evans. Published by Riverhead Books on November 10, 2020, the collection consists of six short stories and a novella that deal with topics of race, loss, legacy, and loneliness in America. It was nominated for The Story Prize and the Chautauqua Prize, and received the 2021 Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize.
The Sacrifice is a 2015 novel by the American writer Joyce Carol Oates. Set in blighted urban New Jersey in the 1980s, it follows a young Black woman, Sybilla, who is discovered in a degraded condition in an abandoned factory after going missing. When she alleges that she was kidnapped, assaulted, and left for dead by a group of white police officers, her cause is taken up by an ambitious and unscrupulous civil rights activist and his lawyer brother, despite evidence of deceit in her story. The events of the novel are based on the real-life Tawana Brawley case, and takes place in a part of New Jersey still suffering from the aftermath of post-war deindustrialization and the 1967 Newark riots.
The Seduction and Other Stories is a collection containing 16 works of short fiction by Joyce Carol Oates published by Black Sparrow Press in 1975.
A Sentimental Education is a collection of 5 short stories and a novella by Joyce Carol Oates published in 1980 by E. P. Dutton.