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The Professor of Desire
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Plot Summary of The Professor of Desire
"THE PROFESSOR OF DESIRE is a novel published in 1977.

David Kepesh is a professor of literature obsessed by the idea of Desire, in novels as well as in his own personal life. Just after his college years, he enjoyed in Europe, in the company of two swedish girls, all the degrees of a free sexuality. As a young professor, he met a blonde beauty with a mysterious past spent in Asia and married her. But the desire slowly died and a depressive divorced Kepesh began a years long psychanalysis. Will he be ready to accept the fact that Desire cannot last forever on the day he makes the acquaintance of the perfect woman for him ?

As usual with Philip Roth, witty and terribly accurate."

Daniel Staebler, Resident Scholar

Review Analysis of The Professor of Desire
Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book? - very sensitive (sigh)
Time/era of story - 1960's-1970's
Romance/Romance Problems Yes
Kind of romance: - boatload of casual sex without love
Life of a profession: - teacher
Internal struggle/realization? Yes
Struggle over - vague finding self/purpose in life (i.e. no plot to book)
Kind of sex: - really kinky sex!!!!
Battle with a psychiatrist Yes
Job/Profession/Status story Yes
Taboo sex story? Yes

Main Character
Gender - Male
Profession/status: - teacher
Age: - 20's-30's
Eccentric/Mental Yes
Eccentric: - obsessed - emotionally unstable
Ethnicity/Nationality - Jewish
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Intelligence - Very much smarter than other characters
Physique - average physique

Main Adversary
Identity: - none

Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings? - 5 (an average amount)
United States Yes
The US: - Northeast
City? Yes
City: - New York
Misc setting - resort/hotel

Style
Person - mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment
Sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - touching of anatomy - licking - orgies - actual description of hetero sex - descript. of female anat. (the big B's) - descript. of female anat. (the big V)
Unusual Style: - a lot of stream of consciousness
Amount of dialog - significantly more descript than dialog
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Philip Roth Resident Scholar Profiles

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