Humboldt's Gift

Author: Saul Bellow
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-12-01
Features: The Humboldt Gift is one of Bellow's most important representative works. Through the depiction of the fates of two generations of writers, it exposes the oppression and destruction of spiritual civilization by the material world, as well as the spiritual crisis of contemporary society. Charlie Siegel, a middle-aged writer who has won the Pulitzer Prize twice and been knighted by France, is in a downward spiral. His ex-wife wants to drain his assets, thugs smash his Mercedes, and his current mistress is a gold-digger. Most importantly, he can no longer create anything. He feels guilty about his down-and-out predecessor, the poet and mentor who was also his close friend, Humboldt. Humboldt once taught him the power of art and urged him to remain loyal to his creative spirit, but he failed to help him when Humboldt was impoverished and ill. Later, when facing both material and spiritual bankruptcy, Siegel finally overcomes his material crisis with a script outline left by Humboldt, while also deeply realizing the spiritual suffering Humboldt endured back then.