Pictures from an Institution Paperback | Pages: 286 pages

Present Appertaining To Books Pictures from an Institution

Title	:	Pictures from an Institution
Author	:	Randall Jarrell
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	First Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 286 pages
Published	:	April 15th 1986 by University Of Chicago Press (first published 1954)
Categories	:	Fiction. Humor. Novels. Academic. Academia. Literary Fiction. Comedy

Narrative Supposing Books Pictures from an Institution

Beneath the unassuming surface of a progressive women’s college lurks a world of intellectual pride and pomposity awaiting devastation by the pens of two brilliant and appalling wits. Randall Jarrell’s classic novel was originally published to overwhelming critical acclaim in 1954, forging a new standard for campus satire—and instantly yielding comparisons to Dorothy Parker’s razor-sharp barbs. Like his fictional nemesis, Jarrell cuts through the earnest conversations at Benton College—mischievously, but with mischief nowhere more wicked than when crusading against the vitriolic heroine herself.

Point Books In Pursuance Of Pictures from an Institution

Original Title:	Pictures from an Institution
ISBN:	0226393747 (ISBN13: 9780226393742)
Edition Language:	English
Characters:	Gertrude Johnson, Dwight Robbins, Gottfried Rosenbaum, Constance Morgan, Pamela Robbins, Derek Robbins, Flo Whittaker, Jerrold Whittaker, Camille Batterson, Irene Rosenbaum, Unnamed Narrator (Pictures from an Institution)
Setting:	United States of America
Literary Awards:	National Book Award Finalist for Fiction (1955)

Rating Appertaining To Books Pictures from an Institution

Ratings: 3.59 From 418 Users | 69 Reviews

Discuss Appertaining To Books Pictures from an Institution

This book was recommended to me by an admired friend, who happens to be an English professor, as "the ultimate academic novel." I'm not so sure. Randall Jarrell is best known as a poet and writes brilliantly, but his book is almost entirely characterization. Very little happens . . . perhaps precisely because very little EVER happens at Benton College, the imagined liberal arts college he skewers here. Moreover, creating humorous stereotypes of university professors and administrators, for any

Not a perfect novel but hilariously wicked. Full of transposed aphorisms. I heartily recommend to anyone who went to a small liberal arts college.

Not the kind of funny that brings joyous, renewing laughter, but the kind that brings a preening, smug smirk to people so emotionally hollow that they believe "witty" is the same thing and, if not, it's better anyway.

I bet youve all read at least one Randall Jarrell poem. This one, most likely:The Death of the Ball Turret GunnerRandall Jarrell, 1914 1965From my mothers sleep I fell into the State,And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.And now you have! If you hadnt!I read Randall Jarrell in college for an intro to literature class both because

Pictures from an Institution by Randall Jarrell is a comic book of fiction that isn't really a novel, although it doesn't have to be--it's exactly what it calls itself, an interconnected series of portraits painted on the canvas of a small women's liberal arts college in the 50s (presumably Sarah Lawrence).Going nowhere while loosely following the academic year, Pictures (let's call it that) is brilliantly written and draws on Jarrell's exceptional erudition, notably referencing German

halfway through, this book abandons itself and spends the rest of its pages just sort of dancing around. the story that was being set up (that of the satirical novelist come to the campus to write a book about it) goes off over the hills and leaves us with 150 more pages of delightful characters and witticisms... it was kind of a disappointment... when i started this book it was one of those HOLY SHIT! moments where you think you are finally finding A Perfect Book... this is oscar wilde /

This book had flashes of clever writing, but much more that was obscure and pointless. Perhaps prose by a poet tends toward taking risks of metaphor and expression that work in the more spare poetic medium, but fail in a prose narrative. There was an underlying snarky tone, in which nearly every character is faulted as pathetic, or mindlessly selfish and provincial, that made it further unsatisfying.