Close Modal
Wish List 0 Wish List 0
Download high-resolution image Look inside

Mr. Sammler's Planet

Author Saul Bellow
Introduction by Stanley Crouch
Look inside
Paperback
$17.00 US
Penguin Adult HC/TR | Penguin Classics
5.14"W x 7.73"H x 0.63"D   | 8 oz | 68 per carton
On sale Jan 06, 2004 | 288 Pages | 9780142437834
Add to cart Add to list Exam Copies
Winner of the National Book Award in Fiction

“An enduring testament and prophecy.” —Chicago Sun-Times

A Penguin Classic

Mr. Artur Sammler, Holocaust survivor, intellectual, and occasional lecturer at Columbia University in 1960s New York City, is a “registrar of madness,” 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.  “Sorry for all and sore at heart,” 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 “required of him.” To know and to meet the “terms of the contract” was as true a life as one could live. At its heart, this novel is quintessential Bellow: moral, urbane, sublimely humane.

This Penguin Classics edition features an introduction by Stanley Crouch.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
By the Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

“Dazzling . . . [Bellow’s] entertaining and provocative howl of rage is a tour de force of disillusionment and disgust at the descent from high culture to barbarism.” —TheArticle

“The most important writer in English in the second half of the twentieth century . . . Bellow’s oeuvre is both timeless and ruthlessly contemporary.” —Sunday Times (London)
Saul Bellow was born of Russian Jewish parents in Lachine, Quebec, in 1915, and was raised in Chicago. He received his bachelor's degree from Northwestern University in 1937. His novel The Adventures of Augie March won the National Book Award for fiction in 1954. His further awards include the Pulitzer Prize for Humboldt's Gift (1975); the International Literary Prize for Herzog, for which he became the first American recipient; and the Croix de Chevalier des Arts et Lettres, the highest literary distinction awarded by France to non-citizens. In 1976, Bellow was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. View titles by Saul Bellow

About

Winner of the National Book Award in Fiction

“An enduring testament and prophecy.” —Chicago Sun-Times

A Penguin Classic

Mr. Artur Sammler, Holocaust survivor, intellectual, and occasional lecturer at Columbia University in 1960s New York City, is a “registrar of madness,” 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.  “Sorry for all and sore at heart,” 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 “required of him.” To know and to meet the “terms of the contract” was as true a life as one could live. At its heart, this novel is quintessential Bellow: moral, urbane, sublimely humane.

This Penguin Classics edition features an introduction by Stanley Crouch.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Praise

By the Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

“Dazzling . . . [Bellow’s] entertaining and provocative howl of rage is a tour de force of disillusionment and disgust at the descent from high culture to barbarism.” —TheArticle

“The most important writer in English in the second half of the twentieth century . . . Bellow’s oeuvre is both timeless and ruthlessly contemporary.” —Sunday Times (London)

Author

Saul Bellow was born of Russian Jewish parents in Lachine, Quebec, in 1915, and was raised in Chicago. He received his bachelor's degree from Northwestern University in 1937. His novel The Adventures of Augie March won the National Book Award for fiction in 1954. His further awards include the Pulitzer Prize for Humboldt's Gift (1975); the International Literary Prize for Herzog, for which he became the first American recipient; and the Croix de Chevalier des Arts et Lettres, the highest literary distinction awarded by France to non-citizens. In 1976, Bellow was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. View titles by Saul Bellow

Other Books by this Author

Privacy Policy   |   Terms of Use

© 2024 Penguin Random House

Back to Top
0
    • 0
    Wish List (0)