This novel is about one man's discovery of life and the world," begins Thomas Wolfe in his author's note to The Web and the Rock. A literary theme so ambitious and all-encompassing almost defies attempt, but Wolfe's story of George Webber is nothing less than astonishing. It follows Webber from his southern upbringing to his college days to his travels abroad to his arrival in New York City, where he aspires to become a successful writer. Then he meets Esther Jack, and things go as differently - but wonderfully so - as they possibly could. Beautiful and wealthy, a socialite, stage designer - and married woman - Esther reveals life and New York for him like nothing before. George Webber's youth and the rise and fall of his turbulent passion for Esther Jack are essential components in Wolfe's complete vision for his protagonist, whose story continues in You Can't Go Home Again. The wisdom Webber suffers - cumulatively, undeniably realized by the close of The Web and the Rock - becomes his fingerpost through subsequent experience.
Author
People best know American writer Thomas Clayton Wolfe for his autobiographical novels, including Look Homeward, Angel (1929) and the posthumously published You Can't Go Home Again (1940). Wolfe wrote four lengthy novels and many short stories, dramatic works and novellas. He mixed highly original, poetic, rhapsodic, and impressionistic prose with autobiographical writing. Wolfe wrote and published books that vividly reflect on American culture and the mores, filtered through his sensitive, sophisticated and hyper-analytical perspective. People widely knew him during his own lifetime. Wolfe inspired the works of many other authors, including Betty Smith with A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Robert Morgan with Gap Creek; Pat Conroy, author of Prince of Tides, said, "My writing career began the instant I finished Look Homeward, Angel." Jack Kerouac idolized Wolfe. Wolfe influenced Ray Bradbury, who included Wolfe as a character in his books. (from Wikipedia)
