Charles Webb Books In Order

The Graduate

The basis for Mike Nichols’ acclaimed 1967 film starring Dustin Hoffman and for successful stage productions in London and on Broadway this classic novel about a naive college graduate adrift in the shifting social and sexual mores of the 1960s captures with hilarity and insight the alienation of youth and the disillusionment of an era. The Graduate When Benjamin Braddock graduates from a small Eastern college and moves home to his parents’ house, everyone wants to know what he’s going to do with his life. Embittered by the emptiness of his college education and indifferent to his grim prospects grad school? a career in plastics? Benjamin falls haplessly into an affair with Mrs. Robinson, the relentlessly seductive wife of his father’s business partner. It’s only when beautiful coed Elaine Robinson comes home to visit her parents that Benjamin, now smitten, thinks he might have found some kind of direction in his life. Unfortuately for Benjamin, Mrs. Robinson plays the role of protective mother as well as she does the one of mistress. A wondrously fierce and absurd battle of wills ensues, with love and idealism triumphing over the forces of corruption and conformity.

Home School

Finally, the sequel to the international bestseller and one of the most classic movies of all time, The Graduate, has arrived.

At the end of Charles Webb’s first novel, The Graduate, Benjamin Braddock rescues his beloved Elaine from a marriage made not in heaven, but in California. For over forty years, legions of fans have wondered what happened to the young couple after The Graduate s momentous final scene. The wait is over.

Eleven years and 3,000 miles later, Benjamin and Elaine live Westchester County, a suburb of New York City, with their two sons, whom they are educating at home. A continent now stands between them and the boys surviving grandparent, now known as Nan, but who in former days answered to Mrs. Robinson. The story opens with the household in turmoil as the Westchester School Board attempts to quash the unconventional educational methods the family is practicing. Desperate situations call for desperate remedies even a cry for help to the mother in law from hell, who is only too happy to provide her loving services but at a price far higher than could be expected.

At long last, the unforgettable characters that made The Graduate such a classic are back and they re better than ever including, of course, the extraordinary Mrs. Robinson. Wryly observing the horrors and absurdities of domestic life, Home School has all the precision and wit that made The Graduate such a long lasting success.

Praise for Charles Webb and Home School:

‘There’s a lot of sharp, funny dialogue…
. those who remember the good old days will have some fun.’ Hartford Courant
Charles Webb is a highly gifted and accomplished writer. Chicago Tribune

‘Brilliant…
sardonic, ludicrously funny.’ The New York Times on The Graduate

Charles Webb’s sequel to The Graduate sparkles with as much wit and invention as the original. Throughout the book, everything dialogue, characterization, even incident is pared down to a minimum, and yet the result, far from being undernourished, hums with richness and vitality. So here s to you Mrs. Robinson, and to Charles Webb for doing such a fine job of resurrecting her. Sunday Telegraph UK

Home School offers a witty and bitingly accurate tale of suburban frustration whose slightness is integral to its charm. Daily Mail UK

Distinctive, wry, spare and beautifully modulated. Daily Telegraph UK

Forty years overdue, the sequel to The Graduate was worth the wait. A great read.

The London Paper UK

By utilizing the same wry humor and pinpoint characterization of the first novel, and by delving even further into the dark motives of the iconic Mrs. Robinson, Webb has made this continuation of a classic believable and entertaining. The Works UK

New Cardiff

As a discerning reader of nineteenth century American fiction, Englishman Colin Ware is familiar with the tradition of transcending disastrous love affairs by booking the next ocean liner to Europe. Now that he has experienced the pain and humiliation of heartache firsthand, he decides to try this cure in reverse.

New Cardiff, Vermont, may be an infinitesimal blot on the rural American landscape, but to Colin it’s the ideal place to mend his broken heart. The townsfolk are a quirky, endearing lot, and they welcome the migrating artist into their fold. Colin does his part by capturing his adopted countrymen and women in charcoal and ink. He even discovers love again with Mandy, an attendant at the Shining Shores nursing home. When Colin’s ex arrives to woo him back to her and his native land, he has to choose between his new love and the woman he’s known for years.

With its pitch perfect dialogue, New Cardiff takes readers on the exhilarating cross cultural odyssey of a man hurtling headlong into life.