Now hailed as an American classic, Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller's masterpiece, was banned as obscene in this country for twenty-seven years after its first publication in Paris in 1943. Only a historic court ruling that changed American censorship standards, ushering in a new era of freedom and frankness in modern literature, permitted the publication of this first volume of Miller's famed mixture of memoir and fiction, which chronicles with unapologetic gusto, the bawdy adventures of a young expatriate writer, his friends, and the characters they meet in Paris in the 1930s. Tropic of Cancer is now considered, as Norman Mailer said, "one of the ten or twenty great novels of our century."
Henry Miller's blend of memoir and fiction chronicles the bawdy adventures of a young expatriate writer (Miller) and the characters who are part of his life in 1930s Paris. Campbell Scott lends the narration of this classic a depressed monotone that is ideal for the book's stream-of-consciousness, and at times delirious, prose. Sensitive listeners should be cautioned on the novel's adult language and situations, and it should be no surprise that it was banned in the U.S. for 27 years after its first publication in Paris in 1943. Mellow jazz music overlays chapter beginnings, and Scott's low pitch and easy tone, as well as his French pronunciations, enhance Miller's beautiful, imaginative, and poignant descriptions. Miller's translation of experience into fine prose recalls Joyce's keen works. A.W. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
About the Author
Henry Valentine Miller was born in New York City in 1891 and raised in Brooklyn. He lived in Europe, particularly Paris, Berlin, the south of France, and Greece; in New York; and in Beverly Glen, Big Sur, and Pacific Palisades, California where he died in 1980. He is also the author, among many other works, of Tropic of Capricorn, the Rosy Crucifixion trilogy (Sexus, Plexus, Nexus), and The Air-Conditioned Nightmare.
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