The Witches of Eastwick was published by Alfred A. Knopf, New York, on 15 May 1984, in a first printing priced at $16.95. The novel marked a departure for Updike: three female protagonists, a Rhode Island setting (rather than his habitual Pennsylvania), and a frankly supernatural premise. Warner Bros. acquired film rights before publication, and the 1987 adaptation — directed by George Miller, starring Jack Nicholson, Cher, Susan Sarandon, and Michelle Pfeiffer — made the title one of Updike’s most widely known.
The Novel
Alexandra Spofford, Jane Smart, and Sukie Rougemont are three divorced women living in Eastwick, a fictional Rhode Island town. Each has discovered, since the end of her marriage, certain powers: Alexandra can sculpt small figurines that influence reality; Jane’s cello playing affects the weather; Sukie’s gossip becomes literally venomous. Their powers intensify when Darryl Van Horne arrives — a vulgar, wealthy, charismatic stranger who buys the old Lenox mansion and draws all three women into sexual relationships.
Van Horne is the Devil — or at least devil-ish. Updike keeps the supernatural register ambiguous. Van Horne sermonizes about the second law of thermodynamics, collects Pop Art, and presides over Thursday-night hot-tub sessions. He is repulsive and magnetic in equal measure. The town reacts to the women’s liberation with suspicion that escalates into persecution when a young woman, Jenny Gabriel, sickens and dies — apparently hexed by the three witches in a fit of jealousy.
Updike was accused by feminist critics of writing a misogynist fantasy disguised as female empowerment. The accusation has some force — the women’s powers are linked explicitly to their sexuality, and their agency is partly dependent on Van Horne’s attention. But the novel is more complicated than that reading allows. The witches are genuinely formidable, their friendship is the book’s emotional centre, and Van Horne’s eventual departure leaves them not diminished but restored to a different kind of power — the power of renunciation.
Collecting The Witches of Eastwick
First edition (1984, Knopf): First printing, $16.95.
Identification points:
- “FIRST EDITION” on copyright page
- Blue-grey cloth binding
- Dust jacket with witch silhouette design
Approximate market values:
- Fine/Fine in dust jacket: $150–$400
- Signed first edition: $400–$1,200
- Without jacket: $25–$60
Value trajectory: Moderate collector demand. The film adaptation keeps the title visible but the large first printing limits scarcity. Signed copies command a premium but are not rare — Updike was a generous signer. A sequel, The Widows of Eastwick (2008), exists but has generated minimal collector interest.
The Film Adaptation
George Miller’s 1987 film takes the premise and little else. Nicholson’s Van Horne is a flamboyant grotesque rather than Updike’s suave intellectual predator, and the film invents a spectacular effects-driven climax that has no equivalent in the novel. The film was a commercial success and entered the popular imagination more firmly than the book — most people who “know” the Witches of Eastwick know Nicholson in a hot tub, not Updike’s theological comedy.