{"product_id":"the-last-puritan-a-memoir-in-the-form-of-a-novel-9780262691789","title":"The Last Puritan: A Memoir in the Form of a Novel","description":"\u003cp\u003eA novel of of ideas  expressed in the birth  life  and early death of Oliver Alden. Published in 1935  George Santayanas The Last Puritan was the American philosophers only novel. It became an instant best-seller  immediately linked in its painful voyage of self discovery to The Education of Henry Adams. It is essentially a novel of ideas  expressed in the birth  life  and early death of Oliver Alden.The Last Puritan is volume four in a new critical edition of The Works of George Santayana that restores Santayanas original text and provides important new scholarly information. Books in this series - the first complete publication of Santayanas works - include an editorial apparatus with notes to the text (identifying persons  places  and ideas)  textual commentary (including a description of the composition and publication history  along with a discussion of editorial methods and decisions)  discussions of adopted readings  lists of variants and emendations  and line-end hyphenations. Irving Singers new introduction to this edition takes up Santayanas philosophical and artistic concerns  including issues of homosexuality raised by the depiction of the novels two protagonists  Oliver and Mario  and of the relationship between Oliver and the rogue character Jim Darnley. In his thoughtful analysis Singer finds the term \"homosexual novel\" too reductionist and imprecise for what Santayana is trying to achieve. Singer brings to light the authors skillful and inventive methods for perceiving and interpreting reality  including ideal forms of friendship  and his success in exploring the pervasive moral problems that people face throughout their existence.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45279781158965,"sku":"ByrdShop_0262691787","price":75.2,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780262691789.jpg?v=1780610072","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-last-puritan-a-memoir-in-the-form-of-a-novel-9780262691789","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}