num_pages: 288
description: “An enduring testament and prophecy.” –Chicago Sun-Times Mr. Artur Sammler, Holocaust survivor, intellectual, and occasional lecturer at Columbia University in 1960s New York City, is a “registrar of madness,” a refined and civilized being caught among people crazy with the promises of the future (moon landings, endless possibilities).  His Cyclopean gaze reflects on the degradations of city life while looking deep into the sufferings of the human soul.  “Sorry for all and sore at heart,” he observes how greater luxury and leisure have only led to more human suffering. To Mr. Sammler—who by the end of this ferociously unsentimental novel has found the compassionate consciousness necessary to bridge the gap between himself and his fellow beings—a good life is one in which a person does what is “required of him.” To know and to meet the “terms of the contract” was as true a life as one could possibly live.  At its heart, this novel is quintessential Bellow: moral, urbane, sublimely humane. This Penguin Classics edition features an introduction by Stanley Crouch.
language: English
title: Mr. Sammler's Planet
titlecomplete: Mr. Sammler's Planet
characters: Elya Gruner, Eisen, Govinda Lal, Shula Sammler, Margotte Arkin, Artur Sammler, Angela Gruner, Wallace Gruner, Lionel Feffer
genres: Jewish, 20th Century, American, Nobel Prize, Literary Fiction, Novels, Literature, Classics, The United States Of America, Fiction
ratings_count: 3620
places: New York City, New York, New Rochelle, New York, New York (State)
awards: awardedAt: 31564800000
name: National Book Award
category: Fiction
publisher: Penguin Classics