The Collected Stories

Though Saul Bellow is best known as a novelist, he has also been writing sublime shorter works throughout his career. This collection brings together stories from Mosby's Memoirs, Him With His Foot in His Mouth, and Something to Remember Me By, as well as an early story that has only appeared in Esquire.All of the strengths of Bellow's longer fiction are present in the stories: the brilliant wit, the vigorous intelligence, the seemingly effortless ability to capture people, places, and cras with uncanny accuracy, and, above all, the unforgettable characters. They're all here: geniuses, blowhards, finaglers, scoundrels, dreamers, cynics, strong men steamrollered by lust and love -- ordinary people, in other words, gripped by ordinary passions, who in the hands of Saul Bellow become extraordinary emblems of the human condition. Bellow's characters think, talk, suffer, exult, and breathe as no other writer's do.

This collection is an important addition to Saul Bellow's body of work (which, even at the age of 85, he continues to augment). It will be eagerly welcomed by his longtime fans and will provide a superb introduction to his work for a new generation of admirers.