About this title: The controversial, erotic and hilarious companion to the legendary Tropic of Cancer, in a smart new 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, ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. VG PB. GROVE PRESS. SMOOTH TIGHT SPINE. MINIMAL RUBS ALONG COVER EDGES. LOWER FRONT COER TIP W/TINY CHIP. PO NAME @ TOP COVER PAGE. TEXT SHOWS BORDER TANNING {0-1} INSIDE COVERS W/ TAN {2-3} PAGE EDGES TAN {0-1} 12TH PRINTING 1978[B-3] read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Grove Press, New York
Date Published: 1962
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Covers show rubbing from age. Some creasing on spine and corner of front cover. Covers are straight and crisp. Corners are sharp. Text is clean with minimal tanning. Binding is tight. 348 p.; 22 cm. read more
Edition: No Edition Stated
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Grove Press, New York
Date Published: 1961
Description: Good. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. Browning to pages. Spine slightly cocked. Scuffing and wear to wraps. Solid copy with clean pages. read more
Edition: Reprint
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Grove Press, Inc., New York
Date Published: 1961
Description: Good. No Jacket. The book has bumping at the corners and there is some rubbing on the cover. The binding is black with red and gold lettering. The text is clean and the binding is tight. read more
"Reading Tropic of Capricorn made me want to read Tropic of Cancer again... then read Tropic of Capricorn again... and then repeat. There is so much in these novels that I have only just begun to grasp. I think I will read them again and start liking them better as a result. I didn't find the ludicrous sex scenes all that disturbing (some were even hilarious); I found his outlook on life really disturbing though. Hedonistic nihilist to the max. Now that I've gotten over some of the shock factor, I think I could dig a little deeper. Anyone who feels compelled to test their morals, should check these books out. Read Capricorn first, then Cancer to better understand Henry's development."
"Henry Miller is mad. I'm not sure anymore that he's mad in a good way. This book was more ranting and raving of a genius writer, but if you take it personally it can appall or depress you. I didn't think it was as good as Tropic of Cancer. That book was a constant high for me, but this one faltered at many places and at times bored me. But boredom doesn't last longer than a page or two when reading this book. Something really good will take you out of it and keep you out of it for a good while.
Looking at some of the reviews here it looks like misogyny is a matter of contention regarding Miller. I think they're missing the point. It's like accusing him of anti-Semitism because of how he wrote about the Jews that he knew. Miller is just intense, and he writes with passion and bluntness. Personal hyper-sensitivities should be left out when reading Miller. I actually don't find him misogynistic at all. He writes about his raw desires with zeal and intensity and he doesn't see a need to post-script it with "oh, and I'm not saying that women should not be respected or don't have anything else to offer other than sex." Expecting every male writer to say or imply such thing is just another form of vanity. Some women need to get over their obsession to analyze every male write, looking for signs of "misogyny.""
"I thought this was Miller's best ... until, two-thirds of the way through, when he began rhapsodizing about world history and overindulged in philosophy. Much as I like Miller, it's clear that deep thinking was never his strong suit.
Having been guided by Miller to other writers--Celine, Knut Hamsun, Anais Nin, Blaise Cendrars--as well as the art historian Elie Faure, he turned me on to Oswald Spengler. I spent a year reading and rereading Decline of the West, and even wrote an essay about it. In similar fashion, it seems to me that it was Spengler's influence that undid Capricorn--a case of admiration and imitation interfering with what Henry Miller does best: presenting an adventurous yet often everyday life in flowing, literate detail. As a result, what began as a great book became a very good one."
"Hit and miss. Miller's writing has a wonderful fierceness to it, and when he's on, and at his scathing best, he's a pleasure to read. Here's an example of him at his best:
"The stabbing horror of life is not contained in calamities and disasters, because these things wake one up and one gets very familiar and intimate with them and finally they become tame again ... no it is more like being in a hotel room in Hoboken, let us say, and just enough money in one's pocket for another meal. You are in a city that you never expect to be in again and you have only to pass the night in your hotel room, but it takes all the courage and pluck you possess to stay in that room. There must be a good reason why certain cities, certian places, inspire such loathing and dread. . . . It's almost like looking at yourself in another incarnation. You know, with the most disturbing certitude, that what governs life is not money, not politics, not religion, not training, not race, not language, not customs, but something else, something you're trying to throttle all the time and which is really throttling you, because otherwise you wouldn't be terrified all of a sudden and wonder how you were going to escape."
I used to live (was throttled, continuously) in Hoboken, so this passage makes me laugh on a whole other level."
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