The Man Who Loved Children cover art

The Man Who Loved Children

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The Man Who Loved Children

By: Christina Stead
Narrated by: Fiona Press
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About this listen

Henrietta, privileged and sheltered, expected a smoothly comfortable society life in Washington when she married Sam Pollitt, a handsome self-made biologist. Ten years later, Henny is a skinny, screaming drudge with five children, a raging wreck of a woman driven by "hate, horror, passion or contempt". But Sam, whose impractical idealism has brought his family to near-ruin, is unchanged: still at sea in all adult affairs, an absurd hypocritical buffoon but a genius with children, except Louie, his eldest daughter, an ugly, brilliant adolescent who is forced to take a drastic final step to save herself and the children from lasting tragedy.

©1940 The Estate of Christina Stead (P)2001 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd Classics Family Life Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Psychological Fiction

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Critic reviews

" The Man Who Loved Children is one of the most truthful and terrifying horror stories ever written about family life." ( Times)
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The reading was clear, but sometimes it was hard to work out who was speaking, too little differentiation.

It was an interesting book, but I believe that the tale could have been told in half of the time.

I didn't actually like, any of the characters.

Probably this book was before it's time.

HARD TO BELIEVE THIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN IN THE 1940s

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Two things killed this for me. I found two of the three main characters unlikeable. And I found the dialogue, which comprises 90% of the text, irritating. It is not badly written. It may even justify the praise given by other reviewers. I just didn't enjoy the endless trivial infant-talk and silly rhymes. After about a quarter of the book I couldn't bear it any longer and stopped listening.

It may be a good book but I couldn't listen to it

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