The Collected Novels Volume Three: The Fat Woman's Joke, Down Among the Women, Growing Rich, and Darcy's Utopia

Four razor-sharp satires from a Man Booker Prize nominee who chronicles the battle of the sexes with "infectious, wicked glee" (Chicago Tribune). The beloved author of The Life and Loves of a She Devil sends up marriage, 1950s London, fad diets, celebrity feminists, and Doctor Faustus, proving once again that she is "the social and sexual soothsayer of our literary times" (Company). The Fat Woman's Joke: A novel about sex, food, marriage, and the indignities of the 1960s. After a lifetime of gorging herself, Esther Wells has an epiphany: She and her husband are going on a diet. Dedicated foodies throughout their marriage, they are about to discover what happens when new passions supplant old. "[Weldon is] an insightful and persuasive social commentator with an exhilarating mind." —Susan Isaacs, author of Compromising Positions  Down Among the Women: In 1950s London, Scarlet was raised by her mother—a former radical who left her husband to be fiercely independent. But at twenty, Scarlet has already had one abortion, and is about to become a single mother to the child she's naming Byzantia. Over the course of twenty years, Scarlet and her friends will discover it's never too late to become the women they are meant to be. "[A] stinging, brilliant comic novel." —The Christian Science Monitor  Growing Rich: Carmen is sixteen when Bernard Bellamy spies her from the back seat of his big, black BMW. He's just made a bargain with Mephistopheles: his mortal soul in exchange for the fulfillment of his desires. As time passes, inexplicable things happen to Carmen and her friends. But she's determined to hang on to her soul, no matter what obstacles—or temptations—are erected in her path. Will she succumb? Only the devil knows . . . "Glorious entertainment." —Women's Journal  Darcy's Utopia: With her husband in prison for financial crimes, Eleanor Darcy is a media sensation. A self-professed "feminist of the socialist variety," she grants an interview to a pair of journalists. During the course of their conversations, two journalists find themselves on a life-changing journey as Eleanor spins her vision of a future where money is abolished and "all men will believe in God and be capable of love." "A dazzling tour de force from one of Britain's most inspiring and intelligent novelists." —Cosmopolitan   Read more