"Stoner" is an impressing novel, every university teacher (and student) should have read. I met the book in Oslo in a Norwegian issue some years ago, the German issue came some weeks later - and suddenly all jounals reported from "Stoner" and his author, until recently both were in Europe nearly unknown or known only for a few specialists. - Reading the first chapters at the airport I was fascinated: So many aspects of my ambivalent experience as academic teacher, typical conflicts and crises, but also the value of deep friendship and the value of good academic teaching (against all opposite tendencies of our days) have become lively here, told in an impressing dense language. It is unimagible for me that such an important work - the third of four published novels of J. Williams (1922-1994) - remainerd unkown such a long time. How is this possible?
Thank you for your comment, Dibakar Pal, and the detailed information of the links. I should like to take this note as confirmation and justification of my question, how could it be that Stoner needed several attempts to be well-known, accepted and appreciated. It would be interesting to read some comments of RG-members who read the book and were similarly impressed. Thank you very much.
To read good discussion on the subject novel follow the link
https://newrepublic.com/article/123334/vanished-world-stoner
THANKS for your note, Rai Waqas Azfar Khan, I remember some similar articles they give us good information about the judgement of some writers. A scientific theory is this still not yet. We have to ask for the conditions which are responsible that - at least concerning some cases - things run another way. The example "Stoner" makes clear that the quality of a book must not depend of the perception on the public or the explicit endorsement of some journalists and critcis. The cultural value of a work had its one message and truth.
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