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The Institute Kindle Edition

by James M. Cain (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
3.4 3.4 out of 5 stars 13 ratings
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An academic looking for money finds a woman and trouble instead
Professor Lloyd Palmer loves a good biography. His fantasy is to start an institute to teach young scholars the biographical arts, and it will take old money to make his dreams come true. Around Washington, the oldest money is found not in the District, but in Delaware, a land of wealth so astonishing that even the Du Ponts are considered nouveau riche. But when the professor goes to Wilmington, he comes away not with old money, but young trouble. Her name is Hortense Garrett. She is his benefactor’s wife, a twenty-something beauty trapped in an unhappy marriage, whose good looks conceal the most cunning mind this side of the Potomac. She needs a ride to Washington, and Lloyd offers to give her a lift. They’ve barely left Delaware before he falls for her. By the time they hit the Beltway, his biography will be in her hands.
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  1. Print length
    255 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    MysteriousPress.com/Open Road
  5. Publication date
    January 15, 2013
  6. File size
    1552 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Nobody else has ever quite pulled it off the way Cain does, not Hemingway, and not even Raymond Chandler. Cain is a master of the change of pace.” —Tom Wolfe “A poet of the tabloid murder.” —Edmund Wilson “No one has ever stopped reading in the middle of one of Jim Cain’s books.” —Saturday Review of Literature

About the Author

James M. Cain (1892–1977) was one of the most important authors in the history of crime fiction. Born in Maryland, he became a journalist after giving up on a childhood dream of singing opera. After two decades writing for newspapers in Baltimore, New York, and the army—and a brief stint as the managing editor of the New Yorker—Cain moved to Hollywood in the early 1930s. While writing for the movies, he turned to fiction, penning the novella The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934). This tightly wound tale of passion, murder, and greed became one of the most controversial bestsellers of its day, and remains one of the foremost examples of American noir writing. It set the tone for Cain’s next few novels, including Serenade (1937), Mildred Pierce (1941), Double Indemnity (1943), and The Butterfly (1947). Several of his books became equally successful noir films, particularly the classic 1940s adaptations of Mildred Pierce and Double Indemnity. Cain moved back to Maryland in 1948. Though he wrote prolifically until his death, Cain remains most famous for his early work.     

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00ARQXYZK
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ MysteriousPress.com/Open Road (January 15, 2013)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 15, 2013
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1552 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 255 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.4 3.4 out of 5 stars 13 ratings

About the author

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James M. Cain

James M. Cain

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James M. Cain was born in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1892. Having served in the US Army in World War 1, he became a journalist in Baltimore and New York in the 1920's. He later worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood. Cain died in 1977

Customer reviews

3.4 out of 5 stars
3.4 out of 5
13 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Michael G.
3.0 out of 5 stars Not recommended.
Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2016
Though not quite as bad as some of his other late in life novels (The Cocktail Waitress and Cloud Nine, for example), The Institute by the once great James M. Cain fails to make the grade. The characters lack credibility and are all unsympathetic, the plot is farfetched and the ending is rushed and off-puttingly sappy.

The Institute is narrated by its main character, Lloyd Palmer PhD., a 28 year old English literature scholar residing in College Park, MD. In Chapter one, Lloyd pays a visit to the fabulously wealthy Richard Garrett to ask him to endow an "institute of biography" in or near Washington, DC. Garrett reacts favorably to Lloyd's request. Since no good deed goes unpunished, Lloyd immediately proceeds to initiate a torrid love affair with Garrett's wife, Hortense.

Thus begins a rather pedestrian love triangle tale with irrelevant side stories about Shakespeare's sonnets and Congressional oversight.

Bottom line: Sad to see James M. Cain become a weak imitation of the great writer he had been forty years earlier.
2 people found this helpful
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Tamburlaine
5.0 out of 5 stars Probably for die-hard Cain fans only ... but then I fall into that category!
Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2014
So there was this Swedish housekeeper who did not wear underpants ...

(Spoilers)

This is another late-career James M. Cain novel and is written in his typical, politically incorrect style. I enjoyed it immensely.

Lloyd Palmer PhD., and college professor has a scheme to start an institute and approaches philanthropist Richard Garrett for funding. Garrett takes on the project on the condition that his wife Hortense approves and will be part of the project. Hortense turns out to be much younger than her husband and by the end of the second short chapter, she and Lloyd are banging the daylights out of each other. We are given to understand that Hortense is well above Lloyd's station in life and is ultra attractive, but this is a Cain novel, so that's the way it is supposed to be.

This passionate fling turns out not to be a huge problem, because Richard Garrett wants only the best for his wife ... and the aforementioned Swedish housekeeper for himself. (She seems to resolve an issue with his droopy pecker by lifting up her little Swedish housekeeper uniform at unexpected times). So, all is cool.

Everything sails along as Lloyd begins to build his institute, but then things become complicated. I should mention that he is a former University of Maryland quarterback with many game-winning performances to his credit, all of which seem to have been seen by and remembered in detail by various of the females who appear along the way. These women all seem to need his help getting into and out of their clothing and even Hortense's mom makes such a request.

And then there is Teddy, one of his former students who keeps popping up. Teddy is a sultry looking Latina who seems to have the answers for everything and her sights set on Lloyd.

There is a usual amount of business scheming along the way as well as a Congressional Investigation into the Hortense Garrett Institute of Biography. We are also treated to Dr. Palmer's unorthodox analysis of Shakespeare's sonnets, but ultimately, a couple of the characters get killed and everything comes together in a Cain-style happy ending.
3 people found this helpful
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danielx
1.0 out of 5 stars final effort from a once- great writer...
Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2012
Verified Purchase
To his great credit, James Cain continued to write to the end of his life, even though he found it very difficult to do so. The words didn't come so easily anymore, and he'd lost touch with contemporary culture and relationships. The Institute was his last published novel, written at the advanced age of 85, a few months before his death in 1977. The book is exceedingly weak, and it would be easy to enumerate its many flaws. However, let's be charitable, and recognize it for what it was -- the last published work of a once- great writer. And let's continue to honor James M Cain for his masterpieces published in the 1930s and 40s, stories worth reading and rereading. We might each hope to have the fortitude and persistence to continue to create until life's final curtain.
5 people found this helpful
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Alfred Johnson
2.0 out of 5 stars Sex and Power In Washington
Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2008
The last time I have had a chance to mention the work of James M. Cain, author of the classic noir works The Postman Always Rings Twice and Double Indemnity a couple of novels that take place in the 1930-40's in sunny California, was a later work Mignon set in the Louisiana of the American Civil War days. As usual when I get `high' on an author I like to run through most of his or her work to see where he or she is going with it. Thus, this review of a lesser work, a much lesser work by Cain is something of an obligation. As is familiar to anyone who runs through an author's lifetime of writing efforts not all such endeavors are equal. The Institute written late in Cain's literary career shows a man who has run out of steam in his literary efforts.

Why is that so here? Well, the premise that Cain is working under is well-worn. Power, sex and philanthropy or some such combination in the corridors of Washington and its environs has been done to death both before and after this 1976 effort. In his earlier work, the classic stuff, Cain distinguished himself by writing novels that verged on being `potboilers' but when the dust settled they were little gems of literary insight into how the human psyche operated when it got its `wanting habits' on. Not so here as the plot is predictable concerning the powerful showing off their wealth by endowing an institute of learning and several off-hand rather surreal romances, the twists lead nowhere and in the end it turns into a sappy melodrama as all is forgiven and the main characters (who survive) the brainy Dr. Palmer and beautiful Mrs. Garrett, lovers and newly-hatched parents ride off into the sunset. Give me those chiselin' dames and handy ne'er-do-well guys from the old days anytime. Sorry, James.
7 people found this helpful
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