Last Puritan: A Memoir in the Form of a Novel - Hardcover

Santayana, George.

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9780094608108: Last Puritan: A Memoir in the Form of a Novel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0094608105 ISBN 13: 9780094608108

Publisher: CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 1936

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Published in 1935, George Santayana's "The Last Puritan" was the American philosopher's only novel. It became an instant success, immediately linked in its painful voyage of self-discovery to "The Education of Henry Adams". It is essentially a novel of ideas, expressed in the birth, life and early death of Oliver Alden. "The Last Puritan" is volume four in a new critical edition of "The works of George Santayana" that restores Santayana's original text and provides new scholarly information. Books in this series include an editorial apparatus with notes to the text (identifying persons, places, and ideas), textual commentary (including a description of the composition and publication history, along with a discussion of editorial methods and decisions), discussions of adopted readings, lists of variants and emendations, and line-end hyphenations. Irving Singer's new introduction to this edition takes up Santayana's philosophical and artistic concerns, including issues of homosexuality raised by the depiction of the novel's two protagonists, Oliver and Mario, and of the relationship between Oliver and the rogue character Jim Darnley. Singer finds the term "homosexual novel" too reductionist and imprecise for what Santayana is trying to achieve. Singer brings to light the author's skillful and inventive methods for perceiving and interpreting reality, including ideal forms of friendship, and his success in exploring the pervasive moral problems that people face throughout their existence.

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About the Author:

William G. Holzberger is Professor of English Emeritus at Bucknell University. Herman J. Saatkamp, Jr., is Head of the Department of Philosophy and Humanities at Texas A&M University. George Santayana (1863--1952) was a philosopher, poet, critic, and novelist. He is the author of The Last Puritan, Persons and Places (both published by the MIT Press), and many other works. The MIT Press has recently completed publication of eight books of Santayana's letters. Irving Singer is Professor of Philosophy at MIT. He is the author of the trilogies The Nature of Love and Meaning in Life, P hilosophy of Love: A Partial Summing-Up, Mozart and Beethoven: The Concept of Love in Their Operas, all published by the MIT Press, and many other books.

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