Novels 1956-1964 by Saul Bellow, James Wood (Editor)
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(Hardcover)
- Pub. Date: January 2007
- 800pp
- Sales Rank: 137,481
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Product Details
- Pub. Date: January 2007
- Publisher: Library of America
- Format: Hardcover, 800pp
- Sales Rank: 137,481
- Series: Library of America Series
- ISBN-13: 9781598530025
- ISBN: 159853002X
Synopsis
Passionate, insightful, often funny, and exhibiting a linguistic richness few writers have equaled, the novels of Saul Bellow are among the defining achievements of postwar American literature. Novels 1956-1964 opens with Seize the Day, a tightly wrought novella that, unfolding over the course of a single devastating day, explores the desperate predicament of the failed actor and salesman Tommy Wilhelm. The austere psychological portraiture of Seize the Day is followed by an altogether different book, Henderson the Rain King, the ebullient tale of the irresistible eccentric Eugene Henderson, best characterized by his primal mantra "I want! I want!" Beneath the novel's comic surface lies an affecting parable of one man's quest to know himself and come to terms with morality; like Don Quixote, Henderson is, as Bellow later described him, "an absurd seeker of high qualities."
Henderson's irrepressible vitality is matched by that of Moses Herzog, the eponymous hero of Bellow's best-selling 1964 novel. His wife having abandoned him for his best friend, Herzog is on the verge of mental collapse and has embarked on a furious letter-writing campaign as an outlet for his all-consuming rage. Bellow's bravura performance in Herzog launched a new phase of his career, as literary acclaim was now joined by a receptive mass audience in America.
Library Journal
This second volume in the publisher's Bellow series gathers Seize the Day, Henderson the Rain King, and Herzog, along with the lines' usual goodies. Not too shabby. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Biography
A literary giant, Saul Bellow loomed large over writers attempting the Great American Novel, since many would argue that he has already achieved this feat at least once over. He was considered a foremost chronicler of the Jewish-American post-war experience, but the "human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture that are combined in his work" are what won him the Nobel, and helped him transcend cultural and national borders.
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