The World According to Garp was published by E.P. Dutton in 1978, and it transformed Irving from a respected literary novelist into a bestselling cultural phenomenon. The novel follows T.S. Garp from his unconventional conception (his mother, Jenny Fields, a nurse, used a dying soldier for the purpose) through his career as a writer, husband, father, and wrestling coach, to his violent death at the hands of a fanatic.
Irving’s method is maximalist: the novel incorporates multiple stories-within-stories (including Garp’s own fiction), a vast cast of characters, and a plot that alternates between domestic comedy and shocking violence with a frequency that keeps the reader permanently off-balance. The world of the novel is dangerous — random violence (car accidents, assassinations, sexual assaults) erupts into the most domestic settings without warning — and Irving’s characters must navigate this danger with whatever courage and love they can muster.
Jenny Fields — Garp’s mother, whose autobiography A Sexual Suspect makes her an accidental feminist icon — is one of the great maternal figures in American fiction: formidable, eccentric, loving in her own blunt way, and utterly indifferent to social convention. Her relationship with Garp — protective, competitive, exasperating, and ultimately tragic — provides the novel’s emotional spine.
The novel was adapted into a 1982 film starring Robin Williams and Glenn Close.
Collecting The World According to Garp
First edition (E.P. Dutton, New York, 1978): Cloth binding, dust jacket with illustration.
Market values:
- First edition, fine in fine jacket: $200–$500
- Signed first edition: $400–$1,000
- Reading copy without jacket: $15–$40
- Advance reading copy: $100–$250