Share <Embed>

Buy New

$16.71

List Price: $22.00
Save: $5.29 (24%)

In Stock.

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Turn on 1-Click ordering for this browser

This item ships to France. Want it Monday, July 2? Choose AmazonGlobal Priority Shipping at checkout. Learn more

Select delivery location

Buy Used

$11.70

+ $0.00 shipping

Select delivery location

Used: Acceptable | Details

Sold by Thriftbooks

Turn on 1-Click ordering for this browser

Added to

Unable to add item to List. Please try again.

Other Sellers on Amazon

Add to Cart

$12.72

Sold by: Biblioteka

Add to Cart

$14.07
+ $29.99 shipping

Sold by: SuperBookDeals---

Add to Cart

$14.28
+ $32.14 shipping

Sold by: indoobestsellers

Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 3 images

The Bonfire of the Vanities Paperback – March 4, 2008

by Tom Wolfe (Author)

741 customer reviews

See all 57 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$11.69

—

Hardcover

"Please retry"

—

$50.48

$7.98

Paperback

"Please retry"

$16.71

$12.72

$6.98

Mass Market Paperback

"Please retry"

$108.21

$143.47

Audio CD, Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$44.95

$26.07

$632.57

Unknown Binding

"Please retry"

—

$12.00

Vintage Tom Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities, the #1 bestseller that will forever define late-twentieth-century New York style. "No one has portrayed New York Society this accurately and devastatingly since Edith Wharton" (The National Review)“A page-turner . . . Brilliant high comedy.” (The New Republic)

Frequently bought together

Total price: $38.03

Buy the selected items together

This item:The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe Paperback $16.71
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details
The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe Paperback $10.44
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe Paperback $10.88
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details

Customers who bought this item also bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

Tom Wolfe

741

Paperback
$10.44
Tom Wolfe

380

Paperback
$10.88
Tom Wolfe

718

Paperback
$14.98
Tom Wolfe

74

Paperback
$13.34
Tom Wolfe

163

Paperback
$12.00
Tom Wolfe

34

Paperback
$19.21

Special offers and product promotions

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A big, bitter, funny, craftily plotted book that grabs you by the lapels and won't let you go.” ―The New York Times Book Review

“The Bonfire of the Vanities chronicles the collapse of a Wall Street bond trader, and examines a world in which fortunes are made and lost at the blink of a computer screen. . . . Wolfe's subject couldn't be more topical: New Yorkers' relentless pursuit and flaunting of wealth, and the fury it evokes in the have-nots.” ―USA Today

“A superb human comedy and the first novel ever to get contemporary New York, in all its arrogance and shame and heterogeneity and insularity, exactly right.” ―The Washington Post Book World

“A page-turner . . . Brilliant high comedy.” ―The New Republic

“More than a tour de force.” ―Time

From the Inside Flap

Tom Wolfe's modern American satire tells the story of Sherman McCoy, a Wall Street "Master of the Universe" who has it all -- a Park Avenue apartment, a job that brings wealth, power and prestige, a beautiful wife, an even more beautiful mistress.
Suddenly, one wrong turn makes it all go wrong, and Sherman spirals downward in a sudden fall from grace that sucks him into the ravenous heart of a New York City gone mad during the go-go, racially turbulent, socially hilarious 1980s.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product details

Paperback: 704 pages
Publisher: Picador; First edition (March 4, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0312427573
ISBN-13: 978-0312427573
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1.2 x 8.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 741 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,827 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #26 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Humor > Lawyers & Criminals
- #45 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Satire
- #136 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Humor > Satire

Would you like to tell us about a lower price?
If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support?

NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE

Customer Reviews

Write a customer review

See all 741 customer reviews

Rated by customers interested in

Literary Fiction

4.2 out of 5 stars

Books

4.3 out of 5 stars

Is this feature helpful?

Thank you for your feedback.

Read reviews that mention

Top customer reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Byron

Tom Wolfe wrote the heck outta this

May 29, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This book is about the Mercury Project, NASA’s first manned space missions, and the origins of the astronaut program.

Tom Wolfe was a practitioner of “New Journalism.” The only previous experience that I had with that style was with Hunter S. Thompson’s alcohol-and-other-drugs-fueled escapades in Las Vegas while covering a race for Sports Illustrated and his alcohol-fueled experiences at the Kentucky Derby. Based on those reading experiences, it was my understanding that one of the hallmarks of New Journalism was Journalist-as-Participant. The historical record, however, is pretty clear that a drunk Tom Wolfe had not, in fact, been blasted into orbit with John Glenn or any of the other Mercury 7 astronauts. How then is The Right Stuff an example New Journalism?

Well, Tom Wolfe wrote his butt off. The book reads more “literary” than as an object of traditional journalism. Let me explain…no, there is too much…let me sum up…A traditional journalistic or scholarly book about the early astronauts and “what made them tick” might include quotations from interviews with those astronauts and people that knew them, government officials and news reporters from the time, and maybe a few academics to provide some Authoritative Interpretation. The writer wouldn’t put forth a theory of their own about the astronaut motivations, or, if they did, there’d be a ton of explicit sources backing them up.

Tom Wolfe just puts his theories out there, front and center, and then writes with such force – with repeated interjections, sometimes with exclamations! – and capitalizations and callbacks and pretty descriptions and literary techniques that the reader will forget that they are reading some nonfiction book; this story may be (at least in some sense) true, but it reads like a novel. It never really dives into the minutiae of bureaucratic organization nor is it really interested in any one’s point of view other than that which drives the author’s central point: the astronauts were military test pilots fueled by a Manly Competitive Desire to BE THE BEST and that performing well under pressure in that competition exhibits The Right Stuff (which is never explicitly defined, although I have my own theories).

I am a fan of David Foster Wallace’s writing, and I could see a clear influence from Tom Wolfe’s style in Wallace’s writing. And David Foster Wallace was certainly not the only literary writer influenced by Wolfe. Fans of literature really should check this out, just to trace back certain styles to their creator (or popularizer). Science fiction fans could be inspired by a (more or less) true account of fighter pilot personality and how their influence (or lack thereof) could impact a fictional space program. Fans of nonfiction could see that there are ways of telling a nonfiction story rather than the usual, traditional methodologies. I’d recommend this book to anyone, just with the disclaimer that it is NOT like the usual biographical or documentary-style rendition of the Mercury Project. The writer’s style is definitely noticeable, and some might be distracted by it (or it could just not be to their taste).

4 people found this helpful

Comment

February 22, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

After seeing the movie numerous times, I thought it was time to finally read the book. Although sometimes the language can be colorful and literary, overall I could not put it down, and finished it in just a few days.

12 people found this helpful

Helpful

Not Helpful

Comment

S. E. Haley

They were the pioneers of today's Space travel and they are portrayed not only as hero's but men with the adventurers spirit to have accomplished what we know now as America's best and brightest of the time

May 31, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Don't know much about today's writers, so I decided to go back and read the Authors who have been highly lauded over the years. Since Tom Wolfe is no longer with us, I wanted to start with "The Right Stuff". I lived through the decades of the story and know the type of people involved. Tom Wolfe pulls you right into the time and the troubles that these men who wanted to go out into space or just fly jets. They were the pioneers of today's Space travel and they are portrayed not only as hero's but men with the adventurers spirit to have accomplished what we know now as America's best and brightest of the time.
Excellent for anyone who wants to understand the effort it took to get to where we are today

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Not Helpful

Comment

Dominic F. Laniewicz

was a wonderful writer with a wry sense of humor and an ...

June 20, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Tom Wolfe, may he rest in peace, was a wonderful writer with a wry sense of humor and an ability to see the absurd in our great American Republic. I lived the years of which he writes and he has caught the time perfectly. It was a perilous time - I and my classmates did shelter under our wooden desks in atomic bomb drills - and so soon after WW II the paranoia was probably justified to some extent. We looked at NASA's failures with great consternation and rejoiced in the eventual triumphs of the space program with satisfaction and joy. The astronauts truly did have the "right stuff" for that time. I can attest from my 12 years in the U.S. Navy that his descriptions of military fighter pilots are on the money. In their business, as in that of test pilots, the ego and the skills go hand in hand. Chuck Yeager was and is one of my American heroes. A great read capturing a unique period in American history skillfully and entertainingly.

One person found this helpful

Comment

October 14, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

After 30 years it still resonates -- kind of sad really. Excellent read, for "readers," not for those who like snippet type reading. Only beef. Why of all possible endings did he choose this one?! Very unsatisfying after a substantial commitment to the story. Feels like he rushed the ending.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

Not Helpful

Comment

Graham Surrey

Brilliant writing from Tom Wolfe

September 3, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

There's a good reason why The Right Stuff is hailed as a classic work of literature. Tom Wolfe's writing gets you right into the headspace of the first astronauts in the Mercury program and examines the motivations and personality-types of men who chose to devote their lives to living on the edge testing experimental aircraft and being pioneers in the Space Race.

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

Not Helpful

Comment

R. Estes

Don't know why I waited so long to read this

January 23, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This book doesn't need a recommendation from me. I'll just comment on the Kindle production of it, which was good. I mention this because comments about typos in the Kindle version of Wolfe's The Right Stuff made me cautious about buying that book, and the sample indeed had obvious errors, so I will only read that in a printed copy.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Not Helpful

Comment

Kajetan

Still the best of non fiction history

January 8, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Reading this book for my son's academic decathalon, I was reminded how fresh and bright Tom Wolfe's reporting was compared to everyone else, then or now. Even you care little about the space program or its premises, this is a story of misplaced men in a misplaced time that comes to life on the page through the unique lens of Tom Wolfe. Wolfe benefits significantly, I think, from remaining grounded in the reality of the men of historical legend as opposed to the Booleanh drift that seems to take occur with his fiction

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

Not Helpful

Comment

Most recent customer reviews

Stephen B Bailey

Dated but very interesting

A dated topic but still very interesting

Published 6 hours ago

Amazon Customer

A classic novel set in the 80’s in NYC!

Absolutely fabulous read! A definite classic! Wolfe is so talented- laughing out loud as I turned the pages and a talent for language!Read more

Published 1 day ago

k'shusband

Great read

Great read...funny...insightful and informative this book has a great story line and excellent ending.

Published 1 day ago

Shoe Diva

One and only Tom Wolfe book I read - difficult ...

One and only Tom Wolfe book I read - difficult read and wouldn't read any others by him. Need to watch the movie to see how they handled it.

Published 1 day ago

Staci

Better than the film

Great read, not all technical. Our military pilots are terrific people. This is an insight into the best of them in a critical point of American History.

Published 3 days ago

pastorjohn

High flying enjoyment!

Brings the early days of the space race alive. I couldn’t put this book down. Makes you want to keep flying to the stars!

Published 4 days ago

Jason A. Craig

Great book

Amazing history of rocket flight and the people who conquered it. Go watch the great movie after reading this. Awesome

Published 4 days ago

Michael Hart

What a riveting read.

A great service to America by Mr. Wolfe reminding us the brave pioneers who've given us so much 60 years hence

Published 5 days ago

Julie

Great Read

Loved the book. Hard to put down.

Published 6 days ago

L. M. Billow

Five Stars

Great novel, appliy it to today’s world/!

Published 7 days ago

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more about Amazon Giveaway

This item: The Bonfire of the Vanities

Set up a giveaway

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

Tom Wolfe

741

Paperback
$10.44
Tom Wolfe

380

Paperback
$10.88
Tom Wolfe

718

Paperback
$14.98
Dalton

741

Hardcover
53 offers from $3.49
Tom Wolfe

741

Mass Market Paperback
31 offers from $5.88
Tom Wolfe

74

Paperback
$13.34

Buy New

$16.71

Turn on 1-Click ordering for this browser

Buy Used

$11.70

Turn on 1-Click ordering for this browser

Other Sellers on Amazon

The Bonfire of the Vanities Paperback – March 4, 2008

Frequently bought together

Customers who bought this item also bought

Sponsored products related to this item (What's this?)

Special offers and product promotions

Editorial Reviews

Review

From the Inside Flap

Product details

Sponsored products related to this item (What's this?)

Customer Reviews

Read reviews that mention

Top customer reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Most recent customer reviews

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Buy New $16.71

Turn on 1-Click ordering for this browser

Buy Used $11.70

Turn on 1-Click ordering for this browser

Sorry, there was a problem.

Sorry, there was a problem.

Other Sellers on Amazon

The Bonfire of the Vanities Paperback – March 4, 2008

Frequently bought together

Customers who bought this item also bought

Sponsored products related to this item (What's this?)

Special offers and product promotions

Editorial Reviews

Review

From the Inside Flap

Product details

Sponsored products related to this item (What's this?)

Customer Reviews

Read reviews that mention

Top customer reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Most recent customer reviews

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Buy New

$16.71

Buy Used

$11.70