Preview of The Cider House Rules Summary:

Two major themes, neither of them new in Irving's fiction, dominate The Cider House Rules. One is the individual human being's responsibility to his society. Trained as an obstetrician, Wilbur Larch has seen the results, both physical and psychological, of illegal, back-street abortions, and has determined that his mission is to either prevent or abet childbirth, whichever seems right at the time: "He was an obstetrician, but when he was asked — and when it was safe — he was an abortionist, too." As one of the refrains of The Hotel New Hampshire is "Sorrow floats," the major refrain of The Cider House Rules is "to be of use," which suggests the return to old-fashioned virtues that the novel implicitly urges.

The second central theme is the importance of the family as a unit. Homer Wells has two "families" in the novel, neither of them the traditional nuclear...