Tropic of Capricorn
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Harper Perennial Modern Classics - Tropic of Capricorn for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
‘The world of Capricorn is peopled by eccentrics and nymphomaniacs, to say nothing of the incorrigibly eccentric Miller himself. There is also a memorable portrait of his father, a delicate account of childhood, and savage, humane comedy in the bedlam of an employment office. The rest: fornication and anarchism, sometimes very funny, always rich, exultant and honest.’
Sunday Times
‘In the course of Tropic of Capricorn, Miller as a Miss Lonelyhearts of the Cosmodemonic Telegraph Company, hires and fires an inexhaustible queue of ex-convicts and whores who turn the office into a hive of degradation. Miller lives constantly at the flashpoint of violence, which he manages to convert to comedy without undermining the anger’
Observer
‘Tropic of Capricorn is a teeming frieze of fights, copulations and epiphanies. The emphasis is on the mysterious value of ordinary life, not its futility’
New Statesman
‘A superb entertainment’
New York Times
Product Description
The controversial, erotic and hilarious companion to the legendary Tropic of Cancer, in a smart new Harper Perennial Modern Classics edition.
A riotous and explosive mixture of joys and frustrations, Tropic of Capricorn chronicles Miller's early life in New York, from his repressive Brooklyn childhood spent amongst 'a galaxy of screwballs' to frantic, hilarious years of dead-end jobs and innumerable erotic adventures. Irreverent and ironic, Tropic of Capricorn is both a comic portrait of the irrepressible Miller himself and a scathing attack on respectable America, the very foundations of which he hoped to shatter.
The publication of Tropic of Capricorn and its sister-volume Tropic of Cancer in Paris in the 1930s was hailed by Samuel Beckett as 'a momentous event in the history of modern writing'. The books were subsequently banned in the UK and the USA for nearly thirty years.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence
Once you have given up the ghost, everything follows with dead certainty, even in the midst of chaos. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Once you have given up the ghost, everything follows with dead certainty, even in the midst of chaos. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
To say that Henry Miller hated humanity is a complete falsehood. To quote from his essay 'The Hour of Man': "By responding with a full spirit to any demand which is made upon us we aid our fellow man to help himself". The reaction of one of the other reviewers demonstrates the enduring greatness of this book, and that its power to shock lies not in its famed obscenity but in its unparalleled honesty. When I read Henry Miller I am continuously struck by the truthfullness of what I read. This can be too much for some people to bear, to quote from the same essay:
"We hide from the face of reality: it is too terrible, we think. Yet it is we, we, only we, who have created this hideous world. And it is we who will change it- by changing our own inner vision."
I should also say that Miller's prose style is virtuosic and NOT 'stream-of-consciousness'. Miller does not present us with the inner thoughts of characters written in such a way as to reflect the processes of thought. He writes mostly from the first person, but with such freedom and virtuosity as I have never come across. Like a bird trapped in a cage, Miller sings his heart out for the pure joy of it. Reading this book for the first time was the most moving experience I have ever had when engaging with a work of art.
"We hide from the face of reality: it is too terrible, we think. Yet it is we, we, only we, who have created this hideous world. And it is we who will change it- by changing our own inner vision."
I should also say that Miller's prose style is virtuosic and NOT 'stream-of-consciousness'. Miller does not present us with the inner thoughts of characters written in such a way as to reflect the processes of thought. He writes mostly from the first person, but with such freedom and virtuosity as I have never come across. Like a bird trapped in a cage, Miller sings his heart out for the pure joy of it. Reading this book for the first time was the most moving experience I have ever had when engaging with a work of art.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read this book, having seen reviews on other sites, and having read Henry and June by Anais Nin and some of her other novels. People had made comments that this book changed their life, and their way of looking at the world. I found it liberating. There are moments of clarity which strike resonance and truly make you stand back and revalue the accepted. There is a review on this site that calls this book disgusting. They missed the point. By a long way. There is an energy and vitality to Millers writing that is infectious, and quite simply, brilliant.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
im not going to write a serious review because im only a kid. i would just like to know why the person who gave one star thinks that something so bad is capable of producing depression - surely it has some power over you? it did for me; i felt almost sucidal after reading just some of this book when i was only seventeen, so be warned, there's a darkness to this text like no other i've experienced before, but it's because it's real. im reading it again now and im in love with it, the writing draws you in so that time can pass without you even realising. if it's actually the worst book you've ever read that's an achievment.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Mixed feelings...
On one hand, there are some stream of thought bits that are superb. Some of the inner monologue about the world, some of the insights about mankind and the many different peoples... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Miguel
A GREAT BOHEMIAN READ
I first picked this book up in Australia when I was travelling up the east coast, I was in Surfers Paradise at the time. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Nathan Strange
Don't waste your money
I should have listened to those that rated it a one star. Nothing but rambling rubbish. Does not even rate 1 star.Tropic of Capricorn
Published 14 months ago by Dodger
Very Happy
I' am very happy with my purchase, although I did not see an image of what I was buying, I was pleasantly surprised with the look of the book. Read more
Published on 29 Aug 2009 by J. Taylor
So bad!
We had to read this at my book club and I was the only person who finished it, as it was so badly written. Read more
Published on 31 Mar 2009 by Miss V. Bryans
This is an utterly dire book
I must admit buying and reading this book because of the controversy associated with it and I was seriously disappointed, the fame its incured for being obscene or mysogynistic... Read more
Published on 2 Mar 2008 by Lark
Dreadful
This is a disgusting, sick book written by someone who obviously hated women, men, people in general, and himself. Read more
Published on 1 Feb 2006
Brilliant sunshine, with cloudy episodes
I'm amazed no one else has reviewed this book before. It's a novel of historic importance, where you can see the earlier restrictions artists placed upon themselves in creating... Read more
Published on 24 May 2005
oof
a little bit more rambling than tropic of cancer, but still good. he doesn't waste any time setting the scene, just gets straight into the inspired ranting. Read more
Published on 16 Oct 2003 by Ed Garland
Incredible
Henry Miller was one of the greatest writers of all time, and this is his masterpiece. He takes the seedlings planted in 'Cancer' and lets them grow to fruition. Read more
Published on 2 Nov 2002
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
