Humboldt's Gift: A Collection of Sol and Bellow

Author: Saul Bellow
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-12-01
Features: The Gift of Harry Asher 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 on a downward slope. His ex-wife wants to drain his assets, thugs smash his Mercedes, and his current mistress is a gold-digger. Most importantly, he cannot create anything creative. He feels guilty about his down-and-out predecessor and mentor, Harry Asher, whom he had always admired. Harry had taught him the power of art and urged him to remain loyal to his creative spirit, yet he did not extend a helping hand when Harry was in poverty and illness. Later, facing both material and spiritual bankruptcy, Siegel finally overcomes his material crisis with a script outline left by Harry, while deeply experiencing the spiritual torment Harry had endured in his time.
Saul Bellow (1915–2005) was a master American novelist of the 20th century, winning the National Book Award three times and the Pulitzer Prize once. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1976 for his "human understanding and brilliant analysis of contemporary culture."
This is Bellow's sixth novel, published in 1975. The book won the Pulitzer Prize in 1976, and Bellow himself became a Nobel laureate the same year. Through the different experiences of two generations of American writers, it profoundly reveals the destruction of spiritual civilization by the material world.