Literature / Look Homeward, Angel

Look Homeward, Angel (subtitled A Story of the Buried Life) is the 1929 debut novel by American author Thomas Wolfe. A coming-of-age story, it is considered to be autobiographical in nature, with its protagonist Eugene Gant generally seen as a not-always-flattering Author Avatar of Wolfe himself.

Part of the novel was later adapted into the stage play of the same title, which itself was adapted into a 1972 Made-for-TV Movie and the 1978 musical Angel.

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Tropes:

• Literary Allusion Title: from the poem "Lycidas" by John Milton:
  Look homeward Angel now, and melt with ruth;
  And, O ye dolphins, waft the helpless youth.
• No Communities Were Harmed: The town of Altamont, Catawba is an expy of Wolfe's hometown of Asheville, North Carolina.

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