Cover of the Penguin Classics edition of Seize the Day.
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| Author | Saul Bellow |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Viking |
| Publication date | 1956 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| Pages | 128 pp |
| Preceded by | The Adventures of Augie March |
| Followed by | Henderson the Rain King |
Seize the Day, first published in 1956, is considered (by, for example, prominent critic James Wood) one of the great literary works by Saul Bellow. Seize the Day was Bellow's fourth novel (or perhaps novella, given its short length). It was written in the 1950s, a formative period in the creation of the middle class in the United States.
Synopsis
The story centers around a day in the life of Wilhelm Adler (aka Tommy Wilhelm), a failed actor in his forties. Wilhelm is unemployed, impecunious, separated from his wife (who refuses to agree to a divorce), and estranged from his children and his father. He is also stuck with the same immaturity and lack of insight which has brought him to failure. In Seize the Day Wilhelm experiences a day of reckoning as he is forced to examine his life and to finally accept the "burden of self".
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
Robin Williams starred in a 1986 film adaptation of Seize the Day. In 1995, the novel was parodied in an adult film involving a sadomasochistic relationship between an epileptic husband and his abusive wife.
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| Novels: |
Dangling Man • The Victim • The Adventures of Augie March • Seize the Day • Henderson the Rain King • Herzog • Mr. Sammler's Planet • Humboldt's Gift • The Dean's December • More Die of Heartbreak • A Theft • The Bellarosa Connection • The Actual • Ravelstein |
| Short stories : |
Mosby's Memoirs • Him with His Foot in His Mouth • • Collected Stories |
| Essays: |
To Jerusalem and Back • It All Adds Up |
