Novel
Look Homeward, Angel: A Story of the Buried Life
Thomas Wolfe · 1929
Synopsis
Oliver Gant, a stonecutter from Pennsylvania, settles in Altamont, a resort town in the mountains of North Carolina, and marries Eliza Pentland there. The father drinks; the mother buys land, then a boarding house, Dixieland, where she takes her youngest son, Eugene, to live, away from his father's house. The boy sells magazines, then delivers newspapers, devours books, and enters the Leonards' private school, where he discovers the classics. The family also includes Steve, Daisy, Helen, Luke and Ben.
Context
The manuscript, completed in 1928 under the title O Lost, was accepted by Scribner's in January 1929; Perkins had some sixty thousand words cut, and the book appeared in October 1929 under another title. The inhabitants of Asheville at once recognised themselves under the invented names; the book was withdrawn from the public library for several years, and its author, who stayed away for eight years, returned only in 1937. The original text was published in 2000, for the centenary of his birth. His mother's house has been a museum since 1949.
Who it is for
A long, sprawling novel, without a tight plot, carried by a prose that accumulates. Two French translations, by Pierre Singer and Jean Michelet, published under four titles.
Prizes and reception
Modest sales, but a great critical success; Sinclair Lewis cited it with praise in his Nobel Prize speech in 1930.
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