 1949 first UK edition cover | |
| Author | Nathanael West |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Liveright |
Publication date | April 8, 1933 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover, Paperback) |
| Pages | 208 |
| Preceded by | The Dream Life of Balso Snell |
Miss Lonelyhearts is anovella byNathanael West. He began writing it early in 1930 and completed the manuscript in November 1932.[1] Published in 1933, it is anExpressionistblack comedy set in New York City during theGreat Depression.[2] It is about a male newspaperadvice columnist who provides advice to lonesome people. He becomes so affected by their desperate letters that he spirals into depression, drinking, and ill-considered sexual affairs, which lead to his downfall.
In the story, Miss Lonelyhearts is the pseudonym for an unnamed male newspaper columnist writing anadvice column for the lovelorn and lonesome, a duty that the other newspaper staff consider to be a joke. As Miss Lonelyhearts reads letters from desperate New Yorkers, he feels terribly burdened and falls into a cycle of depression, accompanied by heavy drinking and occasional bar fights. He is also the victim of the pranks and cynical advice of Shrike, his feature editor at the newspaper.
Miss Lonelyhearts tries several approaches to escape the terribly painful letters he has to read: religion, trips to the countryside with his fiancée Betty, and sexual affairs with Shrike's wife and Mrs. Doyle, a reader of his column. However, Miss Lonelyhearts's efforts do not seem to ameliorate his situation. After his sexual encounter with Mrs. Doyle, he meets her husband, a poor crippled man. The Doyles invite Miss Lonelyhearts to have dinner with them. When he arrives, Mrs. Doyle tries to seduce him again, but he responds by beating her. Mrs. Doyle tells her husband that Miss Lonelyhearts tried to rape her.
In the last scene, Mr. Doyle hides a gun inside a rolled newspaper and decides to take revenge on Miss Lonelyhearts. Lonelyhearts, who has just experienced a religious enlightenment after three days of sickness, runs toward Mr. Doyle to embrace him. The gun "explodes", and the two men roll down a flight of stairs together.
The general tone of the novel is one of extreme disillusionment with Depression-era American society, a consistent theme in West's novels. However, the novel is a black comedy, characterized by a dark sense of humor andirony. Justus Neiland,[3] among others, has pointed out the use of laughter influenced by philosopherHenri Bergson, in which "the attitudes, gestures, and movements of the human body are laughable in exact proportion as that body reminds us of a machine."[4]
Literature professors Diane Hoeveler and Rita Bernard analyzed the novel through aMarxist lens as a condemnation ofMarx's theory of alienation and the colonization of social life bycommodification, foreshadowing the stance of theSituationists andGuy Debord in particular. Miss Lonelyhearts is unable to fulfill his role as advice-giver in a world in which both people and advice (in the form of newspaper ads, for example) aremass-produced. People are machines for the sole purpose of laboring and producing value as far as the rest of society is concerned (thus Miss Lonelyhearts' name), and any advice for them is as mass-produced as aninstruction manual for a machine. Lonelyhearts is unable to find apersonal solution to his problems because they have systemic causes. West, who worked in the newspaper business before writingMiss Lonelyhearts, is also an advice giver of a sort as a novelist.Miss Lonelyhearts is similar to a Situationistdétournement because it uses a form to critique the same form. The novel also condemns itself by condemning art, which is repeatedly derided by Shrike and compared to religion as anopiate of the masses.[5][6]
Many of the problems described inMiss Lonelyhearts describe actual economic conditions in New York City during theGreat Depression, although the novella carefully avoids questions of national politics. Moreover, Marian Crowe declared the novel is particularly important due to itsexistential import. The characters seem to be living in anamoral world. Hence, they resort to heavy drinking, sex, and parties. Miss Lonelyhearts has a "Christ complex", which stands for his belief in religion as a solution to a world devoid of values.[7]
In 1933, the novella was very loosely adapted as a movie,Advice to the Lovelorn, starringLee Tracy, produced byTwentieth Century Pictures—before its merger withFox Film Corporation—and released byUnited Artists. Greatly changed from the novel, it became a comedy/drama about a hard-boiled reporter who becomes popular when he adopts a female pseudonym and dispenses fatuous advice. He agrees (for a hefty payment) to use the column to recommend a line of medicines, but finds out they are actually harmful drugs when his mother dies. He then agrees to help the police track down the criminals. The movie ends with the main character happily married.
In 1957, the novella was adapted into a stage play entitledMiss Lonelyhearts byHoward Teichmann. It opened on Broadway at theMusic Box Theatre on October 3, 1957, in a production directed byAlan Schneider and designed byJo Mielziner andPatricia Zipprodt. It starred Pat O'Brien. It ran for only twelve performances.
In 1958 the plot was again filmed asLonelyhearts, starringMontgomery Clift,Robert Ryan, andMyrna Loy, produced byDore Schary and released by United Artists. Although following the plot of the book more closely thanAdvice to the Lovelorn, many changes were made. The movie greatly softens the cynical edge of the original book, and the story is once more given a happy ending—the woman's husband is talked out of shooting Miss Lonelyhearts, who finds happiness with his true love, and Shrike is considerably kinder at film's end.
The novella was adapted by Robert E. Bailey andMichael Dinner into a 1983 TV movie,Miss Lonelyhearts, starringEric Roberts in the lead role. Eric Roberts would coincidentally play the lead role in the unrelated 1991 filmLonely Hearts.
In 2006, composerLowell Liebermann completedMiss Lonelyhearts, a two-act opera. The libretto was written byJ. D. McClatchy. The opera, which received its premiere in 2006 at the Juilliard Opera Center, was commissioned by theJuilliard School for its centennial celebration.
The opera was co-produced by theThornton School of Music Opera Program atUniversity of Southern California, and received its West Coast premiere at the school in 2007. Both premieres were directed by Thornton faculty member Ken Cazan.
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