The Graduate
Authors: Charles Webb
Tags: #Fiction, #Mistresses, #College graduates, #Bildungsromans, #General, #Literary, #Young men, #Mothers and daughters, #English; Irish; Scottish; Welsh, #Drama, #Love stories
THE GRADUATE
CHARLES WEBB
Copyright
The Graduate
Copyright © 1963 by Charles Webb
Cover art and eForeword to the electronic edition copyright
© 2000 by RosettaBooks, LLC
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
For information address [email protected] First electronic edition published 2000 by RosettaBooks LLC, New York.
ISBN 0-7953-0342-4
The Graduate
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Contents
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eForeword
Witty and perceptive, Charles Webb’s
The Graduate
(1963) became a virtual cult novel in the 1960s with its scathing indictment of the values of middle-class America. It tells the story of Benjamin Braddock, a promising young college graduate who is suddenly depressed by what faces him — a retread of his parents’ comfortable, deadly life in the suburbs. He rebels, first by stumbling into an affair with Mrs. Robinson, the wife of his father’s law partner, then falling in love with her daughter Elaine. The romantic spirit of
The Graduate
has been as enduring and inspiring as that of J.D. Salinger’s
The
Catcher in the Rye
, and it remains a sleek classic of popular American fiction.
Personal experience seems to have inspired Charles Webb (b.
1939) to write
The Graduate
. The son of a wealthy surgeon from Pasadena, he fell in love with a woman whose mother (the prototype for Mrs. Robinson) fought their relationship and never reconciled to their marriage. Webb’s adult life and career have been defined by his response to the shallow values that surrounded him as a young man. He has written several other outstanding books, including the novel
The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker
, but his subsequent work has been overshadowed by
The Graduate
and its enduring appeal.
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4
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The Graduate
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To Eve
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Benjamin Braddock graduated from a small Eastern college on a day in June. Then he flew home. The following evening a party was given for him by his parents. By eight o’clock most of the guests had arrived but Benjamin had not yet come down from his room. His father called up from the foot of the stairs but there was no answer. Finally he hurried up the stairs and to the end of the hall.
“Ben?” he said, opening his son’s door.
“I’ll be down later,” Benjamin said.
“Ben, the guests are all here,” his father said. “They’re all waiting.”
“I said I’ll be down later.”
Mr. Braddock closed the door behind him. “What is it,” he said.
Benjamin shook his head and walked to the window.
“What is it, Ben.”
“Nothing.”
“Then why don’t you come on down and see your guests.” Benjamin didn’t answer.
“Ben?”
“Dad,” he said, turning around, “I have some things on my mind right now.”
“What things.”
“Just some things.”
“Well can’t you tell me what they are?”
“No.”
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Mr. Braddock continued frowning at his son a few more moments, glanced at his watch, then looked back at Benjamin.
“Ben, these are our friends down there,” he said. “My friends. Your mother’s friends. You owe them a little courtesy.”
“Tell them I have to be alone right now.”
“Mr. Robinson’s out in the garage looking at your new sports car. Now go on down and give him a ride in it.”
Benjamin reached into his pocket for a pair of shiny keys on a small chain. “Here,” he said.
“What?”
“Give him the keys. Let him drive it.”
“But he wants to see you.”
“Dad, I don’t want to see him right now,” Benjamin said. “I don’t want to see the Robinsons, I don’t want to see the Pearsons, I don’t want to see the...the Terhunes.”
“Ben, Mr. Robinson and I have been practicing law together in this town for seventeen years. He’s the best friend I have.”
“I realize that.”
“He has a client over in Los Angeles that he’s put off seeing so he could be here and welcome you home from college.”
