Love in the Ruins (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Walker Percy
- First Published: 1971
- Type of Work: Novel
- Genres: Long fiction, Science fiction, Satire
- Subjects: Race, South or Southerners, Twentieth century, Revolutions, Future, 1980’s, Good and evil, Wit or humor, Faustian bargains, Existentialism, Catholics or Catholic Church, Suburban life, Civil wars, Psychiatry or psychiatrists, Louisiana
- Locales: Louisiana
Offered as a tongue-in-cheek, pre-holocaust tale, Love in the Ruins is subtitled The Adventures of a Bad Catholic at a Time Near the End of the World. Its protagonist and narrator, Dr. Tom More, is named for the famous sixteenth century saint who authored Utopia (1516). More is a rueful psychologist who has developed an instrument for research which he calls the “lapsometer.” The lapsometer is a device that measures certain psychic forces in the brain and thereby makes it possible to determine the source of irrationality, which for Percy is characterized by one...
[The entire page is 1427 words long]
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