For over forty years, Saul Bellow has been writing fiction that denounces the destructive forces that have dominated the literature of this century--existential nihilism and historicist pessimism. In novel after novel--The Adventures of Augie March, Herzog, Humbolt's Gift, Mr. Sammler's Planet, and others--he has tried to restore the integrity of the private life, the value of human feeling, and the primacy of social contract,...