Humboldt's Gift
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Penguin Putnam
Two twentieth-century literary masterpieces from the Nobel Prize winner
Saul Bellow?s Pulitzer Prize?winning novel explores the long friendship between Charlie Citrine, a young man with an intense passion for literature, and the great poet Von Humboldt Fleisher.
… More »Saul Bellow?s Pulitzer Prize?winning novel explores the long friendship between Charlie Citrine, a young man with an intense passion for literature, and the great poet Von Humboldt Fleisher.
Penguin Putnam
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Two twentieth-century literary masterpieces from the Nobel Prize winner
Saul Bellow?s Pulitzer Prize?winning novel explores the long friendship between Charlie Citrine, a young man with an intense passion for literature, and the great poet Von Humboldt Fleisher. At the time of his death, however, Humboldt is a failure, and Charlie?s life is falling apart: his career is at a standstill, and he?s enmeshed in an acrimonious divorce, infatuated with a highly unsuitable young woman, and involved with a neurotic mafioso. And then Humboldt acts from beyond the grave, bestowing upon Charlie an unexpected legacy that may just help him turn his life around.
Saul Bellow?s Pulitzer Prize?winning novel explores the long friendship between Charlie Citrine, a young man with an intense passion for literature, and the great poet Von Humboldt Fleisher. At the time of his death, however, Humboldt is a failure, and Charlie?s life is falling apart: his career is at a standstill, and he?s enmeshed in an acrimonious divorce, infatuated with a highly unsuitable young woman, and involved with a neurotic mafioso. And then Humboldt acts from beyond the grave, bestowing upon Charlie an unexpected legacy that may just help him turn his life around.
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Additional Contributors:
Imprint:
New York - Penguin Books
Pages:
494
Series:
ISBN:
9780143105473, 0143105477
Language:
English
Statement of responsibility:
Saul Bellow ; introduction by Jeffrey Eugenides
Characteristics:
xvi, 494 p. ;,20 cm.
Author (Original Script):
Bellow, Saul
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Add a CommentBeautifully written, one of the defining books of my life. Is it long-winded in parts? Yes. Are you going to learn more about "Theosophy" than you ever, ever wanted to learn? Yes. But are you going to bear witness to an author pushing the boundaries of what someone can accomplish with the English language, and do so with humor, and warmth, and intelligence? Yes. I can't abide by the fact that this novel has a two-star rating because someone criticized its "slow plot." I can understand where that person comes from because sometimes I want a book which is more plot-focused and less "literary," but come on. It's Saul Bellow. Giving this novel two-stars? Do you have any idea what it would take to write something like Humboldt's Gift? And then to give it two stars? Goodness. At least give it three? I mean, that is "above average." Surely you can give one of the greatest modern novelists an "above average" on one of his singular works. If not, why rate it at all. Why am I getting all up set about this? I don't know.
I had a tough time with this one - I felt like the story didn't really get interesting until about three-quarters of the way through. It wrapped up nicely, but in my opinion, the ending was not worth the effort of plodding through the very slow plot.