The novels of Ben Hecht.

When Ben Hecht died in 1964, a legend survived which suggested that he had been many things: a poet, a critic, a playwright, a scenarist, and an international figure. He was also a fictionist, but though his short stories are often remembered, his novels are not. Nevertheless, his novels constitute the first genuinely literary legacy of his career. Most of them were written before other interests, both social and materialistic, had called him away; and they reflect the struggle of an artist to protect his integrity from overwhelming temptations. His first novel, Erik Dorn (1921), which has been compared to Joyce's Ulysses, reflects the cynical attitude with which many writers began the post World War I decade. This was followed by Gargoyles (1922), which has been compared to the works of Sinclair Lewis, and by Fantazius Mallare (1922), a Freudian note-book which had a sequel, The Kingdom of Evil (1924). He also wrote two detective stories, The Florentine Dagger (1923), and Count Bruga (1926), though the latter is actually a fictionalized biography of his seriocomic friend Maxwell Bodenheim. In Humpty Dumpty (1924), he brought to fruition the themes which had troubled him in Erik Dorn and in Gargoyles; and in A Jew in Love (1931), he wrote one of the first of the currently popular Jewish-American initiation novels. Though he wrote two other novels, I Hate Actors (1944), and The Sensualists (1959), they are insignificant in any serious literary study, for they reflect a total capitulation to materialistic and popular values. When the passage of time allows an accurate historical evaluation of Ben Hecht to be formed, the greater emphasis will probably be placed on his efforts on behalf of the Jews or on his Broadway successes or on the fact that he was, as F. Scott Fitzgerald has said, "that most limited of all specialists, the 'well-rounded man.'" But hopefully it will not be forgotten that at the beginning of his career, at the time when he was a serious and dedicated artist, he was a novelist.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Grantor

Baylor University.

Year dc:date.issued

1970

Author dc:creator

• Roberts, Ronald Marc, 1944-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Long, E. Hudson (Eugene Hudson), 1908-1990.

• Hecht, Ben, 1894-1964 -- Criticism and interpretation.

Statement dc:rights

• Baylor University works are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. Contact libraryquestions@baylor.edu for inquiries about permission.

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/2104/14561

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:baylor-ir.tdl.org:2104/14561