Preview of The Sot-Weed Factor Summary:

The Sot-Weed Factor returns to Barth's earlier exploration of the existentialist notions of action, choice, and value.

Whereas his earlier fiction considered these questions in a contemporary context, Barth's third novel introduces an existential perspective into late-seventeenth-century colonial America.

Throughout the novel, he suggests that the absence of any absolute order and the necessity of confronting the imperative to act is a persistent human dilemma; in addition, he suggests...