Atonement By Ian McEwan
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Atonement By Ian McEwan
The plot of Atonement follows the life of Briony Tallis, from naive teenager to elderly woman.
In 1935, Briony is 13 years old and the youngest child of a rich English family, She's an aspiring writer and is at that difficult stage of adolescence where she is leaving the world of childhood and taking her first tentative steps towards adulthood. Based on events she sees but doesn't understand, she becomes the reason an innocent man is convicted of a rape which occurs on her family's estate.
Told over four parts (pre World War 2, the evacuation of Dunkirk, the aftermath of Dunkirk and London in 1999), the story details Briony's attempts to atone for the consequences of her childhood naivety...
Atonement is widely regarded as one of Ian McEwan's finest works.
Time magazine named Atonement the best fiction novel of the year and included it in its All-Time 100 Greatest Novels. The Observer cites it as one of the 100 best novels written, calling it "a contemporary classic of mesmerising narrative conviction."
"Atonement" was made into a multi-award winning film which was released in 2007
Atonement is available from Amazon.com
Contents at a Glance
The content of this page is copyright of CDT (author) February 2012. Please DO NOT copy or reproduce elsewhere either in print or online. Extract From Atonement
Excerpt from chapter 1 of Atonement
- Atonement by Ian McEwan
- Excerpt from Atonement by Ian McEwan at Mostly Fiction.
List Of Characters In "Atonement"
Atonement characters
Briony Tallis - the central character of the book. The story follows her from the age of 13 to old age. Her parents are rich and live in a large mansion. She is an aspiring writer at the start of the book, trains as a nurse during World War 2 and is a successful novelist in later lifeCecilia Tallis - Briony's older sister, a university student who becomes a nurse during World War 2
Leon Tallis - Briony's older brother who she idolises
Emily Tallis - Briony's mother
Jack Tallis - Briony's father
Robbie Turner - friend of Cecilia and son of the Tallis's housekeeper, his education is financed by Briony's father. He is a close friend of Cecilia's and is secretly in love with her. He is wrongly accused of raping Lola and goes to jail, He is released from jail during World War 2 to allow him to enlist as a soldier in the army. He is seriously wounded at the battle of Dunkirk
Mrs Turner - Robbie's mother, the Tallis family's housekeeper
Lola - Briony's cousin who comes to stay with Briony's family after her parents divorce
Jackson and Pierrot - Briony's cousins - Lola's younger twin brothers
Paul Marshall - Friend of Leon's, a businessman who rapes Lola but later marries her
Nettle - A soldier who is one of Robbie's companions during the Dunkirk evacuation
Mace - A soldier who is one of Robbie's companions during the Dunkirk evacuation
Atonement (Novel) Reviews
- Review: Atonement by Ian McEwan | By genre | Guardian Unlimited Books
- Guardian Unlimited review of Atonement
- White Lies - New York Times by Tom Shone
- New York Times review of Atonement
- New York Magazine review by David Mendelsohn
- Review of Atonement By Ian McEwan.
- Stumbling into fate / Accidents and choices trip up the characters in Ian McEwan's new novel by David Wiegand
- San Francisco Chronicel review of Atonement
- "Atonement" by Ian McEwan - Salon.com
- Review of Atonement by Salon.com
- Atonement - Ian McEwan
- A review, and links to other information about and reviews of Atonement by Ian McEwan.
- Ian McEwan : Saturday : Atonement : Book Review
- Read a review of Saturday and Atonement by Ian McEwan at MostlyFiction.com.
- Atonement - Ian McEwan - Review - Can't a girl make a mistake?
- Atonement - Ian McEwan - Review
Study Resources For Atonement
A level notes for Atonement by Ian McEwan

York Notes on "Atonement" (York Notes Advanced) (Paperback)

Amazon reader review:
"After choosing to use Atonement for A2 level coursework I did initially find it difficult to think of an area of the book to focus on. I found this york notes in a Waterstones bookshop but paid £6.99 for it, buy it off amazon its a great price!! It has a detailed overview of each chapter and 'extended commentaries' containing some great ideas. As with other york notes it has its sections on themes, characterisation, language and style, and loads of notes on McEwan's life.
It has been a huge help to me and if anyone wants notes on Atonement, particularly for A levels it's hugely helpful =] "

AS/A-level English Literature: "Atonement" (Student Text Guides) (Paperback)

Amazon description:
"AS/A-Level English Literature Student Text Guides comprising three sections:
* an Introduction, which outlines the aims of the guide, the relevant exam board specification and Assessment Objectives
* Text Guidance, which gives coverage of key aspects of the text
* Questions and Answers, which focuses on the various types of essay questions and offers specifmen plans and sample answers, together with mark schemes.

Ian McEwan's "Atonement" (Continuum Contemporaries) (Paperback)

Amazon description:
"This is a concise and accessible student guide to McEwan's popular novel. "The Continuum Contemporaries" series gives readers accessible and informative introductions to some of the most popular, most acclaimed and most influential novels of recent years. This guide to "Atonement" features a biography of the author, a full-length analysis of the novel, a summary of the novel's popular and critical reception, a discussion of the recent film adaptation and a great deal more. If you're studying this novel, reading it for your book club, or if you simply want to know more about it, you'll find this guide informative, intelligent, and helpful."
Ian McEwan: "Child in Time", "Enduring Love", "Atonement": The Essential Guide (Vintage Living Texts) (Paperback)
Vintage Living Texts provide A level students with an essential guide to three of Ian McEwan's novels.
Amazon description:
"Vintage Living Texts" is unique in that it offers an in-depth interview with Ian McEwan, relating specifically to the texts under discussion. This guide will deal with McEwan's themes, genre and narrative technique, and a close reading of the texts will be accompanied by likely exam questions - as well as providing a rich source of ideas for intelligent and inventive ways of approaching the novels. Also included in this guide are detailed reading plans for all three novels, questions for essays and discussion, contextual material, suggested texts for complementary and comparative reading, a picture essay, extracts from reviews, a biography, a bibliography, a reading list of literary criticism and a glossary of literary terms.
- ReadingGroupGuides.com - ATONEMENT by Ian McEwan
- ReadingGroupGuides discussion questions
- Culture Watch - Exploring the message behind the media
- Atonement study guide
- Atonement (novel) Summary
- Atonement (novel) summary with 144 pages of encyclopedia entries, essays, summaries, research information, and more.
Have YOU Read "Atonement"?
Have you read Atonement by Ian McEwan?
Atonement Novel - Awards And Nominations
Awards and nominations for the book Atonement by Ian McEwan
The Booker Prize (2001)
James Tait Black Memorial Prize (2001)
Whitbread Book Award (2001)
Atonement won the following awards;
Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction (2002)
National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction (2002)
WH Smith Literary Award (2002)
Santiago Prize for the European Novel (2004)
"Atonement" - The Film - Awards & Nominations
The movie version of "Atonement" - awards & nominations
7 Golden Globe nominations, more than any other film nominated for the 65th Golden Globe Awards
Won 2 Golden Globes, including Best Motion Picture Drama.
14 BAFTA nominations for the 61st British Academy Film Awards including Best Film, Best British Film and Best Director
Nominated for seven Oscars for the 80th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) and Best Supporting Actress
Won an Oscar for the Best Original Score
Won the Best Film of the Year, and the Production Design award at the 61st British Academy Film Awards
Have YOU Seen The Movie Version Of "Atonement"?
Have you seen the film, Atonement?
Reviews Of The Film Version Of "Atonement" By Ian McEwan
"Atonement" movie reviews
- Culture Watch - Exploring the message behind the media
- "Imagining it all put right" - by Tony Watkins
- Atonement The Movie
- Website with video clips & downloads
- Atonement (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Atonement(film)From Wikipedia
- Atonement (2007)
- Atonement on the Internet Movie Database (IMDB)
- Atonement - Movie Reviews, Trailers, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes
- Atonement movie reviews, trailers - Check out Rotten Tomatoes Atonement clips, pictures, critic and user reviews, forums and the Tomatometer!
- Atonement (2007): Reviews
- Metacritic.com
- Atonement (2007)
- Atonement summary of box office results, charts and release information and related links.
- allmovie
- allmovie
Atonement Buzz
- Guthrie Theater to Celebrate Christopher Hampton in 2012
- He won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for his adaptation of Dangerous Liaisons, and most recently, garnered an Academy Award nomination for his screenplay adaptation of Ian McEwan's Atonement. The film starred James McAvoy and Keira ...
- Adapt or die?
- According to Tim Bevan, co-chairman of Working Title Films, which has produced a string of big literary adaptations including Bridget Jones's Diary (Helen Fielding) and Atonement (Ian McEwan), and which was behind last year's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, ...
- Let's give our children great expectations
- The answer: Atonement by Ian McEwan, poems by Carol Ann Duffy and Closer, a lacerating play about love by Patrick Marber. I believe that, of those, the Marber is the most ancient text, dating all the way back to a cobwebby 1997.
- Waiting for Sunrise, By William Boyd
- Naturally, psychoanalysis uncovers a crippling secret from his childhood, one with echoes of Ian McEwan's Atonement, a deception which is cleverly mirrored later in the book with Lysander recast as the victim. However, Lysander is an optimistic soul.
More Novels & Short Stories By Ian McEwan
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"Atonement" Feedback
Have you read "Atonement"? Have you seen the film version? Share your thoughts here!
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cdevries
Jul 30, 2011 @ 2:05 pm | delete
- Strangely, I loved the movie but the book, read afterwards, made me mad! The ha!-just-made-the-ending-up ending (though of course the whole thing is fiction!) felt like tricking the reader... There's an unwritten reader/author pact, I think, that says: if the reader promises to care, the author promises not to toy with the reader's emotions. This book does. Yet the same ending worked beautifully in the film. Odd.
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bejeezers Apr 27, 2011 @ 11:39 am | delete
- A great lense. A great film and a great book. The Dunkirk beach scenes in the film were made on my local beach. The way they transformed the seafront was amazing.
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Bookworm25
Feb 2, 2011 @ 9:12 am | delete
- Fantastic lens, loved the content, the detail in in and the whole thing. I have put this up for discussion in the reading group and have added a link to this page. Really impressive lens! :)
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GeoffSteen Nov 6, 2010 @ 11:02 am | delete
- What a brilliant lens, love all the detail. I've never really enjoyed Ian McEwan's other books, but I did enjoy Atonement. Maybe it's because I saw the film first.
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kimmanleyort
Feb 14, 2010 @ 8:43 pm | delete
- Fantastic book and I loved the movie too. This page is really well done.
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anonymous
Oct 25, 2009 @ 6:50 pm | delete
- BEST STORY I'VE EVER READ/SEEN.
REEEEAD AND WATCH THIS BOOK AND MOVIE!
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Heather426
May 5, 2009 @ 10:07 am | delete
- fantastic lens about a wonderful novel and film.5*
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"Atonement" - Index
Ian McEwan - Atonement - novel & film
by CDT
Atonement - a novel by Ian McEwan
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