By Love Possessed (Masterplots II: American Fiction Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: James Gould Cozzens
- First Published: 1957
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: Around 1950
- Setting: The New England town of Brocton
- Principal Characters: Arthur Winner, Jr., Noah Tuttle, Julius Penrose, Helen Detweiler
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism
- Subjects: 1950’s, Suicide, New England, Rape, Adultery, Lawyers, Ethics, Polio
- Locales: New England
The Novel
Set in a small Northeastern community, By Love Possessed chronicles forty-nine hours in the life of Arthur Winner, Jr., a respected lawyer and citizen of Brocton. The title refers to the different types of love—sexual love, parental love, friendship, love for community and church—which play a part in Winner’s life as a man and as a lawyer. The novel opens as Winner contemplates the clock in his mother’s house with the inscription omnia vincit amor. Winner has patterned himself after his deceased father, the “Man of Reason,” and the conflict...
[The entire page is 2212 words long]
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