Pifer contends that Bellow's fiction is fundamentally radical. Going against the grain of contemporary culture and its secular pieties, he undermines accepted notions of reality and challenges the "orthodoxies" created by materialist values and rationalist thought. Charged by his belief in the soul, his 10 novels test the assumptions of traditional realism. Pifer stresses the importance to Bellow of the invisible world, the longing for revelation, and the capacity to love and to suffer. She also shows how Bellow's hero is a man torn between his modern predilection for secular rationalism and a primordial attachment to the soul, and how he is led to demolish reigning idols of contemporary thought and culture. ISBN 0-8122-8203-5: $29.95.

In More Die of Heartbreak, our erratic narrator explains to his audience that he must abandon Paris for the Midwest. Of course, Kenneth merely wants to be closer to his beloved uncle, the world-famous botanist Benn Crader, to receive the older man’s worldly wisdom. The mercurial Benn, however, struggles to put down roots himself, constantly departing for the forests of India, the mountains of China, the jungles of Brazil, or even the Antarctic. Why does he travel so much? Submerging himself in botanical studies seem insufficient, and he hunts relentlessly for more carnal satisfaction. More Die of Heartbreak has all the humor of a French farce, and all the brooding darkness of a Hitchcock film. From this tragicomedy Bellow unravels a brilliant and sinister examination of contemporary sexuality, asking why even the most noble pursuits often end in mundane disillusionment.

This book demonstrates the complexity of Bellow's work by emphasizing the ways in which it reflects the changing conditions of American identity.

Professor Leader marks the centenary of Bellow's birth with an account of the novelist's life. The biography will be published in two volumes.

A three-time National Book Award for Fiction winner, Saul Bellow (1915-2005) is one of the most highly regarded American authors to emerge since World War II. His 60-year career produced 14 novels and novellas, two volumes of nonfiction, short story collections, plays and a book of collected letters. His 1953 breakthrough novel The Adventures of Augie March was followed by Seize the Day (1956), Herzog (1964) and Mr. Sammler's Planet (1970). His Humboldt's Gift won a Pulitzer Prize in 1976 and contributed to his receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature that year. This literary companion provides more than 200 entries about his works, literary characters, events and persons in his life. Also included are an introduction and overview of Bellow's life, statements made by him during interviews, suggestions for writing and further study and an extensive bibliography.

The Book Presents In Brief A Critical Study Of Saul Bellow S Vision Of Woman In General. As The Novelist Has Presented A Variety Of Women Having Contradictory Traits, Any Attempt At Flat Generalisation Has Been Considered Forbidding. In Spite Of His Jewish Lineage And Specific Jewish Themes, Saul Bellow Has Established Himself As A Humanistic And Conscientious American Novelist. Hence, Such Conception, As Popular In Jewish Tradition, That His Woman Characters Must Occupy A Subordinate Place And Their Freedom Of Mind Shall Be Restricted, Seems To Be Futile. Far From Being Misogynous As It Is Sometimes Alleged By A Few Critics, His Vision Of Woman Appears To Be Balanced, Objective And Free From Personal Prejudice.The Book Is A Valuable Study On Nobel Laureate Saul Bellow, And All Those Who Admire His Works Would Find It Interesting And Useful As It Will Enable Them To See His Characters From A Different Perspective. Students And Also The Teachers Of English Literature Will Find It Highly Informative.