While

(1959) begins to focus Bellow’s intellectual quarrel with modernism and the social sciences,

(1964) extends the critique to the entire modern philosophical tradition.

is a massive intellectual accomplishment that has repeatedly been likened to Joyce’s

. It remains Bellow’s acknowledged masterwork and was on the

best-seller list for the entire year. The plot of the novel is slender. Herzog leaves his home and marriage, fails in the classroom, abandons his academic project, and undertakes a massive spiritual and intellectual housekeeping via the production of dozens of letters to God, the long dead, the recently dead, and the living. Its form clearly derives from the 18th century epistolary novel. Moses Herzog,…

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Citation: Cronin, Gloria. "Herzog". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 November 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4768, accessed 23 November 2024.]