Books by Saul Bellow

'I think it A Work of genius, I think it The Work of a Genius' John CheeverFor many years, the great poet Von Humboldt Fleisher and Charlie Citrine, a young man inflamed with a love for literature, were the best of friends. At the time of his death, however, Humboldt is a failure, and Charlie's life has reached a low point: 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.

Bellow evokes all the rich colour and exotic customs of a highly imaginary Africa in this comic novel about a middle-aged American millionaire who, seeking a new, more rewarding life, descends upon an African tribe. Henderson's awesome feats of strength and his unbridled passion for life earns him the admiration of the tribe - but it is his gift for making rain that turns him from mere hero into messiah. A hilarious, often ribald story, HENDERSON THE RAIN KING is also a profound look at the forces that drive a man through life.

In these collection of nonfiction essays Bellow demonstrated his vigilance of and loyalty to his country over a span of 45 years.

Kenneth Trachtenberg, the witty and eccentric narrator of More Die ofHeartbreak, has left his native Paris for the Midwest. He has come to benear his beloved uncle, the world-renowned botanist Benn Crader, self-described "e;plant visionary."e; While his studies take him around the world, Benn, a restless spirit, has not been able to satisfy his longings after his first marriage and lives from affair to affair and from "e;bliss to breakdown."e; Imagining that a settled existence will end his anguish, Benn ties the knot again, opening the door to a flood of new torments. As Kenneth grapples with his own problems involving his unusual lady-friend Treckie, the two men try to figure out why gifted and intelligent people invariably find themselves "e;knee-deep in the garbage of a personal life."e;

Expecting to be inducted into the army, Joseph has given up his job and carefully prepared for his departure to the battlefront. When a series of mix-ups delays his induction, he finds himself facing a year of idleness. Dangling Man is his journal, a wonderful account of his restless wanderings through Chicago's streets, his musings on the past, his psychological reaction to his inactivity while war rages around him, and his uneasy insights into the nature of freedom and choice.

This is the definitive collection of short stories by Saul Bellow. Abundant, precise, various, rich and exuberant, the stories display the stylistic and emotional brilliance which characterizes this master of prose. Some stories recount the events of a single day, some are contained in a wider frame; each story is a characteristic combination of observation and a celebration of humanity.

In the mid-1970s, Saul Bellow visited Israel and To Jerusalem and Back is his account of his time there. Immersing himself in its landscape and culture, he records the opinions, passions and dreams of Israelis of varying viewpoints from Prime Minister Rabin, novelist Amos Oz and the editor of an Arab-language newspaper to a kibbutznik escaped from the Warsaw ghetto and the barber at Bellow s hotel. Through meditations steeped in history and literature he adds his own reflections on being Jewish in the twentieth century. Bellow s exploration of a beautiful and troubled city is a powerful testament to the unique spirit and challenges of Israel, its history and its future.

Dean Corde is a man of position and authority at a Chicago university. He accompanies his wife to Bucharest where her mother, a celebrated figure, lies dying in a state hospital. As he tries to help her grapple with an unfeeling bureaucracy, news filters through to him of problems left behind in Chicago. A student had been been murdered and Corde had directed that charges be pressed against two black youths, but controversy and pressure are mounting against the university administration. Further, a series of articles written by Corde has offended influential Chicagoans whom he had counted as friends. Corde is troubled: at home the centre is not holding firm, in Eastern Europe authority is cruel and dehumanising.

Abe Ravelstein is a brilliant professor at a prominent midwestern university and a man who glories in training the movers and shakers of the political world. He has lived grandly and ferociously-and much beyond his means. His close friend Chick has suggested that he put forth a book of his convictions about the ideas which sustain humankind, or kill it, and much to Ravelstein's own surprise, he does and becomes a millionaire. Ravelstein suggests in turn that Chick write a memoir or a life of him, and during the course of a celebratory trip to Paris the two share thoughts on mortality, philosophy and history, loves and friends, old and new, and vaudeville routines from the remote past. The mood turns more somber once they have returned to the Midwest and Ravelstein succumbs to AIDS and Chick himself nearly dies.

The story behind The Actual belongs to Harry Trellman, an aging, astute businessman who has never belonged anywhere.

Leventhal is a natural victim; a man uncertain of himself, never free from the nagging suspicion that the other guy may be right. So when he meets a down-at-heel stranger in the park one day and finds himself being accused of ruining the man's life, he half believes it. He can't shake the man loose, can't stop himself becoming trapped in a mire of self doubt, can't help becoming ... a victim.

Mr. Artur Sammler, Holocaust survivor, intellectual, and occasional lecturer at Columbia University in 1960s New York City, is a "e;registrar of madness,"e; a refined and civilized being caught among people crazy with the promises of the future (moon landings, endless possibilities). His Cyclopean gaze reflects on the degradations of city life while looking deep into the sufferings of the human soul. "e;Sorry for all and sore at heart,"e; he observes how greater luxury and leisure have only led to more human suffering. To Mr. Sammler-who by the end of this ferociously unsentimental novel has found the compassionate consciousness necessary to bridge the gap between himself and his fellow beings-a good life is one in which a person does what is "e;required of him."e; To know and to meet the "e;terms of the contract"e; was as true a life as one could live.

The fictional autobiography of a rumbustious adventurer and poker-player who sets off his native Chicago in the spirit of a latter-day Columbus to rediscover the world-and more especially, twentieth-century America.

Saul Bellow's Herzog is part confessional, part exorcism, and a wholly unique achievement in postmodern fiction. Is Moses Herzog losing his mind? His formidable wife Madeleine has left him for his best friend, and Herzog is left alone with his whirling thoughts - yet he still sees himself as a survivor, raging against private disasters and the myriad catastrophes of the modern age. In a crumbling house which he shares with rats, his head buzzing with ideas, he writes frantic, unsent letters to friends and enemies, colleagues and famous people, the living and the dead, revealing the spectacular workings of his labyrinthine mind and the innermost secrets of his troubled heart.This Penguin Modern Classics edition includes an introduction by Malcolm Bradbury'Spectacular ... surely Bellow's greatest novel'Malcolm Bradbury'A masterpiece ... Herzog's voice, for all its wildness and strangeness and foolishness, is the voice of a civilization, our civilization'The New York Times Book Review

'The Adventures of Augie March is the Great American Novel. Search no further' Martin AmisA penniless and parentless Chicago boy growing up in the Great Depression, Augie March drifts through life latching on to a wild succession of occupations, including butler, thief, dog-washer, sailor and salesman. He is a 'born recruit', easily influenced by others who try to mould his destiny. Not until he tangles with the glamorous Thea, a huntress with a trained eagle, can he attempt to break free. A modern day everyman on an odyssey in search of reality and identity, Augie March is the star of star performer in a richly observed human variety show, a modern-day Columbus in search of reality and fulfilment.The Adventures of Augie March includes an introduction by Christopher Hitchens in Penguin Modern Classics.'Funny, poignant, crowded with carnivalesque types and yet narrated by a voice that is lonely and simple, it is Bellow's fat comic masterpiece' Observer

Fading charmer, Tommy Wilhelm has reached his day of reckoning and is scared. In his forties, he still retains a boyish impetuousness that has brought him to the brink of chaos: he is separated from his wife and children, at odds with his vain, successful father, failed in his acting career, and in a financial mess.

Harry Fonstein blev reddet ud af nazi-Europa under 2. verdenskrig, og lederen af redningsaktionen var tilsyneladende den kendte Broadway-producer Billy Rose. Men da Fonstein vil takke sin redningsmand, nægter denne pure at mødes med ham og forsvinder. Rose er dog en vigtig brik i Fonsteins historie og grundlaget for hans selvforståelse, som er i fare for at falde fra hinanden. Så hvorfor vil denne Billy Rose ikke mødes med ham? Og hvem er han egentlig?Den canadisk-amerikanske forfatter Saul Bellow (1915-2005) regnes blandt de største amerikanske forfattere efter 2. verdenskrig. Saul Bellow har været professor ved flere prominente amerikanske universiteter og har vundet mange prestigefulde priser for sine samfundskritiske romaner – heriblandt Nobelprisen i litteratur i 1976.

Den velbegavede newyorkerkvinde Clara Velde er succesrig modejournalist, men bag sit sofistikerede ydre er hun en lidt naiv pige fra landet med hang til romantik. Hun har i flere år dyrket forholdet til akademikeren Teddy Regler, der har foræret hende en værdifuld ring som pant på deres kærlighed. Da ringen en dag forsvinder, anklager Clara den østrigske au-pair-pige, som hun mener omgås nogle lidt uheldige, halvkriminelle typer. Forholdet mellem den amerikanske livsstil og den europæiske dannelse må stå sin prøve, og Clara må sande, at hun ikke er helt så moderne, som hun ønsker at fremstå.Den canadisk-amerikanske forfatter Saul Bellow (1915-2005) regnes blandt de største amerikanske forfattere efter 2. verdenskrig. Saul Bellow har været professor ved flere prominente amerikanske universiteter og har vundet mange prestigefulde priser for sine samfundskritiske romaner – heriblandt Nobelprisen i litteratur i 1976.

Albert Corde er rejst til Bukarest i Rumænien med sin kone Minna, hvis mor ligger for døden. Hjemme i Chicago er han professor i journalistik og dekan ved universitetet, men blandt Minnas familiemedlemmer i Bukarest får han øjnene op for en helt anden kultur og nogle helt andre normer, end han er vant til. Det tvinger ham til at tænke grundigt over forholdet til det samfund, han selv kommer fra, og de normer, der findes der.Den canadisk-amerikanske forfatter Saul Bellow (1915-2005) regnes blandt de største amerikanske forfattere efter 2. verdenskrig. Saul Bellow har været professor ved flere prominente amerikanske universiteter og har vundet mange prestigefulde priser for sine samfundskritiske romaner – heriblandt Nobelprisen i litteratur i 1976."… et imponerende værk af en af vore største nulevende forfattere." – Paul Levine, Politiken

Charlie Citrine, en succesrig, midaldrende forfatter fra Chicago, forsøger forgæves at få styr på sit mere og mere indviklede liv. Både kone og elskerinde stiller store krav, og samtidig har den pengefikserede gangster Rinaldo Cantabile udset sig Citrine som sin nye bedste ven.I baggrunden af fortællingen står hele tiden Citrines afdøde ven og kollega Humboldt, som insisterede på den kunstneriske integritet, men døde uforløst. Citrine har arvet hans litterære efterladenskaber, og det får meget store økonomiske konsekvenser."Humboldts gave" indbragte Saul Bellow Pulitzerprisen i 1976 og var med til at sikre ham Nobelprisen i litteratur senere samme år.Den canadisk-amerikanske forfatter Saul Bellow (1915-2005) regnes blandt de største amerikanske forfattere efter 2. verdenskrig. Saul Bellow har været professor ved flere prominente amerikanske universiteter og har vundet mange prestigefulde priser for sine samfundskritiske romaner – heriblandt Nobelprisen i litteratur i 1976.

Den 47-årige jødisk-amerikanske litteraturprofessor Moses Herzogs liv bryder sammen, da han opdager, at hans kone og hans bedste ven har en affære. I hovedet begynder han at skrive breve til venner, familie og forskellige berømtheder. Breve, han aldrig sender, men som alle udtrykker skuffelse med modtageren eller undskylder for den skuffelse, han selv har været for andre."Herzog" regnes som et af Saul Bellows hovedværker. Romanen blev til som en slags hævn over Bellows anden kone og hans bedste ven, der bedrog ham.Den canadisk-amerikanske forfatter Saul Bellow (1915-2005) regnes blandt de største amerikanske forfattere efter 2. verdenskrig. Saul Bellow har været professor ved flere prominente amerikanske universiteter og har vundet mange prestigefulde priser for sine samfundskritiske romaner – heriblandt Nobelprisen i litteratur i 1976.

Fem længere, tragikomiske noveller fra forfatter Saul Bellows hjemby, Chicago. Novellerne stiller skarpt på en række karakterer akkurat som de oplever en form for opvågnen midt i deres kaotiske hverdag. Med en øget bevidsthed kommer også tvivlen og lysten til handling. Spørgsmålet er blot, om det altid er en god idé? Indhold"Ham med foden i spinaten""Hvordan er dagen gået for jer?""Zetland""af et karaktervidne""Et sølvfad""Fætre og kusiner"Den canadisk-amerikanske forfatter Saul Bellows (1915-2005) regnes blandt de største amerikanske forfattere efter 2. verdenskrig. Saul Bellows har været professor ved flere prominente amerikanske universiteter og har vundet mange prestigiøse priser for sine samfundskritiske romaner.

Seks noveller af den kritikerroste forfatter Saul Bellows. "Det gule hus""Det gamle system""På jagt efter Mr. Green""Gonzaga-manuskripterne""En vordene far""Mosbys erindringer" "Mr. Willis Mosby sad efter sin siesta og så ned ad bjerget, ned mod byen Oaxaca, hvor alle stadig lå og snuede med åben mund, rumpen bagud eller i vejret og langt sort indianerhår. Den antikke skønhed, fotografisk besunget af Eisenstein i filmen "Torden over Mexico". Mr. Mosby – strengt taget dr. Mosby, lærd, måske ligefrem dybsindig; havde tænkt meget, udrettet meget – havde begået nogle af de mest interessante fejltagelser, et menneske havde mulighed for i det tyvende århundrede. Nu opholdt han sig i Oaxaca for at skrive sine erindringer."Den canadisk-amerikanske forfatter Saul Bellows (1915-2005) regnes blandt de største amerikanske forfattere efter 2. verdenskrig. Saul Bellows har været professor ved flere prominente amerikanske universiteter og har vundet mange prestigefyldt priser for sine samfundskritiske romaner.