{"title":"Christina Stead","description":"\u003cp\u003eDiscover the compelling works of \u003cem\u003eChristina Stead\u003c\/em\u003e, an acclaimed Australian author known for her incisive exploration of human relationships and society. Her unique storytelling and rich characterisation have earned her a celebrated place in 20th-century literature.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAmong her notable works is \u003cem\u003eThe Man Who Loved Children\u003c\/em\u003e, a richly detailed portrait of a dysfunctional family that showcases Stead’s ability to delve into the complexities of familial bonds. Another remarkable book, \u003cem\u003eLetty Fox: Her Luck\u003c\/em\u003e, offers a vivid depiction of New York life and the spirited struggles of a young woman determined to chart her own course.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eA Little Tea, a Little Chat\u003c\/em\u003e, Stead explores the darker sides of personal and business relationships during wartime New York. \u003cem\u003eThe Beauties and Furies\u003c\/em\u003e presents a tempestuous love affair in the vibrant setting of 1930s Paris, beautifully capturing both the allure and the tumult of love.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eImmerse yourself in the quaint yet profound world of \u003cem\u003eThe Little Hotel\u003c\/em\u003e, where the subtle dynamics among its residents offer a microcosm of post-war European society. \u003cem\u003eThe Puzzleheaded Girl\u003c\/em\u003e is a masterful collection of stories that reveal Stead’s keen insight into the intricacies of human nature.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eChristina Stead’s works are a treasure trove of emotional depth and narrative flair, making them a captivating choice for readers of \u003cem\u003eGeneral Fiction\u003c\/em\u003e who appreciate sophisticated storytelling and psychological detail.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"man-who-loved-children-by-christina-stead-9780522855548","title":"Man Who Loved Children","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Man Who Loved Children\u003c\/em\u003e is Christina Stead's masterpiece about family life. Set in Washington during the 1930s, Sam and Henny Pollit are a warring husband and wife. Their tempestuous marriage, aggravated by too little money, lies at the centre of Stead's satirical and brilliantly observed novel about the relations between husbands and wives, and parents and children.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSam, a scientist, uses words as weapons of attack and control on his children and is prone to illusions of power and influence that fail to extend beyond his family. His wife Henny, who hails from a wealthy Baltimore family, is disastrously impractical and enmeshed in her own fantasies of romance and vengeance. Much of the care of their six children is left to Louisa, Sam's 14-year-old daughter from his first marriage. Within this psychological battleground, Louisa must attempt to make a life of her own.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFirst published in 1940, \u003cem\u003eThe Man Who Loved Children\u003c\/em\u003e was hailed for its satiric energy. Now its originality is again lauded by novelist Jonathan Franzen in his illuminating new introduction.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46531957588204,"sku":"9780522855548","price":36.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/3690023482374.jpg?v=1749295976"},{"product_id":"a-little-tea-a-little-chat-by-christina-stead-9781925355727","title":"A Little Tea, a Little Chat","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'Ever since his early manhood, since his marriage, he had bought women; most had been bargains and most had made delivery at once. He never paid in advance— \"I got no time for futures in women\".'\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eNew York, on the cusp of World War II. Robert Grant, a middle-aged businessman, lives life by his own rules. His chief hobbies are moneymaking and seduction; he is always on the hunt for the next woman to beguile and betray. That is, until he meets his match—Barbara, the 'blondine', a woman he cannot best.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA sardonic commentary on sexual relations and war as potent as when it was first published in 1948, \u003cem\u003eA Little Tea, a Little Chat\u003c\/em\u003e holds up a mirror to the corruption and cravenness of our late-capitalist moment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46608753819884,"sku":"9781925355727","price":17.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/13882603482873.jpg?v=1751522948"},{"product_id":"letty-fox-by-christina-stead-9780522854053","title":"Letty Fox","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn this classic novel by Christina Stead, published here with an introduction by Carmen Callil, \u003cem\u003eLetty Fox\u003c\/em\u003e tells her story as a self-styled woman in New York's world of passion, love and sexual bargaining.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAs a bright, uninhibited daughter of a middle-class couple who believes the world is her oyster, Letty Fox tells it all – family secrets, social scandals, her desires and self-deceptions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eLetty Fox discovers that the pleasures of modern love are matched by the pain and exhaustion of a game that men and women play unequally.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46670898757868,"sku":"9780522854053","price":27.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/3675073482374.jpg?v=1752787986"},{"product_id":"the-beauties-and-furies-by-christina-stead-9781925355703","title":"The Beauties and Furies","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'The express flew towards Paris over the flooded March swamps. In a parlour-car, the melancholy dark young woman looked out persistently at the sand-dunes, cement-mills, pines, the war-cemetery with stone banners like folded umbrellas, the fields under water, the bristling ponds with deserted boats and the little naked trees which marked the horizon-searching roads.'\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt is 1934, and Elvira Western has left London and her dull marriage to Paul, a doctor, for Paris and her waiting lover, Oliver, a student radical. But drab hotels and interminable discussions of politics are not her idea of romance, and soon Elvira is wishing she could leave the city of 'many beauties-and furies', and return home...\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Beauties and Furies\u003c\/em\u003e, Christina Stead's second novel, dramatises a love triangle against a backdrop of political upheaval. Its publication in 1936 prompted a writer for the \u003cem\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/em\u003e to call Stead the 'most extraordinary woman novelist' since Virginia Woolf.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46671676965100,"sku":"9781925355703","price":17.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/13882363482873.jpg?v=1752822744"},{"product_id":"the-little-hotel-by-christina-stead-9781925355734","title":"The Little Hotel","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'People live year after year in a hotel like this. We have their police papers, we know their sicknesses and family troubles; people come to confide in you. They tell you things they would not tell their own parents and friends, not even their lawyers and doctors.'\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAfter the Second World War, bizarre characters from across the ruined continent have gathered at the 'fourth-rate' Hotel Swiss-Touring by Lake Geneva. Some are residents, while other guests have come for the season. In the claustrophobic atmosphere of the little hotel, their eccentricities and their desperation - their jealousies and vindictiveness - are all too apparent.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFirst published in 1973, shortly before Christina Stead's return to Australia, \u003cem\u003eThe Little Hotel\u003c\/em\u003e is a sharp, witty satire of changing lives in postwar Europe.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46672138961132,"sku":"9781925355734","price":17.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/13882673482873.jpg?v=1752837028"},{"product_id":"the-puzzleheaded-girl-by-christina-stead-9781925355710","title":"The Puzzleheaded Girl","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'I hate and despise business and anything to do with making money.'\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e'Do you think it's wrong?'\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e'It is the enemy of art.'\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eEighteen-year-old Honor Lawrence is out of place at the bank where she works. When she refuses to accept a promotion, despite her obvious poverty, her mentor, Augustus Debrett, doesn't quite know what to make of it, or of her. Honor is an enigma—and she leaves confusion and uneasiness in her wake.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eThe Puzzleheaded Girl\u003c\/em\u003e, made up of four thematically linked novellas, Stead's unsurpassable skills of observation and social critique are on full display.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46672357687532,"sku":"9781925355710","price":17.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/13882433482873.jpg?v=1752842442"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.pro\/collections\/christina-stead.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}