The Class (Segal novel)
1986 novel by Erich Segal
The Class is Erich Segal's 6th novel, published in 1985. The class of the title is the Harvard University Class of 1958. The book is about five fictional members of this class: Andrew Eliot, Jason Gilbert, Theodore Lambros, Daniel Rossi, and George Keller.
Plot summary
The Class follows the diverse fates of five members of Harvard's Class of 1958 (which was Segal's own class in real life) recounting the way their lives intertwine, and coming to a dramatic conclusion at their class reunion, twenty-five years later.
Andrew Eliot comes from the Boston Brahmin Eliot family. Due to his background, he feels the pressure of high expectations, which causes him to suffer from lack of confidence. He is otherwise laid-back and friendly, and a good friend to all his classmates. To experience life without privilege and to fulfill his military obligation, he serves in the navy as an ordinary swabbie. After his military service, he enters an ill-fated marriage to the daughter of one of his father's classmates and takes up a career in investment banking. Unfortunately, his wife is a serial adultress and alcoholic and demands a divorce, leaving him estranged from his own son and daughter, with limited visitation after his wife places both in boarding school at the age of 9 and 6, denying him custodial rights and frustrating his attempts to give them a home life.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3078728. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1985 and 1958.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Class (Segal novel)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.