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The Commoner: A Novel - John Burnham Schwartz, 0385515715, hardcover
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A book that looks new but has been read. Cover has no visible wear, and the dust jacket (if applicable) is included for hard covers. No missing or damaged pages, no creases or tears, and no underlining/highlighting of text or writing in the margins. May be very minimal identifying marks on the inside cover. Very minimal wear and tear. See the seller’s listing for full details and description of any imperfections.
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- Buy It NowThe Commoner: A Novel - John Burnham Schwartz, 0385515715, hardcover
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eBay item number:186852370975
Item specifics
- Condition
- Artist
- Schwartz, John Burnham
- ISBN
- 9780385515719
About this product
Product Identifiers
Publisher
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
ISBN-10
0385515715
ISBN-13
9780385515719
eBay Product ID (ePID)
60656315
Product Key Features
Book Title
Commoner
Number of Pages
368 Pages
Language
English
Publication Year
2008
Topic
Literary, Historical
Genre
Fiction
Format
Hardcover
Dimensions
Item Height
1.2 in
Item Weight
18.7 Oz
Item Length
8.5 in
Item Width
6.1 in
Additional Product Features
Intended Audience
Trade
LCCN
2007-015391
TitleLeading
The
Reviews
Book Sense National Bestseller! "Schwartz has written a mesmerizing novel full of tenderness and compassion, one that convincingly invests the Japanese empress's voice with all the nuance it demands." Washington Post "A subtle, finely wrought fiction that evokes Jane Austen.... Schwartz has followed up his highly praised novelReservation Roadwith a tour de force; the creation of a wholly convincing Japanese heroine by a male American writer reflects the triumph of imagination over experience." San Jose Mercury News "Out of this heart-wrenching history, Schwartz has woven a delicate, elegiac tale, intensely moving and utterly convincing. He has imaginatively reconstructed the private story while remaining largely true to the scant details that have been reported to the public. Schwartz has written about Japan before and he has established himself as a master of mood in more recent fiction, that likeThe Commoneris fused with terrible sadness. Schwartz has clearly done extensive research into the lives of the empress and crown princess and seems, as well, to have had extraordinary access to the Imperial Household Agency. He vividly evokes the secrets and ceremonies of the imperial palace. It's magical to have the curtain imaginatively lifted on these mysteries." New York Times Book Review "Schwartz pulls off a grand feat in giving readers a moving dramatization of a cloistered world." Publishers Weekly(starred review) "John Burnham Schwartz leaps with prodigious skill... His book will inevitably be compared with Arthur Golden'sMemoirs of a Geisha, but Mr. Schwartz's work is more delicate and graceful.... Through painstaking research and a humane sensibility, Mr. Schwartz has opened a window on [a] strange, cloistered world." Brooke Allen,The Wall Street Journal "John Burnham Schwartz is a keen observer of Japanhis 1989 debut,Bicycle Days, nicely captured the travails of a foreigner desperate to blend in. He is also good at agonyReservation Road, his second novel, was an unblinking meditation on emotional pain in the aftermath of a child's death. The Commonerentwines the two strands of Schwartz's expertise. Fascinated and appalled by the resonating stories of Michiko and Masako, he has written a novel that attempts to give these silenced women their voices back. It's a bold, even a presumptuous exercisethese women are still alive, after all. But for anyone who's ever sighed with regret over Masako's fate, or gazed at the forbidding walls of the Imperial Palace in central Tokyo, it's one that's hard to resist. Schwartz handles the physical details effortlessly, but his silken style lends itself best to the creation of internal life from whole cloth. You can sternly remind yourself every few pages that this is fiction, or you can relax and enjoy the fantasy that you are privy to two of the most private public lives in the world." Los Angeles Times "A bittersweet story narrated by Haruko Endo, a brewer's daughter who marries into Japan's cloistered Imperial Family, Burnham Schwartz's fourth novel expertly evokes the sense of powerlessness and isolation that mark both royal life and bad marriages. Inspired, according to the author, by the emotional struggles of Japan's fragile Empress, the former Michiko Shoda, and of her daughter-in-law Crown Princess Masako, a Harvard graduate defined in court circles by her inability to produce an heir,The Commoneris an artful meditation on the limits of love and duty. No happy endings here, but with a spare prose style that perfectly mirrors its setting, this novel will thrill readers who crave literary roma, "Schwartz pulls of a grand feat in giving readers a moving dramatization of a cloistered world." Publishers Weekly(starred review) Praise for RESERVATION ROAD "A dark and irresistible miracle: a heartbreaking thriller." Los Angeles Times "Haunting…a powerful and affecting novel." TheNew York Times "Thrums with suspense and moral ambiguity…This is one of those rarevery rarenovels that you don't so much read as inhabit and that makes everyday life seem altogether mysterious and fragile, and infinitely perilous." Entertainment Weekly "A triumph…character-driven as it is, it reads like a thriller, swift and complete." The New York Times Book Review, "Fans ofMemoirs of a Geisha…will savor [The Commoner]…. The delicate, hairline fractures in Haruko's story are all the more heartbreaking for being so restrained." New York Daily News "Schwartz opens a gilded window into a seldom-seen world and the traditions that have sustained a monarchy through centuries, only to threaten the young lives needed to carry it into the future." USA Today "Schwartz leaps with prodigious skill…. Through painstaking research and a humane sensibility, Mr. Schwartz has opened a window on that strange, cloistered world." The Wall Street Journal "Schwartz pulls of a grand feat in giving readers a moving dramatization of a cloistered world." Publishers Weekly(starred review) "Schwartz's renderings of the royal family are not only believable but absorbing…. well nuanced and tightly executed…. A moving portrait of women living the most interior of lives." Bookpage "An artful meditation on the limits of love and duty. This novel will thrill readers who crave literary romance." People "This is a wonderful, mesmerizing novel, rich in detail and wonderfully imagined." Daily American "A fascinating look inside the Japanese monarchy…. Schwartz keenly portrays Haruko's bleak emotions with a grace and depth that befits a princess." The Wichita Eagle, Praise for RESERVATION ROAD "A dark and irresistible miracle: a heartbreaking thriller." Los Angeles Times "Haunting…a powerful and affecting novel." The New York Times "Thrums with suspense and moral ambiguity…This is one of those rarevery rarenovels that you don't so much read as inhabit and that makes everyday life seem altogether mysterious and fragile, and infinitely perilous." Entertainment Weekly "A triumph…character-driven as it is, it reads like a thriller, swift and complete." The New York Times Book Review, Book Sense National Bestseller! "Schwartz pulls off a grand feat in giving readers a moving dramatization of a cloistered world." Publishers Weekly(starred review) "John Burnham Schwartz leaps with prodigious skill... His book will inevitably be compared with Arthur Golden'sMemoirs of a Geisha, but Mr. Schwartz's work is more delicate and graceful.... Through painstaking research and a humane sensibility, Mr. Schwartz has opened a window on [a] strange, cloistered world." Brooke Allen,The Wall Street Journal "John Burnham Schwartz is a keen observer of Japanhis 1989 debut,Bicycle Days, nicely captured the travails of a foreigner desperate to blend in. He is also good at agonyReservation Road, his second novel, was an unblinking meditation on emotional pain in the aftermath of a child's death. The Commonerentwines the two strands of Schwartz's expertise. Fascinated and appalled by the resonating stories of Michiko and Masako, he has written a novel that attempts to give these silenced women their voices back. It's a bold, even a presumptuous exercisethese women are still alive, after all. But for anyone who's ever sighed with regret over Masako's fate, or gazed at the forbidding walls of the Imperial Palace in central Tokyo, it's one that's hard to resist. Schwartz handles the physical details effortlessly, but his silken style lends itself best to the creation of internal life from whole cloth. You can sternly remind yourself every few pages that this is fiction, or you can relax and enjoy the fantasy that you are privy to two of the most private public lives in the world." Los Angeles Times "A bittersweet story narrated by Haruko Endo, a brewer's daughter who marries into Japan's cloistered Imperial Family, Burnham Schwartz's fourth novel expertly evokes the sense of powerlessness and isolation that mark both royal life and bad marriages. Inspired, according to the author, by the emotional struggles of Japan's fragile Empress, the former Michiko Shoda, and of her daughter-in-law Crown Princess Masako, a Harvard graduate defined in court circles by her inability to produce an heir,The Commoneris an artful meditation on the limits of love and duty. No happy endings here, but with a spare prose style that perfectly mirrors its setting, this novel will thrill readers who crave literary romance." People "This story is as ethereal and sensual as a Japanese watercolor, as magical and dark as a fairy tale." Booklist "As an author who has aimed for a clean, transparent style throughout his career, Schwartz finds his perfect subject in this tale of Japanese royalty. Fans ofMemoirs of a Geishaand royal gossip will savor it.... Ultimately, the delicate, hairline fractures in Haruko's story are all the more heartbreaking for being so restrained." The New York Daily News "[The Commoner] paints a carefully researched, evocative of picture of a country that emerged from World War II with everything blown apart but its moat-protected heart.... Schwartz opens a gilded window into a seldom-seen world and the traditions that have sustained a monarchy through centuries, only to threaten the young lives needed to carry it into the future." USA Today "A mature, polished Schwartz returns to the Japan of his successful first novel,Bicycle Days,inThe Commoner.... [His] beautifully wrought prose enhances the dramatic effect in portraying the anachronistic, cloistered imperial prison." Rocky Mountain News "The beauty of the story, besides the meticulous research, is the human dimension.... Schwartz has written a powerful, instructive book a, Praise for THE COMMONER "Schwartz pulls of a grand feat in giving readers a moving dramatization of a cloistered world." Publishers Weekly(starred review) "Schwartz's renderings of the royal family are not only believable but absorbing…. well nuanced and tightly executed…. A moving portrait of women living the most interior of lives." Bookpage Praise for RESERVATION ROAD "A dark and irresistible miracle: a heartbreaking thriller." Los Angeles Times "Haunting…a powerful and affecting novel." TheNew York Times "Thrums with suspense and moral ambiguity…This is one of those rarevery rarenovels that you don't so much read as inhabit and that makes everyday life seem altogether mysterious and fragile, and infinitely perilous." Entertainment Weekly "A triumph…character-driven as it is, it reads like a thriller, swift and complete." The New York Times Book Review
Dewey Decimal
FIC
Synopsis
It is 1959 when Haruko, a young woman of good family, marries the Crown Prince of Japan, the heir to the Chrysanthemum Throne. She is the first non-aristocratic woman to enter the longest-running, almost hermetically sealed, and mysterious monarchy in the world. Met with cruelty and suspicion by the Empress and her minions, Haruko is controlled at every turn. The only interest the court has in her is her ability to produce an heir. After finally giving birth to a son, Haruko suffers a nervous breakdown and loses her voice. However, determined not to be crushed by the imperial bureaucrats, she perseveres. Thirty years later, now Empress herself, she plays a crucial role in persuading another young woman-a rising star in the foreign ministry-to accept the marriage proposal of her son, the Crown Prince. The consequences are tragic and dramatic. Told in the voice of Haruko, meticulously researched and superbly imagined,The Commoneris the mesmerizing, moving, and surprising story of a brutally rarified and controlled existence at once hidden and exposed, and of a complex relationship between two isolated women who, despite being visible to all, are truly understood only by each other. With the unerring skill of a master storyteller, John Burnham Schwartz has written his finest novel yet.
LC Classification Number
PS3569.C5658C66 2007
Item description from the seller
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- a***t (27)- Feedback left by buyer.Past monthVerified purchaseExactly as described at a great price. Excellent quality, brand new, looked awesome, even arrived a couple days sooner than expected. Eggcellent seller.
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- j***s (20)- Feedback left by buyer.Past 6 monthsVerified purchaseFast shipping. Received sooner than expected. Package was secure. Item exactly as described. Excellent value.Reply from: pupas49- Feedback replied by seller pupas49.- Feedback replied by seller pupas49.🚚💨 Wow, thank you for the awesome review! So glad your NEW Summer by Ingenuity My Size Potty Pro – Pink arrived faster than expected and in perfect shape! 🎀🚽 📦 Secure packaging 🧸 Item exactly as described 💸 Excellent value = happy shopper! We truly appreciate your support — come back anytime for more great deals! 🛍️✨NEW Summer by Ingenuity My Size Potty Pro Toddler Chair 2 in 1 - Pink (#186873782155)
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Seller feedback (114)
- a***t (27)- Feedback left by buyer.Past monthVerified purchaseExactly as described at a great price. Excellent quality, brand new, looked awesome, even arrived a couple days sooner than expected. Eggcellent seller.
- j***a (53)- Feedback left by buyer.Past 6 monthsVerified purchaseItem received quickly and well packaged. Portable vacuum works well. Exactly as described. Priced was good.Very happy with purchase.Would use this seller in the future.Reply from: pupas49- Feedback replied by seller pupas49.- Feedback replied by seller pupas49.Thank you so much for the awesome feedback! 😊 We're so happy the vacuum worked out perfectly for you — just as described and at a price that feels just right! 💸💯 We're not just selling products, we’re building a place where value meets happiness 💖✨. Can’t wait to serve you again in the future! 🚀🛍️IonVac Cordless Compact Light Weight Portable Vacuum Cleaner - Open Box (#186875696056)
- j***s (20)- Feedback left by buyer.Past 6 monthsVerified purchaseFast shipping. Received sooner than expected. Package was secure. Item exactly as described. Excellent value.Reply from: pupas49- Feedback replied by seller pupas49.- Feedback replied by seller pupas49.🚚💨 Wow, thank you for the awesome review! So glad your NEW Summer by Ingenuity My Size Potty Pro – Pink arrived faster than expected and in perfect shape! 🎀🚽 📦 Secure packaging 🧸 Item exactly as described 💸 Excellent value = happy shopper! We truly appreciate your support — come back anytime for more great deals! 🛍️✨NEW Summer by Ingenuity My Size Potty Pro Toddler Chair 2 in 1 - Pink (#186873782155)