Will Barrett is a 25-year-old wanderer from the South living in New York City, detached from his roots and with no plans for the future, until the purchase of a telescope sets off a romance and changes his life forever.
The Last Gentleman
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Browse the best books of summer including blockbusters, beach reads, and editors' picks in our Summer Reading Store. |
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Brilliant...It shimmers with the chaste and civilized ornaments of irony, understatement, and compassion." --Time
From the Publisher
"Brilliant...it shimmers with the chaste and civilized ornaments of irony, understatement, and compassion." --Time "Splendid...a beautifully textured novel...a distinguished work of art." --New York Times Book Review
"Lovely and brilliant...a highly whimsical kind of picaresque tale that puts one in mind of both Faulkner and Canneau." --Joyce Carol Oates, The Nation
"Breaks your heart in the midst of laughter." --Philadelphia Inquirer
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
More About the Author
Walker Percy (1916-1990) was one of the most prominent American writers of the twentieth century. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, he was the oldest of three brothers in an established Southern family that contained both a Civil War hero and a U.S. senator. Acclaimed for his poetic style and moving depictions of the alienation of modern American culture, Percy was the bestselling author of six fiction titles--including the classic novel The Moviegoer (1961), winner of the National Book Award--and fifteen works of nonfiction. In 2005, Time magazine named The Moviegoer one of the best English-language books published since 1923.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
37 of 38 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Marooned in New York City, displaced Southerner Will Barrett finds himself utterly abstracted
from his world and himself. When a chance encounter in Central Park leads him to make the
acquaintance of the Vaughts, fellow Southerners who knew his father, Will embarks on a journey
that he hopes will tell him what he desperately needs to know. What does he need to know?
If Will knew the answer to that, he wouldn't need the Vaughts, or the South, or the haunted
memory of his father. Traversing the country, Will seeks the one man he believes will tell
him what to do. Percy not only weaves a lush character study of lost Will, but realizes
a profound meditation on the nature of identity, place, and home. Above all, like any
good picaresque novel, Will's journey is not so much about the end, but about what he discovers along the way. However, as a testament to
Percy's imagination and probity, Will's final destination provides nothing less than utter
revelation. I closed this book and jumped out of bed immediately, my breath coming in gulps
as I absorbed and processed what Walker Percy had taught me with such love, patience, beauty
and truth.
from his world and himself. When a chance encounter in Central Park leads him to make the
acquaintance of the Vaughts, fellow Southerners who knew his father, Will embarks on a journey
that he hopes will tell him what he desperately needs to know. What does he need to know?
If Will knew the answer to that, he wouldn't need the Vaughts, or the South, or the haunted
memory of his father. Traversing the country, Will seeks the one man he believes will tell
him what to do. Percy not only weaves a lush character study of lost Will, but realizes
a profound meditation on the nature of identity, place, and home. Above all, like any
good picaresque novel, Will's journey is not so much about the end, but about what he discovers along the way. However, as a testament to
Percy's imagination and probity, Will's final destination provides nothing less than utter
revelation. I closed this book and jumped out of bed immediately, my breath coming in gulps
as I absorbed and processed what Walker Percy had taught me with such love, patience, beauty
and truth.
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
Will Barrett, often bemused, confused, and having the uncanny ability to take on the characteristics of others to fit in as needed, seeks the meaning of life through his telescope (his powers of observation as well as a literal telescope), and a journey prompted by a girl he spys on in Central Park. While Will feels lost to himself, struggling with modern morality, the "new" South, and his family history, those he meets on his often humorous journey from New York back to the South, and finally, the new frontier of the West, often mistake him as the salvation to ease their own paths. Walker Percy is the master of fusing philosopy, religion, and an examination of the pitfalls in modern life with humor and storytelling.
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
By Blue Six
Format:Paperback
Deceptively meandering at first, slow to take root in the mind, Percy's 'The Last Gentleman' will reward persistent readers with an egrossing and entertaining characterization of the human condition. Will Barrett is the literary everyman who is never happy when things are pleasant, never satisfied at the feast, never more invigorated than when his contemporaries feel hopeless. And he doesn't have any idea why. A richly sympbolic telescope brings him into an encounter with a lovely young woman, a dying youth, a pornographic and incompetent doctor and a 'mean as hell' nun - all in the same family. While Barrett travels with this crew and ponders the unanswerable questions that continue to plague him, he becomes aware that the sick youth's 'salvation' may be 'up to' him. This is a skillful novel with elusive, eclectic characters surrounding a young protagonist whose only crime is an honest search for the truth, so that his life will take on some real meaning. The scene where Barrett converses with the nun while she feeds viscera to a bird of prey is particularly insightful and stimulating. A meaty, complex, thinking-person's novel.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Journey home.
The Last Gentleman takes place circa 1964. Will Barrett, the title character, is a southerner who finds himself living at the Y in New York and working as a glorified janitor for... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Michael G.
5.0 out of 5 stars
excellent
book was in excellent condition and I received it quickly. For a used book the condition was like new. I was very positively impressed with the product and service.
Published 20 months ago by book club mike
2.0 out of 5 stars
CHEWED NOT DIGESTED
Thanks to my new puppy who chewed the library copy I had I now own a hardback of THE LAST GENTLEMAN. I enjoyed THE MOVIEGOER, but this seems like a rewrite. Read more
Published 21 months ago by N. Ravitch
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Picaresque Perils of a Southern Gentleman
Walker Percy is one of the great novelists of the South and is at his best when he describes quotidian life there. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Wordsworth
2.0 out of 5 stars
The Last Percy Novel For Me? Maybe.
Ok, ok, ok this is one of those books that has been hyped by a ton of people for an age. Why? Well, because many of these people claim that the book is a visionary commentary of... Read more
Published on August 16, 2010 by Dr. Cardinal
4.0 out of 5 stars
Coming Into Life
Walker Percy made a name for himself by capturing the alienation that exists in everyday, mundane life. Read more
Published on May 27, 2010 by R. Chaffey
4.0 out of 5 stars
Philosophical novel
None of us, I think would bother to read a philosophical novel where the characters merely spend all their time involved in philosophical dialogue. Read more
Published on April 18, 2010 by Ted Byrd
1.0 out of 5 stars
More description needed
I ordered the book thinking it would be in good condition. Instead it had St Vincent de Paul Thrift Store stickers in the front cover and along the spine, magic marker marks on the... Read more
Published on January 7, 2010 by James D. Kegel
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bored and Confused
This is actually my favorite Percy novel. While I believe the Moviegoer uses an excellent device, watching movies, to depict the alienation of the moder/post-modern man I... Read more
Published on July 17, 2007 by Chad E. Grissom
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Last Gentleman
The year this book was published, I was a college student taking whatever liberal arts piqued my interest. My Abnormal Psychology course was a favorite. Read more
Published on February 20, 2007 by Uitlander
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 1
book:
100
books
cite this book:
See all 100 books citing this book
- The End of the Modern World by Romano Guardini in Front Matter
- The Last Physician: Walker Percy and the Moral Life of Medicine by Carl Elliott on 32 pages
- Writing the Apocalypse: Historical Vision in Contemporary U.S. and Latin American Fiction by Lois Parkinson Zamora on 12 pages
- Better Than Well: American Medicine Meets the American Dream by Carl Elliott on 6 pages
- Shelby Foote: A Writer's Life by C. Stuart Chapman on 5 pages
- Conversations with Robert Coles (Literary Conversations) by Jay Woodruff on page 18, page 84, and page 106
See all 100 books citing this book
