''Pictures from an Institution: a Comedy'' is a 1954 novel by American poet Randall Jarrell. It is an academic

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposin ...

, focusing on the oddities of academic life, in particular the relationships between the characters and their private lives. The nameless

narrator Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the ...

, a Jarrell-like figure who teaches at a women's college called Benton, makes humorous observations about his students and his fellow academics; especially the latter, and in particular the offensively tactless novelist Gertrude, modeled on Mary McCarthy. Some believe Benton was modeled after

Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College (SLC) is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York, United States. Founded as a Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in 1926, Sarah Lawrence College has been coeducational ...

, where Jarrell taught but in an interview with the ''New York Times'', Jarrell stated that "Benton is supposed to be just a type ... I've taken things from real places, but mostly have made them up".

Characters

* Unnamed narrator, a professor of literature * Gertrude Johnson, a visiting novelist * President Robbins, a former Olympic diver * Gottfried Rosenbaum, composer in residence * Constance, a longtime friend of the narrator, a beautiful music student

Awards

''Pictures from an Institution'' was a finalist for the National Book Award.National Book Foundation
"National Book Awards - 1955"
2007, accessed April 1, 2011.

References

External links

from the book at the

University of Chicago Press The University of Chicago Press is the university press of the University of Chicago, a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It pu ...

.
''New York Times'' review
by Orville Prescott (1954) 1954 American novels Satirical books Campus novels Alfred A. Knopf books {{1950s-novel-stub