Indecent Proposal

Book excerpt: Reviewers have called it "powerful" and "brilliant." Newly released for its 25th anniversary edition, Jack Engelhard's novel "Indecent Proposal" has found its place alongside such classics as Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" and Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina." "Indecent Proposal" remains one of the most widely-read and discussed novels around the world, due to the strong writing and riches that include a moral dilemma for the ages. The novel was translated into more than 22 languages, and Hollywood produced a mega-hit movie based on this book starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. The novel stands as a remarkable achievement from a great and legendary novelist. Though Hollywood only skimmed the surface of Engelhard's masterpiece, the theme is eternal, even biblical - temptation The plot has riveted the world's readers and moviegoers. A destitute couple tries their luck in an Atlantic City casino. The wife, Joan, is utterly gorgeous. She attracts the attention of an oil rich sultan who can buy anything he sets his eyes on. Can he buy people? Can he "buy" Joan? What would you do for a million dollars? Reviews "Precise, almost clinical language...is this book fun to read? You betcha " "- The New York Times" "The prose is vivid, cool and muscular, the story is great. In all, the fine tension between desire and high moral principal make "Indecent Proposal" a well-crafted book...well-wrought characters, exhilarating pace...it's beautifully written." "- The Philadelphia Inquirer" "A gut-wrenching study on love, money and trust." "- National Public Radio (NPR)" "Written with the sparseness of Hemingway but the moral intensity of I.B. Singer." - Michael Foster, author of "Three in Love" (HarperCollins) About the Author Contemporaries have hailed novelist Jack Engelhard as "the last Hemingway" and of being "a writer without peer and the conscience of us all." "The New York Times" commended the economy of his prose... "precise, almost clinical language." His bestselling novel "Indecent Proposal" made him internationally famous as the foremost chronicler of moral dilemmas and of topics dealing with temptation. Works that followed won him an even greater following, such as "Escape From Mount Moriah," his book of memoirs that won awards for writing and for film. His latest novel "Compulsive" draws us into the mind of a compulsive gambler in a work stunningly brilliant and original, and seductively readable. Engelhard writes a weekly column for "The Washington Times." His website: www.jackengelhard.com