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Review
"To me the most impressive aspect of THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER is the astonishing humanity that enables a white writer, for the first time in Southern fiction, to handle Negro characters with as much ease and justice of those of her own race. This cannot be accounted for stylistically or politically; it seems to stem from an attitude toward life." -- Richard Wright
"When one puts [this book] down, it is with . . . a feeling of having been nourished by the truth." --May Sarton
"A remarkable book . . . [McCullers] writes with a sweep and certainty that are overwhelming." The New York Times
"Quite remarkable . . . McCullers leaves her characters hauntingly engraved in the reader's memory." The Nation
"To me the most impressive aspect of 'The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter' is the astonishing humanity that enables a white writer, for the first time in Southern fiction, to handle Negro characters with as much ease and justice as those of her own race." -- Richard Wright New Republic
"One cannot help remarking that this is an extraordinary novel to have been written by a young woman of twenty-two; but the more important fact is that it is an extraordinary novel in its own right, considerations of authorship apart." -- Saturday Review of Literature Saturday Review
"The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter has remarkable power, sweep and certainty . . . Her art suggests a Van Gogh painting peopled with Faulkner figures." The New York Times Book Review
"Sensitively conceived and expertly told . . . Its quality as writing and the intensity of its theme combine to make it one of the outstanding novels of recent years." --Times-Picayune
"Besides telling a good story, the author has peopled it with a small group of characters so powerfully drawn as to linger long in memory." Philadelphia Inquirer
"[McCullers] writes with a calm and factual realism, and with a deep and abiding insight into human psychology. She does so without anr
"When one puts [this book] down, it is with . . . a feeling of having been nourished by the truth." --May Sarton
"A remarkable book . . . [McCullers] writes with a sweep and certainty that are overwhelming." The New York Times
"Quite remarkable . . . McCullers leaves her characters hauntingly engraved in the reader's memory." The Nation
"To me the most impressive aspect of 'The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter' is the astonishing humanity that enables a white writer, for the first time in Southern fiction, to handle Negro characters with as much ease and justice as those of her own race." -- Richard Wright New Republic
"One cannot help remarking that this is an extraordinary novel to have been written by a young woman of twenty-two; but the more important fact is that it is an extraordinary novel in its own right, considerations of authorship apart." -- Saturday Review of Literature Saturday Review
"The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter has remarkable power, sweep and certainty . . . Her art suggests a Van Gogh painting peopled with Faulkner figures." The New York Times Book Review
"Sensitively conceived and expertly told . . . Its quality as writing and the intensity of its theme combine to make it one of the outstanding novels of recent years." --Times-Picayune
"Besides telling a good story, the author has peopled it with a small group of characters so powerfully drawn as to linger long in memory." Philadelphia Inquirer
"[McCullers] writes with a calm and factual realism, and with a deep and abiding insight into human psychology. She does so without anr
Product Description
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter was Carson McCullers' first novel, written in 1940. Set in a small town in the American South, it is the story of a group of people who have little in common except that they are all hopelessly lonely. A young girl, a drunken socialist and a black doctor are drawn to a gentle, sympathetic deaf mute, whose presence changes their lives. This powerful exploration of alienation is both moving and perceptive.
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First Sentence
In the town there were two mutes, and they were always together. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
In the town there were two mutes, and they were always together. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
35 of 36 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In her brilliant debut, Carson McCullers explores what may be the central core of human existence. The pursuit of love, understanding,our connection with humanity and the devastation of lonelieness when the connection is severed or misdirected.
What if the object of your affection, the focus of your friendship, the keeper of your confidences, is an illusion?
John Singer is the means by which McCullers brings to life this conundrum. A deaf mute living in the Depression era American South, Singer only commmunicates with his deaf room mate. The problem is, his room mate has no more understanding of Singer's dreams than Singer will have of the people in the town who, because of his silence, see in him reflections of themselves.
Singer's increasing isolation leads to a devastating and heartbreaking conclusion.
There is far more to this novel than I can describe here, so get a copy and discover the beauty of this book for yourself.
The writing is beautiful, the characters exquisitely realized and it is my favorite novel of all time. It is a book I picked up when I was 13 and still revisit.
McCullers speaks for all of us and our very human condition. Her insight is made more remarkable when the reader remembers that the book was published when the author was only 23 years old.
What if the object of your affection, the focus of your friendship, the keeper of your confidences, is an illusion?
John Singer is the means by which McCullers brings to life this conundrum. A deaf mute living in the Depression era American South, Singer only commmunicates with his deaf room mate. The problem is, his room mate has no more understanding of Singer's dreams than Singer will have of the people in the town who, because of his silence, see in him reflections of themselves.
Singer's increasing isolation leads to a devastating and heartbreaking conclusion.
There is far more to this novel than I can describe here, so get a copy and discover the beauty of this book for yourself.
The writing is beautiful, the characters exquisitely realized and it is my favorite novel of all time. It is a book I picked up when I was 13 and still revisit.
McCullers speaks for all of us and our very human condition. Her insight is made more remarkable when the reader remembers that the book was published when the author was only 23 years old.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
To say that The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is one of the greatest books ever written, is not hyperbole. This novel truely is a staggering work. I have found myself alluding to it, countless times in the eight years since I read it first. It has illuminated my understanding of relationships and interdependancy. Mrs McCullers must rank alongside Forster, Lawrence, Naipaul and Conrad as one of the great exporers of the dark and lonely soul.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The lives of a number of outsiders in a small town in the American south cross and recross without the character's alienness or isolation ever being relieved. Watch for the comical clash between the two Marxists: an intellectual doctor and a radical worker who can't agree on anything.
At the novel's heart is John Singer (a desperately ironic choice of name), a deaf man who choses also to be mute. The eyes of his blind companion, he is also the confessor of the town's other lonely people, who find fruitless comfort in his patient attention.
The prose is astonishingly beautiful and the mood of the novel stays with the reader for days afterwards. Deeper and more moving than "The Ballad of the Sad Café", this is probably Carson McCullers's best work.
At the novel's heart is John Singer (a desperately ironic choice of name), a deaf man who choses also to be mute. The eyes of his blind companion, he is also the confessor of the town's other lonely people, who find fruitless comfort in his patient attention.
The prose is astonishingly beautiful and the mood of the novel stays with the reader for days afterwards. Deeper and more moving than "The Ballad of the Sad Café", this is probably Carson McCullers's best work.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Up there with the best
Have just read this for my book group and am so glad it was suggested. It had been sitting on my bookshelf for 5 years, ripening... Read more
Published 5 months ago by pixie freak
A WONDER
That this was written some 70 years ago by a 23 year old young woman is a wonder . It is the finest work about the south between the wars I have read to date . Read more
Published 7 months ago by Alexander Bryce
Fireflies, front sitting porches, summer evenings, the café...
...it was all part and parcel of the American South, on the eve of the Second World War, along with polio, typhoid, pellagra, poverty and legal racial segregation. Read more
Published 10 months ago by John P. Jones III
Great book
I am not going to repeat what others have written in their reviews, except to say that this book is brilliant. Read more
Published 17 months ago by R Howey
Spare brilliant writing
A stunning book easily equal to 'Catcher in the Rye' or 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and deserves to be included with those two as the best known American fiction. Read more
Published 19 months ago by K. N. Tole
Interesting for its social commentary
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (Penguin Modern Classics)
This was first published in 1940, so would not be my normal choice of book. Read more
This was first published in 1940, so would not be my normal choice of book. Read more
Published on 5 Aug 2009 by SusieH
The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter
First published in the early 1940s, 'The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter' is an originally written story of small-town America with its poverty and prejudice at the core of the story. Read more
Published on 14 Jun 2009 by Blue Yates
Carson McCullers - The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
A wonderful book about loneliness, love, friendship, misplaced devotion, and seeing in people what you need to see. Somehow sad and yet profoundly beautiful at the same time. Read more
Published on 20 Aug 2008 by RachelWalker
A disappointing read
I read this book for a recent book group and although it made for an excellent discussion, three out of four of us did not enjoy it. Read more
Published on 19 July 2008 by DubaiReader
The desperate search for love and friendship; the need to reach out...
When John Singer loses his fellow deaf-mute and beloved friend to a psychiatric asylum he finds himself overcome by loneliness in the small town in the Deep South where he lives. Read more
Published on 7 Feb 2008 by Trevor Coote
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