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Chargement... Sinclair Lewis: Rebel from Main Streetpar Richard R. Lingeman
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Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. It's been a long time since I read Mark Schorer's then-definitive biography of Sinclair Lewis, so it's difficult to compare the merits of this exhaustive work with Schorer's. Schorer had the advantage of more immediate sources; Lingeman was at a comparative disadvantage, writing this some 50 years after Lewis' death. But I did learn some things here that I don't think were in the earlier book, and it is undeniably well-written, comprehensive and tinged with interest by Lingeman's willingness to offer his personal evaluations of Lewis' life and work. That said, the book reinforces my view of Sinclair Lewis; that America's first winner of the Nobel Prize for literature was at heart a complex and miserable mess of a human being. Far from a great writer, at his peak he was a consummate observer of American society, and perceptive and courageous enough to hold a revealing mirror up to it. His output of the 1920's was nearly unmatched in literary influence, and "Dodsworth" remains one of my favorite novels. But he was a terribly conflicted and insecure man, by turns generous and loyal, and self-obsessed and unpredictably cruel. I have no doubt that I would find him repellent if I knew him, but the man fascinates me, and it was particularly interesting to me to have read this biography shortly after visiting Lewis' hometown of Sauk Centre and touring his home, museum and gravesite. ( ) aucune critique | ajouter une critique
"The critic Edmund Wilson called Sinclair Lewis "one of the national poets." In the 1920s, Lewis fired off a fusillade of sensational novels, exploding American shibboleths with a volatile mixture of caricature and photographic realism. With an unerring eye for the American scene and an omnivorous ear for American talk, he mocked such sacrosanct institutions as the small town (Main Street), business (Babbitt), medicine (Arrowsmith), and religion (Elmer Gantry). His shrewdly observed characters became part of the American gallery, and his titles became part of the language." "Bringing to bear newly uncovered correspondence, diaries, and criticism, Richard Lingeman, distinguished biographer of Theodore Dreiser, paints a sympathetic portrait - in all its multihued contradictions - of a seminal American writer who could be inwardly the loneliest of men and outwardly as gregarious as George Follansbee Babbitt himself. Lingeman writes with sympathy and understanding about Lewis's losing struggle with alcoholism; his stormy marriages, including one to the superwoman Dorothy Thompson, whose fame as a newspaper columnist in the 1930s outshone Lewis's fading star as a novelist; and his wistful, autumnal love for an actress more than thirty years younger than he."--Jacket. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)813.52Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1900-1944Classification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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