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Chapter 10: Saul Bellow (1915-2005)
Outside Link: | 1976 Nobel Laureate in Literature |
Page Links: | Primary Works | Selected Bibliography 1980-Present | Study Questions | MLA Style Citation of this Web Page |
Site Links:| Chap. 10: Index | Alphabetical List | Table Of Contents | Home Page | February 3, 2008 |

Source: NY
Times Obituary April 6, 2005
Dangling man. NY: Vanguard P, 1944. PS3503.E4488 D3The Victim. NY: Vanguard P, 1947. PS3503.E4488 .V5
The Adventures of Augie March, 1953.
Seize the Day, 1956.
Henderson, the rain king; a novel. NY: Viking P, 1959. PS3503.E4488 .H4
Herzog, 1964.
The last analysis. NY: Viking P, 1965. PS3503.E4488 L3
The Arts & the public. Essays by Saul Bellow and others. Edited by James E. Miller, Jr. and Paul D. Herring. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1967 PS688 .A7
Mosby's memoirs and other stories. NY: Viking P, 1968. PS3503.E4488 M6
Mr. Sammler's planet. NY: Viking P, 1970. PS3503.E4488 .M4
Technology and the frontiers of knowledge. Foreword: Daniel J. Boorstin. Contributors Saul Bellow and others. The Frank Nelson Doubleday lectures; 1972 73. T185 T38
Humboldt's gift. NY: Viking P, 1975. PS3503.E4488 H8
To Jerusalem and back: a personal account. NY: Viking P, 1976. DS107.4 B37
The dean's December: a novel. NY: Harper & Row, 1982. PS3503.E4488 D4
Him with his foot in his mouth and other stories. NY: Harper & Row, 1984. PS3503 .E4488 H56
More die of heartbreak. NY: Morrow, 1987. PS3503 .E4488 M5
A theft: a novella. NY: Penguin Books, 1989. PS 3503 .E4488 T4
The bellarosa connection. NY: Penguin, 1989. PS3503 .E4488 B45
Something to Remember Me By, 1991.
It all adds up: from the dim past to the uncertain future: a nonfiction collection. NY: Viking, 1994. PS3503 .E4488 O23
The actual. NY: Viking, 1997. PS3503 .E4488 A63
| Top | Selected Bibliography 1980-Present
Assadi, Jamal. Acting, Rhetoric, and Interpretation in Selected Novels by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Saul Bellow. NY: Peter Lang, 2006.
Atlas, James. Bellow: A Biography. NY: Random House, 2000.
Bach, Gerhard, and Jakob J. Kollhofer. eds. Saul Bellow at Seventy Five: A Collection of Critical Essays. Tubingen: Narr, 1991.
Bakker, J. Fiction as survival strategy: a comparative study of themajor works of Ernest Hemingway and Saul Bellow. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1983. PS374 .I42 B3x
Bloom, Harold. ed. Saul Bellow. NY: Chelsea, 1986.
Bradbury, Malcolm. Saul Bellow. NY: Methuen, 1982. PS3503 .E4488 Z578
Braham, Jeanne. A sort of Columbus: the American voyages of Saul Bellow's fiction. Athens: U of Georgia P, 1984. PS3503 .E4488 Z58
Cronin Gloria L. and Ben Siegel. eds. Conversations with Saul Bellow. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1994.
- - -. and L. H. Goldman. eds. Saul Bellow in the 1980s: A Collection of Critical Essays. East Lansing: Michigan State UP, 1989.
Dutton, Robert R. Saul Bellow. Boston: Twayne, 1982. PS3503 .E4488 Z66
Eichelberger, Julia. Prophets of Recognition: Ideology and the Individual in Novels by Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, Saul Bellow, and Eudora Welty. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1999.
Fuchs, Daniel. Saul Bellow: Vision and Revision. Durham: Duke UP, 1984.
Goldman L. H. et. al. eds. Saul Bellow: A Mosaic. NY: Peter Lang, 1992.
Gullette, Margaret M. Safe at Last in the Middle Years: The Invention of the Midlife Progress Novel: Saul Bellow, Margaret Drabble, Anne Tyler, John Updike. Berkeley: U of California P, 1988.
Hyland, Peter. Saul Bellow. NY: St. Martin's, 1992.
Kiernan, Robert F. Saul Bellow. NY: Continuum, 1989. PS3503 .E4488 Z723
Newman, Judie. Saul Bellow and History. NY: St. Martin's, 1984. PS3503 .E4488 Z795
Pifer, Ellen. Saul Bellow against the Grain. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 1990.
Quayum, M. A. Saul Bellow and American Transcendentalism. NY: Peter Lang, 2004.
"Looking for Mr. Green"
1. (a) What is the purpose in the story of Grebe's supervisor Raynor? What is Bellow's attitude toward Raynor's cynical "wisdom"? Is concern for the individual anachronistic? For philosophical studies?
(b) What is the purpose of the encounter with the Italian grocer who presents a hellish vision of the city with its chaotic masses of suffering humanity?
(c) The old man Field offers this view of money--"Nothing is black where it shines and the only place you see black is where it ain't shining." Discuss. What do you think of the scheme for creating black millionaires? Why does Bellow include this scheme in the story?
(d) What is the purpose of the Staika incident in the story? Raynor sees her as embodying "the destructive force" that will "submerge everybody in time," including "nations and governments." In contrast, Grebe sees her as "the life force." Who is closer to the truth?
(e) The word "sun" and sun imagery are repeated throughout the story. Discuss.
2. (a) Discuss the theme of appearance versus reality.
(b) Bellow ends the story with Grebe's encounter with the drunken, naked black woman, who may be another embodi- ment of the spirit of Staika. Why does Bellow conclude the story this way? Has Grebe failed or succeeded? Is he deceiving himself?
(c) David Demarest comments: "Grebe's stubborn idealism is nothing less than the basic human need to construct the world according to intelligent, moral principles." Discuss.
(d) Believing that "Looking for Mr. Green" needs to be seen "as one of the great short stories of our time," Eusebio Rodrigues argues that the Old Testament flavors it. This story is "a modern dramatization of Ecclesiastes." Discuss.
MLA Style Citation of this Web Page
Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 10: Saul Bellow." PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A Research and Reference Guide. URL:http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap10/bellow.html (provide page date or date of your login).