Books with author Thomas Wolfe

The spectacular, history-making first novel about a young man’s coming of age by literary legend Thomas Wolfe, first published in 1929 and long considered a classic of twentieth century literature.A legendary author on par with William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor, Thomas Wolfe published Look Homeward, Angel, his first novel, about a young man’s burning desire to leave his small town and tumultuous family in search of a better life, in 1929. It gave the world proof of his genius and launched a powerful legacy. The novel follows the trajectory of Eugene Gant, a brilliant and restless young man whose wanderlust and passion shape his adolescent years in rural North Carolina. Wolfe said that Look Homeward, Angel is “a book made out of my life,” and his largely autobiographical story about the quest for a greater intellectual life has resonated with and influenced generations of readers, including some of today’s most important novelists. Rich with lyrical prose and vivid characterizations, this twentieth-century American classic will capture the hearts and imaginations of every reader.

You Can't Go Home Again is a novel by Thomas Wolfe published posthumously in 1940. The novel tells the story of George Webber, a fledgling author, who writes a book that makes frequent references to his home town of Libya Hill. The book is a national success but the residents of the town, unhappy with what they view as Webber's distorted depiction of them, send the author menacing letters and death threats. (Wikipedia)

Now available from Thomas Wolfe’s original publisher, the final novel by the literary legend, that “will stand apart from everything else that he wrote” (The New York Times Book Review)—first published in 1940 and long considered a classic of twentieth century literature.A twentieth-century classic, Thomas Wolfe’s magnificent novel is both the story of a young writer longing to make his mark upon the world and a sweeping portrait of America and Europe from the Great Depression through the years leading up to World War II. Driven by dreams of literary success, George Webber has left his provincial hometown to make his name as a writer in New York City. When his first novel is published, it brings him the fame he has sought, but it also brings the censure of his neighbors back home, who are outraged by his depiction of them. Unsettled by their reaction and unsure of himself and his future, Webber begins a search for a greater understanding of his artistic identity that takes him deep into New York’s hectic social whirl; to London with an uninhibited group of expatriates; and to Berlin, lying cold and sinister under Hitler’s shadow. He discovers a world plagued by political uncertainty and on the brink of transformation, yet he finds within himself the capacity to meet it with optimism and a renewed love for his birthplace. He is a changed man yet a hopeful one, awake to the knowledge that one can never fully “go back home to your family, back home to your childhood…away from all the strife and conflict of the world…back home to the old forms and systems of things which once seemed everlasting but which are changing all the time.”

Thomas Wolfe is known for mixing highly original, poetic, rhapsodic, and impressionistic prose with autobiographical writing. His books, written and published from the 1920s to the 1940s, vividly reflect on American culture and the mores of that period, filtered through Wolfe's sensitive, sophisticated, and hyper-analytical perspective.'Thomas Wolfe: Complete Works' contains:NOVELSLook Homeward, AngelOf Time and the RiverThe Web and the RockYou Can’t Go Home AgainThe Hills BeyondThe Good Child’s RiverThe Party at Jack’s STORIESAn Angel on the PorchA Portrait of Bascom HawkeThe Web of EarthThe Train and the CityDeath the Proud BrotherNo DoorThe Four Lost MenBoom TownThe Sun and the RainThe House of the Far and LostDark in the Forest, Strange as TimeThe Names of the NationFor Professional AppearanceOne of the Girls in Our PartyCircus at DawnHis Father’s EarthOld CatawbaArnold PentlandThe Face of the WarGulliverIn the ParkOnly the Dead Know BrooklynPolyphemusThe Far and the NearThe Bums at SunsetThe Bell RememberedFame and the PoetI Have a Thing to Tell YouReturnMr. MaloneOktoberfest’E, A RecollectionApril, Late AprilThe Child by TigerKatamotoThe Lost BoyChickamaugaThe CompanyA Prologue to AmericaPortrait of a Literary CriticThe Party at Jack’sThe BirthdayA Note on Experts: Dexter Vespasian JoynerThree O’ClockThe Winter of Our DiscontentThe Dark MessiahThe Hollyhock SowersNebraska CraneSo This Is ManThe Promise of AmericaThe Hollow MenThe Anatomy of LonelinessThe Lion at MorningThe Plumed KnightThe NewspaperNo Cure for ItOn LeprechaunsThe Return of the ProdigalOld Man RiversJustice Is BlindNo More RiversThe Spanish LetterPLAYSThe MountainsMannerhouseCOLLEGE WRITINGSA Field in FlandersTo FranceThe ChallengeA Cullenden of VirginiaTo Rupert BrookeThe DrammerAn AppreciationThe Creative Movement in WritingDeferred PaymentRussian Folk SongThe Streets of DurhamThe Crisis in IndustryConcerning Honest Bob1920 Says a Few Words to CarolinaThe Return of Buck GavinThe Third NightA Previously Unpublished Statement by Thomas WolfeThe Man Who Lives with His IdeaAttributionsOTHER TEXTSThe Story of a NovelA Western JourneySomething of My Life

Look Homeward, Angel is an elaborate and moving coming-of-age story about Eugene Gant, a restless and energetic character whose passion to experience life takes him from his small, rural hometown in North Carolina to Harvard University and the city of Boston. The novel's pattern is artfully simple -- a small town, a large family, high school and college -- yet the characters are monumental in their graphic individuality and personality. Through his rich, ornate prose, Wolfe evokes the extraordinarily vivid family of the Gants, and with equal detail, the remarkable peculiarities of small-town life and the pain and upheaval of a boy who must leave both. A classic work of American literature, Look Homeward, Angel is a passionate, stirring, and unforgettable novel.

The classic first novel from one of America's greatest men of letters "I don't know yet what I am capable of doing," wrote Thomas Wolfe at the age of twenty-three, "but, by God, I have genius -- I know it too well to blush behind it." Six years later, with the publication of Look Homeward, Angel, Wolfe gave the world proof of his genius, and he would continue to do so throughout his tumultuous life. Look Homeward, Angel is the coming-of-age story of Eugene Gant, whose restlessness and yearning to experience life to the fullest take him from his rural home in North Carolina to Harvard. Through his rich, ornate prose and meticulous attention to detail, Wolfe evokes the peculiarities of small-town life and the pain and upheaval of leaving home. Heavily autobiographical, Look Homeward, Angel is Wolfe's most turbulent and passionate work, and a brilliant novel of lasting impact.

This classic of American literature tells the story of George Webber, a rising novelist, who returns to his hometown only to face a wave of hatred and rejection from the inhabitants, who feel his latest work ridicules their way of life. George goes into exile, first in New York, then London and continental Europe, living life to the full but burdened by the belief that he can never return to his roots. This work, although published posthumously and heavily edited from Wolfe's surviving manuscripts, has done much to confirm his place as one of the leading American novelists of the 20th Century. This handsome new edition from Benediction Classics includes the full unabridged text of the published version. Visit Benediction Classics at www.thebestthathasbeensaid.com to read thousands of free classic books online, or buy them in elegant paperback and hardback editions at reasonable prices.