Herzog

novel by Bellow

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History

Herzog, novel by Saul Bellow, published in 1964. The work was awarded the National Book Award for fiction in 1965.

Moses Herzog, like many of Bellow’s heroes, is a Jewish intellectual who confronts a world peopled by sanguine, incorrigible realists. Much of the action of the novel takes place within the hero’s disturbed consciousness, including a series of flashbacks, many of which involve his sexual and marital past.

Herzog was praised for its combination of erudition and street smarts, for its lively Yiddish-influenced prose, and for its narrative drive, though some critics felt that Herzog’s wives and lovers were not fully realized.

Portrait of young thinking bearded man student with stack of books on the table before bookshelves in the library

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This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.

Herzog

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