From the book
Praise for Stern Men
“Rich as drawn butter and as comical as the crawly crustacean itself . . . Gilbert has penned a Dickensian tale; one wishes it ran in two volumes.”—USA Today
“Beautifully wrought and very funny . . . Gilbert’s tangy language has as much music as muscle; the novel is Emersonian in its clarity and Austenian in its sly social observations.”
—Mirabella
“While Elizabeth Gilbert is not the first writer to suggest that smart women have much to teach stern men, she puts the idea forward with rugged power.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“This funny, clever, and wise novel, filled with well-developed characters who are more than eccentric stereotypes, moves [Gilbert] squarely to the forefront of writers to watch.”
—The Seattle Times
“A wonderful novel that will have you laughing out loud, Stern Men is an admirable debut from a writer obviously destined for literary longevity. Like Tyler and Irving (and Joseph Heller, Stanley Elkin, and Alice Hoffman) Gilbert has a gift for comic fiction that conveys serious issues. And like those writers, Gilbert will most certainly be around for a long time to come.”—The Denver Post
“Gilbert’s storytelling brio and keen intelligence prove irresistible.” —New York Newsday
PENGUIN BOOKS
STERN MEN
Elizabeth Gilbert began her writing journey with two acclaimed works of fiction: the short story collection Pilgrims, a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award, and the novel Stern Men, a New York Times Notable Book. These were followed by three works of nonfiction: The Last American Man, which was a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and two memoirs, Eat, Pray, Love and Committed, both of which were number one New York Times bestsellers. Gilbert’s work has been published in more than thirty languages. In 2008, Time magazine named her one of the one hundred most influential people in the world. She lives in Frenchtown, New Jersey. Her Web site is www.elizabethgilbert.com.
To access Penguin Readers Guides online, visit our Web sites at www.penguin.com or www.vpbookclub.com.
BOOKS BY ELIZABETH GILBERT
Pilgrims
Stern Men
The Last American Man
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
Committed: A Love Story
The Signature of All Things
PENGUIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
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First published in the United States of America by Houghton Mifflin 2000
Published in Penguin Books 2009
Copyright © 2000 by Elizabeth Gilbert
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ISBN: 978-1-101-01487-5
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