Moloch (Miller, Henry) - Softcover

Miller, Henry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 080213372X ISBN 13: 9780802133724

Publisher: Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press, 1994

Synopsis

Uncovered along with Crazy Cock in 1988 by Miller biographer Mary V. Dearborn, Moloch emerged from the misery of Miller's years at Western Union and from the squalor of his first marriage. Set in the rapidly changing New York City of the early twenties, its hero is the rough-and-tumble Dion Moloch, a man filled with anger and despair. Trapped in a demeaning job, oppressed by an acrimonious home life, Moloch escapes to the streets only to be assaulted by a world he despises even more a Brooklyn transformed into a shrill medley of ethnic sights, sounds, and smells. The antagonized Moloch strikes out blindly at everything he hates, battling against a world whose hostility threatens to overwhelm and destroy him."

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Set in the rapidly changing New York City of the 1920s, this funny and boundlessly energetic novel charts the disintegrating marriage and desperate lifestyle of Henry Miller's alter ego, Dion Moloch, the unscrupulous, philandering manager of the Great American Telegraph Company. 'Stranded on the mudflats of matrimony', trapped in a dead-end job, Moloch escapes to the teeming streets of Manhattan and Jazz Age Harlem. Visiting brothels and drinking clubs, stealing and gambling, preying shamelessly on the many women who rouse his insatiable desires, Moloch's fight against the mediocre is passionate and apocalyptic.

Discovered in 1988, 'Moloch' is Henry Miller's first complete novel, begun in 1927 when he was still struggling to establish himself as a writer. Unflinchingly honest, surreal and inventive, it was his earliest attempt at the picaresque, autobiographical style he was to bring to fruition in the later, magnificent 'Tropic' novels.

Many Henry Miller titles are available in Flamingo including 'Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn, Sexus, Plexus' and 'Nexus'.

'Striking and surreal, a compelling exploration of one man's growing devastation and anxiety, 'Moloch' culminates in a soothing yet surprising epiphany. Few writers have so successfully transformed raw autobiographical material into powerfully imaginative fiction.'
CHICAGO TRIBUNE

'Miller's chief virtues are his utter acceptance of life's conditions, however blank, his total refusal to be self-deceived and his positive recognition of the unsystematic oddity of all his fellow creatures. He loves and respects the good things of the world and is immensely courageous in confronting his own anguish. A major writer, he is a presence challenging and unpredictable.'
COLIN MACINNES, 'Spectator'

About the Author:

Henry Miller was born in Brooklyn, New York. He had a variety of jobs as a young man, including several years working for the Western Union Telegraph Company. During this time, encouraged by June Mansfield Smith, the second of his five wives, Miller began to write. Aside from articles, stories for pulp magazines and prose poems, Miller worked on his first novels ‘Crazy Cock’ and ‘Moloch’, and on the copious notes which would eventually transmute into the notorious ‘Tropics’ books.

About this edition

• Publisher: Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 080213372X
• ISBN 13: 9780802133724
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288