The Last Puritan: A Memoir in the Form of a Novel (Works of George Santayana) - Hardcover

Santayana, George

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0262193280 ISBN 13: 9780262193283

Publisher: MIT Press, 1994

Synopsis

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.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

First published in 1935, George Santayana's The Last Puritan was the American philosopher's only novel, and it became an instant best-seller, 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. In Oliver's case the puritanical self-destruction that prevented him from realizing his own spirituality is transcended by his attainment of the type of self knowledge that Santayana recommends throughout his moral philosophy.|First published in 1935, 'The Last Puritan' was the American philosopher's only novel, and it became an instant best seller. It is a novel of ideas expressed in the birth, life, and early death of Oliver Alden.

About the Author:

Herman J. Saatkamp, Jr., is Head of the Department of Philosophy and Humanities at Texas A&M University.

About this edition

• Publisher: MIT Press
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0262193280
• ISBN 13: 9780262193283
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 790