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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 Literary Fiction Psychological Fiction

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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A classic of 20th century literature

Well read; and there are no problems with the audio version I downloaded in January 2022 (as described in an earlier review). Christina Stead is a brilliant writer.

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Corrupted file

This started about one third of the way through the book, then jumped back to the beginning, then forwards again. It also retains many references to “turn over the cassette” presumably left from its transcription to digital. Bit of a mess.

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4 people found this helpful

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