Humboldt's Gift | Critical Overview

Humboldt’s Gift is filled with references to literature and philosophy and, on the whole, focuses more on thinking than on action. Although Humboldt’s Gift took the Pulitzer Prize in 1976, critics have given it mixed reviews. Anatole Broyard, writing for the New York Times, gives a tepid review:

While the random contents of Saul Bellow’s mind make better reading than most novels, they do not make for a good novel in this case because they are not integrated into the action, such as it is.

Richard Gilman, in a more...

[The entire page is 263 words long]

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass

Summary and Analysis – Themes – Characters – And much more...