num_pages: 487
description: “I think it A Work of genius, I think it The Work of a Genius, I think it brilliant, splendid, etc. If there is literature (and this proves there is) this is where it’s at.” –John CheeverSaul Bellow’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel explores the long friendship between Charlie Citrine, a young man with an intense passion for literature, and the great poet Von Humboldt Dleisher. At the time of Humboldt’s death, Charlie’s life is falling his career is at a standstill, and he’s enmeshed in an acrimonious divorce, infatuated with a highly unsuitable young woman, and involved with a neurotic Mafioso. And then Humboldt acts from beyond the grave, bestowing upon Charlie an unexpected legacy that may just help him turn his life around.This Penguin Classics edition features an introduction by Jeffrey Eugenides.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
language: English
title: Humboldt's Gift
titlecomplete: Humboldt's Gift (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century)
characters: Renata Koffritz, Demmie Vonghel, Rinaldo Cantabile, Von Humboldt Fleisher, Denise Citrine, Pierre Thaxter, Charlie Citrine
genres: Fiction, American, The United States Of America, Literature, Classics, Novels, Nobel Prize, Contemporary, 20th Century, Literary Fiction
ratings_count: 9293
places: Chicago, Illinois, New York City, New York
awards: awardedAt: 189331200000
name: Pulitzer Prize
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 189331200000
name: National Book Award Finalist
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 189331200000
name: Society of Midland Authors Award
category: Adult Fiction
publisher: Penguin Books