The Graduate

The classic “brilliant…sardonic, ludicrously funny” (The New York Times) story of an aimless college graduate in 1960s America that inspired the acclaimed film by Mike Nichols.

When Benjamin Braddock graduates from a small eastern college and comes home to his parents’ house, everyone wants to know what he’s going to do with his life. Benjamin has no idea. Feeling empty, embittered, and adrift, he falls haplessly into an affair with Mrs. Robinson, the seductive wife of his father’s business partner. But then he falls in love with a woman closer to his own age: Mrs. Robinson’s daughter, Elaine.

A scathingly entertaining tale of idealism and materialism, corruption and conformity, The Graduate captures with hilarity and insight the alienation of youth and the disillusionment of an era.

Charles Webb is also the author of New Cardiff. He lives with his wife in East Sussex, England.