Nathanael West: The Collected Works of Nathanael West

by West, Nathanael & Claridge, Henry (Senior Lecturer, School & Carabine, Dr Keith (University Of Kent A

ISBN: 9781840226584

Published: 2011-02

With an Introduction and Notes by Henry Claridge, Senior Lecturer, School of English, University of Kent at Canterbury The four novels gathered here constitute the complete longer works of one the most brilliant and original American writers. West's vision of American modernity is terrifyingly comical and diagnoses the tawdriness and meretriciousness of much of American popular culture. His greatest work, 'Miss Lonelyhearts', which begins this collection, is unique in modern literature. It describes New York in the early years of the Great Depression through the point of view of an "agony aunt" who corresponds with his suffering readers in the guise of "Miss Lonelyhearts: (Are you in trouble? - Do you need advice?)'" 'A Cool Million' is, as its subtitle suggests, the "dismantling" of a myth, here a caustic satire of the "rags to riches" story . West's final novel, "The Day of the Locust", is a comic, yet apocalyptic account of the fantasies of 1930s Hollywood. This volume concludes...