Book Description
The stunning, classic coming-of-age novel written by one of America's foremost Southern writers
A legendary author on par with William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor, Thomas Wolfe published Look Homeward, Angel, his first novel, about a young man's burning desire to leave his small town and tumultuous family in search of a better life, in 1929. It gave the world proof of his genius and launched a powerful legacy.
The novel follows the trajectory of Eugene Gant, a brilliant and restless young man whose
wanderlust and passion shape his adolescent years in rural North Carolina. Wolfe said that
Look Homeward, Angel is "a book made out of my life," and his largely autobiographical story about the quest for a greater intellectual life has resonated with and influenced generations of readers, including some of today's most important novelists. Rich with lyrical prose and vivid characterizations, this twentieth-century American classic will capture the hearts and imaginations of every reader.
Customer Reviews:
A tour de force of pure emotion.......2007-10-07
Thomas Wolfe reminds me of the eager kid who was smarter than the rest, surging ahead for pure love of learning and life itself. This transcendental outlook pervades this meandering story which in lesser hands would become saccharine, but veers away from that precipice with carefully constructed characters who are not cut-outs used in the puppet show of stories with a "moral," but these vivid, living, breathing pieces of life that resemble others we have all known.
While the subject matter is romantic to its core in that it combines a knowledge of mortality with a sweet delight in life, between the lines there is a fine-tuned observation of America as a culture of personalities. Wolfe understands the struggles of people both average and exceptional and winds these together to show the common path they are threading as they attempt to understand themselves, so they can appreciate life.
Thomas Wolfe described himself as a "putter-inner" and in this book that might be initially viewed as a problem, since it spills from its pages even after extensive editing with gloriously rich language and a wealth of detail. After the first 100 pages however I stopped caring about this attribute, because my bias against it came from lesser authors who blurt out everything but the kitchen sink in an attempt to appear smarter than they are. Wolfe just delights in the details of life and the subplots that associate a character's journey through it.
I recommend this book most heartily for parents of confused teens. It does not fail to show the shortcomings of our world, our species, and our nation, but it awakens our inner emotional strength that forms the want to overcome those. It does not preach morality, but it shows us the value of our time and from that a moral outlook, since when we care about our time we become more discerning. It took my breath away in its audacity to do the unthinkable, and sing a song of life the imperfect beautiful, and never to back down from that vision of poignant, transient glory.
Look Homeward, Angel - Review .......2007-02-07
Wolfe was gifted in prose, modeled his writing after great authors of his time, the prose apparently a priority over literary genius, which we think of as a gift of words exercised in the service of something huge, like compassion, truth, beauty or human potential--something that uplifts or encourages, something larger than one's self. Except for the racism, which the author was ignorant of--and we must keep in mind this was written about three quarters of a century ago--this is an accomplished novel for its time. Many authors use the novel format to lament the cruel injustices that happened to them. His father, Oliver had just met his future wife's family. "And as they sat there in the hot little room with its warm odor of mellowing apples, the vast winds howled down from the hills, there was a roaring in the pines, remote and demented, the bare boughs clashed. And as they peeled, or pared, or whittled, their talk slid from its rude jocularity to death and burial: they drawled monotonously, with evil hunger, their gossip of destiny, and of men but newly lain in the earth." This is American realism as it came to prominence between the World Wars, a movement that attempted to shake loose from the tradition. Look Homeward, Angel concerns the history of Eugene Gant, actually Wolfe himself, from a few years before his birth in North Carolina to his departure for graduate school at Harvard University. Learning to deal with an alcoholic father and warped mother, and older siblings, he explores the town from its wealthiest mansions to it most degraded poverty and racism, shows promise in school, reads incessantly and plots himself the drama king that is his life. He falls in love, attends college, and after struggling finds a place of prominence for himself there. Eugene's melodramatic account of his love for a boarder in his mother's hotel takes on Shakespearian quality. He comes home, loses a favorite brother to tuberculosis and discovers the comforts of alcohol himself. He confronts his family's collective idiosyncrasies and leaves heading North, harboring the conviction that no one has ever suffered like this before. Maybe he realized that his experiences are universal, but he has the rare ability to dramatize the story. ..."But , amid the fumbling march of races to extinction, the giant rhythms of the earth remained. The seasons passed in their majestic processionals, and germinal Spring returned forever on the land--new crops, new men, new harvests, and new gods." His descriptions are vivid and his sensuality overwhelming. This is the effect of his prose.
Trish New, author of The Thrill of Hope and South State Street Journal.
Wolfe throws away the map, then complains of being lost.......2006-09-19
This book is a self-indulgent wallow in the mire of despair. Wolfe starts with the supposition that "our earliest ancestors. . . crawled out of the primeval slime," that God is "an unwitting spirit" in "remote eternity," and consequently that prayer is useless and the earth is forgotten, and then whines when he is left with the natural conclusions of a godless world view: that life is accidental, without meaning and without hope. The characters fumble around, looking for salvation in "a stone, a leaf, an unfound door," (tragically rejecting the Way, the Truth, and the Life) only to find at last that there is no point in looking for salvation at all, since "There is no happy land. There is no end to hunger," "YOU are your world." This book is unorthodox, unwholesome, and unhealthy. Avoid it for your own good.
You Can Read Wolfe Again.......2006-04-18
I was much taken with LOOK HOMEWARD, ANGEL when I read it as a young man, particularly the chapter on the death of Ben Gant. It was one of the most moving things I had read at the time and I never forgot it. With more years behind me than in front of me, I was curious to see what effect this novel would have on me on a rereading. I found this tome this time to be long, wordy, at times bombastic, with far too many "O Lost's." Mr. Wolfe never misses an opportunity to do long lists, often sounding like Walt Whitman on a bad day. And why on earth would he name Chapel Hill, North Carolina "Pulpit Hill" in the novel?
On the other hand, sometimes Wolfe writes pure poetry; and the novel pulses with life. He has captured a town (Asheville, North Carolina early in the 20th Century) with all its prejudices, idiosyncrasies but hopes as well and has created a family we will never forgot, the Gants. Anyone who knows anything about Thomas Wolfe understands that they are a thinly veiled version of his own family: the bigger-than-life patriarch of the family Gant who has bouts with the bottle; his wife Eliza, obsessed with making a dime at whatever cost; and their children-- Daisy, Helen, the sailor Luke, the twins Grover and Ben and Eugene, based on Wolfe, himself. These characters are as much of the literary history of the United States as Willie Loman, Rabbit Angstrom, the Compson family et al.
Yes, Wolfe's account of the death of Ben Gant at the age of 26 of double pneumonia will tear your heart out. After the Gant family members have spent excruciating days at his deathbed, Eugene has this beautiful words: "We can believe in the nothingness of life, we can believe in the nothingness of death and of life after death--but who can believe in the nothingness of Ben? Like Apollo, who did his penance to the high god in the sad house of King Admetus, he came, a god with broken feet, into the gray hovel of this world. And he lived here a stranger, trying to recapture the music of the lost world, trying to recall the great forgotten language, the lost faces, the stone, the leaf, the door."
LOOK HOMEWARD, ANGEL, for all its shortcomings, remains an American classic.
Still, After All These Years, a Classic.......2006-01-18
Few writers can coin a phrase or capture a mood or feeling like Thomas Wolfe could. This is never more evident than in "Look Homeward, Angel." After all these years, still a classic, well worth reading for the first time or for another time. His ability to capture mood, colors, feelings and emotions in the depths of the human heart and soul, in and out of family relationships, is remarkable, as is the agelessness of the story. A timeless story of personal growth, coming of age and family dynamics. Well worth the read.
Average customer rating:
- one of the english language's top ten!
- This is THE great American Novel
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Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward Angel and of Time and the River
Thomas Wolfe
Manufacturer: Monarch Press
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ASIN: 0671007025 |
Customer Reviews:
one of the english language's top ten!.......1997-02-12
this book will really make you think about yourself as an american man. i am a 25 year old man who lives just 6 blocks from the "Dixieland" of Thomas Wolfe's childhood and his work can truly be a remarkable thing to read while you are sitting in the surroundings of the novels "Look Homeward, Angel" and "Of Time and the River". It is very surreal because his prose is like poetry which perfectly captures this little spot of america. i love mr. wolfe and will be reading him when i drop dead!!
This is THE great American Novel.......1996-08-28
Thomas Wolfe, never at a loss for words; in fact in
he has used the entire English language to evoke what is now the lost soul of The American Male. Melancholia bathes the pages and streams into the heart of the reader, urging one on to find the forgotten spirit which blessed America before this country succumbed to its death of Soul in the latter half of the twentieth century. This is The novel, and Thomas Wolfe The writer of America's heart and soul
Product Description
The first edition of the first book that Thomas Wolfe ever published. Look Homeward, Angel is an elaborate and moving coming-of-age story about Eugene Gant, a restless and energetic character whose passion to experience life takes him from his small, rural hometown in North Carolina to Harvard University and the city of Boston. The novel's pattern is artfully simple -- a small town, a large family, high school and college -- yet the characters are
monumental in their graphic ndividuality
and personality.
Through his rich, ornate prose, Wolfe evokes the extraordinarily vivid family of the Gants, and with equal detail, the remarkable peculiarities of small-town life and the pain and upheaval of a boy who must leave both. A classic work of American literature, Look Homeward, Angel is a passionate and
unforgettable novel.
Average customer rating:
- A Godsend For All Book Lovers!
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The Autobiographical Outline for Look Homeward, Angel (Southern Literary Studies)
Thomas Wolfe
Manufacturer: Louisiana State University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0807129410 |
Book Description
Readers of Thomas Wolfe's Autobiographical Outline will better understand how his first and most widely read novel, Look Homeward, Angel, came into being. Superbly edited and annotated by Lucy Conniff and Richard Kennedy, this vibrant document records a young writer's determination to forge art from the details of his life, providing an unparalleled view of a novelist's mind at work. "Everything I write is immensely flavored with me," Wolfe stated. "The look about me will be transmuted and recreated in writing."
Wolfe's sprawling talent and his fascination with psychoanalysis are reflected here in the quick images, free associations, sudden plunges into feelings, and charged energy the editors aptly call the "brushfire" of his talent. His nakedly honest reminiscences of self, family, friends, and townspeople prefigure the lyric intensity of his best work. Wolfe begins with his conception and birth and goes on to describe first impressions of home, his growing acquaintance with language, school experiences, his sometimes explosive father and neglectful mother, his college years, and finally graduate study of the Romantic poets and play writing. He makes a climatic discovery about his creative life as he notes the Harvard years, locating the principal theme for his novel and the symbol to express it—"the unfound door."
With their inclusion of an introduction, notes, a bibliography, a chronology of events, and nine rarely seen photos, Conniff and Kennedy have assembled an exceptional work. Wolfe was an intensely autobiographical writer, and his Outline allows readers to see how random jottings evolved into the story of Eugene Gant growing up in Altamont, North Carolina, at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Customer Reviews:
A Godsend For All Book Lovers!.......2004-07-15
I was given this volume as a gift on my last birthday. The presenter knew that "Look Homeward Angel" was in my "Top 5" favorite novels. I sat down to read and did not get up until I had turned the last page.
This is a fascinating book and a tribute not only to Thomas Wolfe, but to the two scholars who have delved so deeply into his life and art. I wish that all great autobiographical novels would recieve this kind of treatment. A novel as great and rich as "Look Homeward Angel" has finally come full circle in this tremendouse companion.
Product Description
Comedy-Drama. Ketti Frings, from the novel by Thomas Wolfe. 10 m., 8 f. 2 exts. w. inset. An authentic American classic, this powerful and vital play captures the sardonic humor and the grief, both private and universal, of Wolfes novel about a youth coming of age. Concentrating on the last third of Wolfes story, the play vividly portrays Eugene Gant, his mother who is obsessed by her material holdings and who maintains barriers against the love of her family, the fathera stonecutter imprisoned by his failures, and the brother who never breaks away. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the New York Critics award as best play of the season. Liist price $6.25. (Royalty, $50-$40 from Samuel French) Slightly Restricted.
Average customer rating:
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Look Homeward Angel (Literary Masterpieces Study Guide)
Terry Roberts
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
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Binding: Hardcover
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Look Homeward, Angel
ASIN: 0787657263 |
Customer Reviews:
Look Homeward Angel.......1999-12-07
I think that this was an excellent book and a lot of people would enjoy it if they would take the time to read it. I enjoy all of the information that she gave. And even more the borders were what kept me reading the book.
Average customer rating:
- Shedding the Masks
- Word cannot explain the wonders of thsi book
- The Knight in Rusty Armor
- The Jnight in Rusty Armor
- Life is a Journey
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The Knight in Rusty Armor
Robert Fisher
Manufacturer: Wilshire Book Company
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ASIN: 0879804211 |
Customer Reviews:
Shedding the Masks.......2007-07-02
I give most of my clients a copy of the Knight in Rusty Armor early on in our meeting schedule. I feel it helps people to start to shed, or at least understand, their protective masks. Eighty percent of my clients tell me that it was one of the more introspective and inciteful books that they've ever read. As a graphic example of shedding, one of my physician clients told me that he no longer wears a white coat when visiting patients in the hospital as he recognizes that was his way of demonstrating his authority, and to some degree to separate himself from the patient. However, there are other clients who, quite puzzled, ask me why I suggested that they read the book.
Another client read chapters of the book each night with his 7 year old son and would then discuss what each chapter meant to them. He was intrigued with the purity and incite his son had which caused him to dig a lot deeper into his own feelings.
All in all, I can't imagine very many of my clients not reading The Knight. It's a great tool for me to use and a valuable lesson for them to learn.
Phil
Executive HR Development
Word cannot explain the wonders of thsi book.......2007-03-28
I received this as a gift in the Spanish version - then later purchased it in English and read it again. It has great insight on the meaning of life and how many people get lost or caught up in the un-important and in the process they become prisoners by their own doing. Being a God believing person I personally chose to replace 3 of the main characters as follows:
Merlin = God
Rebecca = The Holy Spirit (that speaks to us)
Squirrel = a friend
Either way whether you choose to read this book - it has profound messages hidden throughout. The read is almost on a third grade level so you can share it with your children.
The Knight in Rusty Armor.......2007-01-19
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and have since given it as a gift to over a dozen people. Each person was very touched by at least one element in the story. This story is enjoyable to read and teaches many lessons without being preachy. Highly recommended!
The Jnight in Rusty Armor.......2007-01-10
This is a book that by reading it I was able to take a better look at my life and myself. I think that any one seeking to better themselves might be able to find some of the questions we look for...
Life is a Journey.......2006-10-18
What a great little book to remind us of the journeys we take in life. More importantly it reminds us to never lose sight of personal responsibility, our priorities and being present during the journey that is our life!
Book Description
Un historia que despierta la imaginación de una manera tan poderosa y conecta al lector de una forma tan profunda. El caballero de la armadura oxidada es mucho más que un libro, es una experiencia que expande nuestra mente y que nos llega al corazón.
Customer Reviews:
Wow!! It's like a movie with no image.......2007-08-12
Audiocoleccion has done it again! This audiobook excels the book in so many way. With such a great script it was easier but they really mastered the audio production. If you are a fan of audiobooks and are LEARNING SPANISH, be sure to get a hold of this one. Cheers
Femomenal!.......2003-01-30
Un libro motivador, sencillo pero con mucho que dar!
Makes you think...a lot! /Te obliga a pensar.......2000-06-15
A wonderful short book which shows you the road to self discovery, self love, self appreciation and the ability to give and receive love. Un fabuloso librito que te muestra el camino hacia tu descubrimiento personal, hacia la autoestima y hacia la capacidad de dar y recibir amor.
El caballero ..........2000-01-28
Leedlo! os gustará, no todo en la vida es conseguir cosas materiales. Los verdaderos valores los llevamos dentro, dejad que éstos afloren libremente y brindemos amor alli por donde vayamos. Entre más demos más recibiremos. Funciona! yo lo intento y tu?
Lectura para señores poderosos.......2000-01-08
este libro es de muy facil lectura, ideal para aquellos que estan siempre corriendo, buscando nuevos desafios, nuevos exitos, nuevas metas. Si eres una de esas personas que esta acostumbradas al exito, siempre quieres mas, preguntate porque no has tenido tiempo para leer un buen libro como este.....tal vez, la respuesta la encuentres en este libro.
El autor narra una historia de un caballero preso en su propia armadura, una metafora que a veces resulta un tanto infantil y obvia para referirse a un ser "poderoso" de los tiempos actuales (algo asi como un ejecutivo exitoso). Muestra como en el mundo de hoy, "la carrera por el exito" nos puede llevar a una derrota aplastante ...a perder lo mas querido y fundamental... si ha pasado mas de un mes desde que besaste con AMOR a tu mujer, despeinaste a tu hijo o jugaste con tu perro....(te acuerdas como se llama tu perro? )....lee este libro YA!....aun es tiempo
Customer Reviews:
Not very deep.......1999-10-19
The characters were not very deep. Her name was a bit tiresome. I liked the dog.
A delightful book set during a Hatteras Island tempest........1999-02-17
I enjoyed A KNIGHT IN RUSTY ARMOR, and found that I couldn't put it down. Travis and Ruanna are likeable, understandable characters thrown together in a winter storm. There is a lot of humor and warmth in this story, and I couldn't predict the surprise twist at the end. I would recommend this romance to men and women alike.
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