The Natural
Ranked #19 in Baseball
The classical novel (and basis for the acclaimed film) now in a new edition
Introduction by Kevin Baker
The Natural, Bernard Malamud's first novel, published in 1952, is also the first—and some would say still the best—novel ever written about baseball. In it Malamud, usually appreciated for his unerring portrayals of postwar Jewish life, took on very different material—the story of a superbly gifted "natural" at play in the fields of the old daylight baseball era—and invested it with the hardscrabble poetry, at once grand and altogether believable, that... more
Introduction by Kevin Baker
The Natural, Bernard Malamud's first novel, published in 1952, is also the first—and some would say still the best—novel ever written about baseball. In it Malamud, usually appreciated for his unerring portrayals of postwar Jewish life, took on very different material—the story of a superbly gifted "natural" at play in the fields of the old daylight baseball era—and invested it with the hardscrabble poetry, at once grand and altogether believable, that... more
Reviews and Recommendations
We've comprehensively compiled reviews of The Natural from the world's leading experts.
Chad Harbach It’s a very dark book. Roy Hobbs is a really one-dimensional figure. He’s very ambitious, in a narrow, greedy American sort of way. (Source)
Michael Carlson A perfect, mythic take on baseball in which he plays with the myth of the Fisher King and the Holy Grail. (Source)
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