Saul Bellow

This volume presents a wide-ranging selection of essays on Saul Bellow's fiction. The essays employ a variety of literary approaches, and all of the full-length novels and two of the most important novellas are discussed at length. In addition to his novels and important novellas, this volume addresses Bellow's best collection of shorter works, Him with His Food in His Mouth and Other Stories. Other essays examine Bellow's most anthologized early story, "Looking for Mr. Green" (1951), and the one of his best stories of the latter part of his career, the elegiac "Something to Remember Me By" (1990). This title is divided into four 1. Career, Life, and Influence This first section consists of a short biographical sketch of Bellow's life and an introduction to Bellow's work. 2. Critical Contexts Presented are four new essays commissioned specifically for this book by distinguished Bellow critics. 3. Critical Readings This third section of the text includes 14 reprinted essays that not only offer provocative and thoughtful readings of the major texts but also collectively reflect the history of criticism on Bellow's work. These are organized chronologically by the novels that they examine, from Dangling Man (1944) to Revelstein (2000). Each essay is 2,500-5,000 words in length, and all essays conclude with a list of "works Cited" along with endnotes.