The Dean’s December (Masterplots II: American Fiction Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Saul Bellow
- First Published: 1982
- Type of Plot: Comic realism
- Time of Work: Approximately the 1970’s
- Setting: Bucharest, Chicago, and California
- Principal Characters: Albert Corde, Minna, Valeria Raresh, Elfrida Zaehner, Mason Zaehner, Sr., Mason Zaehner, Jr., Alec Witt, Dewey Spangler
- Genres: Long fiction, Problem novel
- Subjects: Teaching or teachers, 1970’s, North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, Journalism or journalists, Communism or communists, Chicago, California, West, U.S., Death or dying, Eastern Europe or eastern Europeans
- Locales: California, Chicago, IL, Bucharest, Romania
The Novel
Most of The Dean’s December takes place in Rumania; only the last thirty pages are set in the United States, and these are divided between Chicago and California. At the opening of the novel, Albert Corde and his wife, Minna, have just arrived in Bucharest, where Valeria, Minna’s mother, is dying. They have come—in December—to be with her during the last days of her life. The bulk of the novel describes these last days and the efforts by Corde and Minna to communicate with Valeria. She is partially paralyzed and in intensive care; they want to be with...
[The entire page is 2488 words long]
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