Henderson the Rain King
by Saul Bellow
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See Also
- Saul Bellow (Cyclopedia of World Authors, Fourth Revised Edition)
- Saul Bellow (Dictionary of World Biography: The 20th Century)
- Saul Bellow (Identities & Issues in Literature)
- Saul Bellow (Critical Survey of Long Fiction, Fourth Edition)
- Saul Bellow (Critical Survey of Short Fiction, Second Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Saul Bellow
- First Published: 1959
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Mock-heroic
- Setting: Central East Africa
- Characters: Eugene Henderson, Romilayu, Willatale, Mtalba, Itelo, Dahfu, Horko, The Bunam, Gmilo, Atti, Dahfu
- Genres: Long fiction, Picaresque fiction, Novel
- Subjects: 1950's, Self-discovery, Africa or Africans, Courage, Gods or goddesses, Identity, Millionaires, Priests, Animals, dangerous, Rain
- Locales: Africa, France, Europe, United States, Connecticut, North America
The Story:
The seeker in Saul Bellow’s fiction is no Ulysses, Hamlet, Don Quixote, Gulliver, Huck Finn, or Ishmael. He is the philosophical clown, the innocent American, and adventurous discoverer of a spiritual quest that begins with the knowledge that “man’s character is his fate” and ends with the realization that “man’s fate is his character.” Eugene Henderson is a tremendously comic figure, oversized in physique, great in his appetites, obsessed by the demands of an “I want, I want” that clamors without appeasement within him. He is fifty-five years old...
(The entire page is 2476 words.)
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