The Tropic of Cancer, The Tropic of Capricorn, & Time Killers: Stories

by Henry Miller

Genres: Fiction, Banned Books, Classics, Romance

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Henry Valentine Miller was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. He broke with existing literary forms and developed a new type of semi-autobiographical novel that blended character study, social criticism, philosophical reflection, stream of consciousness, explicit language, sex, surrealist free association, and mysticism. His most characteristic works of this kind are Tropic of Cancer, Black Spring, Tropic of Capricorn, and the trilogy The Rosy Crucifixion, which are based on his experiences in New York City and Paris (all of which were banned in the United States until 1961). He also wrote travel memoirs and literary criticism, and painted watercolors.

Reviews

[Thom Sibbitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a lover of H. Miller. I have a collection of banned books and this is one of my favorites. Miller is more interested in language, both smutty vernacular and extraordinary words. He has issues for sure. Issues with women, issues with people but he has a passion for living and being flawed which I adore. He excavates the unholy in the same way that Joyce dismembers the holy in portrait of the artist. It is refreshing to read if you like media that is not constructed from an easy to palette corporate, celebrity, Hollywood, American model. I recommend The Air-conditioned Nightmare, if you are looking for something a little more mature. If you are listening to the velvet underground and are frustrated by an American dream that feels like a great social betrayal, then you are in the mood for The Tropic of Cancer. You may find, as I did, that you eyes are melted in their sockets and your heart is left racing.

[jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller.
Well... I had never read Miller before and I assumed from the title that this was a tale of a tropical retreat. A hiatus from life, a story of self-discovery in Polynesia maybe. Nnnoooo.

This is a first-person story, probably much of it true, about Miller's years of poverty and perversion in Paris. He walks the streets, eats little, drinks a lot, picks up many, many prostitutes, calls women by the c-word, lives with bed bugs and meets a dog with worms.
This book is pretty shocking, so it's no big surprise that it was banned for years. Yet, even with a plot so slim that I'm not sure there actually is a plot, Miller is a good writer. He's brutal, sometimes funny and every once in a while he's tender-hearted. 3.5 stars

[rizi · Rating 3 out of 5]

დასაწყისში განცდილმა ზიზღის გრძნობამ ბოლომდე გასტანა NGL.ტომაშის პერსონაჟს მაგონებს ჰენრი,მეტად თავისუფალი,ვნებიანი,მაგრამ,ამავდროულად,მამრთა უმეტესობის მსგავსად მშიშარა და ქალის საშოს დახამებული.
სხვა არაფერი მაქვს სათქმელი.სულ სექსზეა ლაპარაკი და ზაალის ფინალურის თემისთვის იდეალური წიგნია.
რავი რა…

[Ken Deshaies · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this just because: It was banned for 30 years in this country. It regularly shows on the banned books list. I'd never read it, but was always mildly curious about it. So, that said, it's an interesting book, but doesn't deserve, in my opinion, the huge accolades attributed to it over the years. It's more a diary, and a treatise on living in Paris without a job while you get others to feed and house you. The "sexuality" in the book is much more about how women are described than acts of sex - using profane names for body parts rather than any (much) description of personality. The language will be very offensive to many, although I took it simply as the jargon of the day and the setting. Much of it is still used today, but not in terms of respect. I will say that much of the discussion of people, events, ethics, morals, and questions that drive men is incredibly good prose. A good book, but not a great one.

[Gambit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Henry Miller is a dirty old man. That being said, I would highly recommend him, as he is poignant and revelatory. It is an expression of earthy sexuality...

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Absolute perfect book for Seinfield! Gave me Hunter S Thompson vibes.

[C. Al. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Henry is an asshole. Yes, that is evident. But he is also a person. The best parts of him are when he reveals his tenderness. Some of his other best moments include his vivacity for life, and his yearning for excitement while living on the outskirts of society. The Tropic of Cancer is a book from a man that believes God and the Devil are the same entity; and he took every initiative to live hedonistically because he never got an indication on how to live from God themself. Hence, Henry discusses his impudent peregrinations, without any lack of consequence. This is the morality of a man who has nothing, and with that, he seems to believe he has everything.

[Ruth Clarke · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book may have been banned at the time but is tame by modern standards of filth. I've heard raunchier lyrics in a song on Radio 1.
I didn't enjoy how it was written - some paragraphs just seemed to be a jumble of random words. Maybe I'm just not educated enough to understand this book, unlike some of the other readers that have reviewed it.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

No better read anywhere. I will reread some paragraphs just for the power and the beauty of the writing. Amazing book!

[Caroline · Rating 1 out of 5]

Self indulgent waffle about his libido, got fed up & DNF

[Anders Muri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tja, ble litt for bohemsk for meg

[MR in LA · Rating 5 out of 5]

When one has neither the insight or intelligence to understand irony, and original ways to observe the nature of being books like Tropic are despised. He explains from the start that it was suggested he write a book a la Horatio Alger. Alger wrote the same book over and over again - a story of a lowly sap who works hard and succeeds to obtain a bourgeois life. In fact these fantasies belie the reality of life in America. A place where billionaires are now being listened to like they know anything about living. Yes they do know how to make money and spend it like the avaricious maniacs they have come to be.
Miller's "Alger" book is about a man who truly struggled and starved in Paris while trying to become a writer and artist and like it or not succeeded. HIs struggles are depicted by a man who enjoyed every day of hardship. HIs use of horrors, sexual and otherwise is the reality of mankind and now in 2024 more than ever. I don't recall anywhere in the constitution that says "All men (and women) have the right to pursue pornography regardless of age, race, creed and color." We live in a world broken up in groups that hate all the other groups that don't agree with them. I truly hope someday you can see the reality of the mess that we've made in America and the lack of any leader to deliver us from the heaps of garbage piling up on our streets of the major cities. Perhaps the fictional character Jesus will really return and teach the weakest how to fish. One reviewer said he didn't like the characters because "they all feel dead and boring." Yes that is the point and I now quote this man that seems to be dead and very boring. But I don't mean to criticize but only my feeble attempt to rattle the dead to reincarnate. Show me this so-called beautiful world we live in and I'll burn my copy of Tropic. Otherwise I hope that you can see the beauty in his words and the passion of a true teacher and man of letters.

[Marianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Caught in the rain in Chorlton, I popped into Oxfam to find something to read whilst the storm passed. The review, George Orwell, 'If you haven't read this, you must.' Realising I've never read Henry Miller, I paid and sat with a beer horrified and enthralled...the language, the misogyny, the sex-driven narrative, the faux-poverty life (like Orwell) in Montparnasse in the 30s...made me flinch from beginning to end...but totally enthralled with this nihilism meets an almost existential view of life. I loved it. When I picked it up, I didn't realise it was part of a trilogy, I don't think I can bear it...but there's more beer and rain in my future so we will see...

[Nico Kristensen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dnf... I'm so sorry Hennes I can't finish it.

This book was a recommendation where we each gave each other a book to read, outside of our typical genre to try and expand our individual preffred genre. Needless to say, this did not help and only confirmed what I initially expected.

This piece of literature is so boring, and I can see why it was at one point banned. I do not feel with the characters and they all feel dead and boring... Sorry Hennes.

[Julia Bouie · Rating 4 out of 5]

My best friend warned me not to listen to the audio book in public, and what do I do I listen to it at the airport. A classic book which is a must read and cross referenced in other books (to think of one- my sisters keeper).

[Marta · Rating 3 out of 5]

a required reading for '20th century american literature course'. that's all.

man is a cunt and reading this book was a disturbing experience that i'd prefer never to repeat. also never again to discuss it looking my prof in the eyes.

[Talani]

About 15% of this book is in french. That's more than I can handle. Oh, and he's having and affair with his friends wife.

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tropic of Capricorn only. Wrong edition but couldn't find the right one