Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Search - Humboldt's Gift

Humboldt's Gift
Humboldt's Gift
Author: Saul Bellow
A chronicle of success and failure, this work is Bellow's tale of the writer's life in America. Charlie Citrine, suffering from steadily worsening troubles with women, career, and life in general, receives unexpected aid and comfort in the form of a belated bequest from his onetime friend and mentor, the poet Von Humboldt Fleisher.
ISBN-13: 9780140189445
ISBN-10: 0140189440
Publication Date: 6/1/1996
Pages: 487
Rating:
  • Currently 3.4/5 Stars.
 17

3.4 stars, based on 17 ratings
Publisher: Penguin Books
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio Cassette, Audio CD
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed Humboldt's Gift on + 64 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Here's what the back cover says: "Never has Saul Bellow's unsurpassed genius for creating full-blooded characters been so penetrating, so charged with exuberant vitality, as in HUMBOLDT'S GIFT. Here Renata, all-woman and then some...Rinaldo, junior-league Mafioso tough...and Charlie, living legend with a frenzied past...live out destinies complicated by the unforgettable Humboldt. And Humboldt--drinker, lover, sometimes bum, and lifetime shadow of Charlie Citrine--plots a dubious revenge for services rendered in the name of friendship."

Here's what I say: I almost never put a book down, but I got as far as pg. 110 out of 471. The characters may be full-blooded in someone's mind, but not mine. They were cartoon caricatures at best. Sorry, Mr. Bellow, this one's not my cup of tea.
reviewed Humboldt's Gift on + 51 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
This was a tough read but well worth working through. Masterful prose!
Read All 4 Book Reviews of "Humboldts Gift"


Genres: