The Victim (Masterplots, Revised Second Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Saul Bellow
- First Published: 1947
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Modernist
- Time of Work: Several weeks during a hot summer in the 1940’s
- Setting: New York City
- Principal Characters: Asa Leventhal, Mary, Max, Elena, Philip, Mickey, Kirby Allbee, Daniel Harkavy, Stan Williston
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: New York, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., United States or Americans, New York City, 1940’s, Guilt, Poverty or poor people, Mental illness, Fear, Adultery, Loneliness, Paranoia, Neuroses, Summer
- Locales: New York, NY
Like all good fiction, the novels of Saul Bellow are founded upon solidity of character and authenticity of event. This is not to say that they are always realistic; obviously the Africa of HENDERSON THE RAIN KING is to be found nowhere beyond the boundaries of Bellow’s imagination. The people, places, and events in these novels, however, have an intensity of presence that forces them upon the reader’s senses and causes them to lodge in his memory. Despite the elements of fantasy, the peculiar twists of character, the disquieting failures of modulation (the excessive...
[The entire page is 1601 words long]
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