Humboldt's Gift

By: Saul Bellow

Narrated by: Christopher Hurt

Length: 18 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

For years, they were the best of friends: the grand, erratic Humboldt and the ambitious young Charlie. But now Humboldt has died a failure, and Charlie's success-ridden life has taken various turns for the worse. Then Humboldt acts from the grave to change Charlie's life: he has left Charlie something in his will.

©1973 Saul Bellow (P)1992 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Christopher Hurt

The narrator, in an otherwise excellent performance, tends to swallow his words occasionally and therefore a word here and there becomes inaudible.

Humbolt's Gift, Saul Bellow

The pace of this book is pedestrian at best with the main character rather self absorbed and brooding. The relationships tend to be self serving and hedonistic. I found the reading experiance left me depressed and hollow. While the main character, Charlie, had many redeeming qualities he seemed to have no spiritual foundation or sense of where these moral imperatives came from. Even with all his introspective broodings he was clueless about why he acted the way he did or was offended by the actions of the other characters when they crossed certain moral boundries.

#1 Classic

Wait... you do know who wrote this right? This is Saul Bellow. There's no way you're not going to read this, even if it IS with your ears.

That fellow Bellow

Where does Humboldt's Gift rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

In terms of the quality of the reader, very good, but the book is long winded and repetitive.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

An elegant conclusion left a feeling of satisfaction.

What about Christopher Hurt’s performance did you like?

He had a pleasant voice which suited the narrator.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Navel gazing galore!

Any additional comments?

Bellow's hero is a mid twentieth century author not too dissimilar from himself. His quest for truth requires introspection rather than action, but a glorious list of writers and philosophers are bit players in the story.

Masterful language

Thickly spread with self-reflection, this story seems to move slowly, but each aside engrosses the reader and moves the story along. Filled with social commentary that will sparkle for decades.

The reader is tireless and without error. He renders the first-person Charlie in a believable and consistent voice.

Great Book, Great Reader

This is a wonderful and compelling reading of a very good book: one that would be very easy to ruin with an unintelligent interpretation.

No, there is not a lot of "plot" per se and it is highly discursive: welcome to Bellow's world! There's a passage of several pages where Charlie considers the subject of productive inactivity from every possible angle, which struck me as almost a manifesto for the technique of the novel itself. Events in the outside world mainly serve to prompt ruminating, reflecting, and reminiscing.

But make no mistake: there is in fact a story, it features great, colorful characters, it's told in beautiful language, and it's very entertaining all the way through. It made me laugh out loud all the time. And finally, countless little plot threads that have meandered through the text for hours all get neatly tied up into a satisfying screwball ending.

But the book is not really about the destination. It's about the journey. The book is drenched with warm-hearted nostalgia, and a comprehensive generosity of spirit that is hard to find anywhere in the world, at any time. Charlie Citrine makes the world a bigger and friendlier place to be.

And again, this reader is probably the best possible reader they could have chosen for the part. I plan to give this book a second and third listen in the future. This definitely ranks up there with Ron Silver's reading of American Pastoral, George Guidall's reading of Zorba the Greek, and Donal Donelly's reading of Dubliners as one of the best audiobook performances I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing.

Not so great.

This is one of the very few aduiobooks I haven't enjoyed. I nearly stopped partway through, because the story is so tedious. I'm surprised it's so highly regarded. I found it indulgent and pompous. The reader, as I recall -- it's been some time now since I read it -- was neither great nor terrible, just sort of okay. One recognizes the erudition of the author, but wishes he had reined it in some to develop characters we could care more about.

Bellow at his Best

This is the novel for which Bellow won the Pulitzer Prize (he also won the Nobel prize the same year). This is one of my favorite of Bellow. The novel jumps between humor and drama, introspection and story, characters and events. Sometimes Bellow is too introspective for his own (or the reader) good. This is Bellow at his best. The characters are particularly strong as is the story (which is not always the case with Bellow). I really liked this production and will listen to it again.

A number of reviews found problems with the sound and narration, but I did not. I thought the narration was great, well paced, clear, and with a wonder expression of the character's varying moods.

Some people write in a way that is captivating

I really enjoyed this book. Journey into his mind. Much to digest over time. The writing was truly mesmerizing, no matter what he was talking about, no matter how gross or how lofty, I was captivated.

A thought provoking work of art

Brilliant, moving and epic!
A masterpiece and read to perfection!
A book that I read because it was the one both my parents agreed was great...