The Hills Beyond

by Thomas Wolfe

The third and last book culled from the mountain of manuscript Thomas Wolfe left behind, The Hills Beyond “contains some of his best, and certainly his most mature, work” ( New York Times Book Review ). The unfinished novel from which this collection of sketches, stories, and novellas takes its title was Wolfe’s final effort. It tells the story of the Joyner family, George Webber’s maternal ancestors, in pre–Civil War North Carolina and illustrates Wolfe’s fine sense of family traits rooted in a traceable past. “Chickamauga” is the superb Civil War tale that Wolfe received from his great-uncle; “The Lost Boy” renders a second, more tender, treatment of the death of young Grover Gant; and “The Return of the Prodigal” describes Eugene Gant’s imagined and then actual revisit to Altamont when he is a famous author. Together the eleven pieces of The Hills Beyond confirm the passion, energy, and sensitivity that made Wolfe the most promising American writer of his generation.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Literature, Classics, American, Historical Fiction, Southern

360 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1941

About the 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)

Reviews

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't get it. Not really a novel, hardly even a collection of short stories, "The Hills Beyond" is more a series of character sketches than anything else, primarily tracing the history of the Joyner clan in the towns of Zebulon and Libya Hill in the fictional state of Catawba. Taken as such, what can be said of these characters? Although lucidly rendered, the question I have upon arriving at the back cover is: Do I care about these characters? The answer is no.

It is interesting to note, in particular, how 70 or 80 years can change a piece of literature. I have no doubt that, in his day, Wolfe was pushing the envelope in any number of ways. The "formlessness" of his form is but one example. Another would be the frankness of his language. And, certainly, at numerous points in his narrative, Wolfe acknowledges the ugly underbelly of the pristine, idealized antebellum South, as well as of mankind as a whole. Yet, for all of his apparent protest, Wofle is too much a product of his times to remain wholly relevant at this late date. What qualified as edgy in the 1930s merely seems quaint now, and Wolfe is frequently just as enamored of our collective myths -- however destructive they may be -- as he is disgusted by them. Beneath the bristling social commentary, there is still a distinct note of jingoism in Wolfe's world view.

[Eslam Khaled · Rating 3 out of 5]

توماس وولف 1900-1938
من آباء الروايه الأمريكية.
محدش تف في وشه وترجمله حاجه من رواياته غير روايه يتيمه اسمها (ما وراء التل) ترجمها أحمد كمال يونس ونشرتها دار المعارف سنة 1982
المهم ان الترجمه دي كان عباره عن 160صفحه قطع متوسط بفونت كبير، في حين ان الروايه في لغتها الأم 348 صفحه!
يلعن ابو حركة الترجمة العربية

[Ronald · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superb work of fiction, story-telling, and frankness about life in the South. Life, in the South is varied, for people, but at the same time the characters are very characteristic of unchanging expectations, of people in the South. For instance, each human is expected to fulfill a duty that keeps the same rhythm that life in the gilded past had. If, a book, ever told the story of life in the South as a caste-system, this book's purpose is that, and more. Wolfe's unfinished novel is a gem of American Literature, often left out discussion because it has no ending.

That is the essence of life in the South, at least for Wolfe, that there is no ending, to the mundane life of doing chores, glorifying the Civil War, and the exploits of great generals. This book contains narratives of fictional, but real reality, for people. Including, the stories of the Civil War, from some of those great generals, who the Joyner family. There is no spoilers here, only interest, into the talents of the characters and Wolfe, coming together to create a world, that is not much different to our own. And, to the life that we would live if the reader lived in the South. If, we are to confront life on the page of a novel, let it be this one.

Upon, reaching the end of the book, I wondered if it was really the end. This is the genius of the story. This is the genius of telling a story that beats in the timelessness of life, not a clock. It is not of fashion to read this book, nor to spend time with it. Rather, it is quite vogue to wonder what would someone write about the past? What is the origin of life in America-Southern America? Here it is in Thomas Wolfe's book, The Hills Beyond.

[JimZ · Rating 4 out of 5]

My two favorite parts of this book: "Chickamauga" and "The Hills Beyond."

I had read and seen (in documentaries) about the battle of Chickamauga, and Wolfe's first-person memoir (by an old veteran) brought the scenes back with a vengeance.

"The hills Beyond" (the last some 147 pages of this book) was Wolfe's posthumously published effort to provide a history of the characters, places and times preceding his five (including 'The Lost Boy') Gant/Webber novels. Fans of his other novels should not miss this piece.

The book (my seventh by him plus a bio.) shows that Thomas Wolfe had progressed as a writer before illness struck him down. Some of his passages are among the most compelling I have ever read. This makes it worth investing the time and attention of reading his lengthy autobiographical fiction.

[Edward Champion · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even as someone who has defended Thomas Wolfe from those who have declared him too sentimental and wordy, the honest truth is that THE HILLS BEYOND is really just a plate of leftovers. While YOU CAN'T GO HOME AGAIN had a lingering narrative thread that justified its publication, this one is really more of a doggy bag of disparate texts: some good, some rambling, many clearly undercooked. So this was a highly frustrating read, with the same pain one feels reading David Foster Wallace's THE PALE KING. Just because it exists, it doesn't necessarily mean it should be published.

[Ann Otto · Rating 4 out of 5]

This compilation of some Wolfe short stories, essays, a one-act play and a novella titled The Hills Beyond complement his other works about Southern life, culture, and philosophy in early 20th century America. Those who have read his four autobiographical novels will recognize some characters in these stories.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first book by this author and I had no idea it was going to be so good. Of course not all the stories were great but those that were, were really great. Wonderful characters. I had the feeling that many were autobiographical . Now must fund the other works of Wolfe.

[Nancy Jurss · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is a collection of interconnected short stories. They were a little too verbose and florid for my tastes, but Thomas Wolfe obviously wrote about people he knew, producing an interesting set of characters.

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Turned me into a Thomas Wolfe fan

[Fred Grogan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great anthology of his work. Ground you in his autobio roots, his older brother "The Lost Boy"
re-reading this, one story and another

"Chickamauga" is another good piece to read and re-read

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thomas Wolfe's "The Hills Beyond" is difficult to rate because unlike a novel written from start to finish by a single author this work takes portions of a larger manuscript and creates a fictional story about generations of a family in the Carolinas. How much of it is autobiographical and how much is created by the editor has been the subject of many articles and dissertations. If one tries to read it as a narrative moving toward a climax it can be disconcerting. I didn't feel that "Wolfe" was on top of his game, for example, until I paid less attention to the Joyner family's history and focused more on the quality of language being employed. While I typically knew the vocables that Wolfe used, at times they were so creatively construed that I was touched by his choice of words. To me that became the strength of this literature, that an author can work and rework language to the extent that it moves the reader both intellectually and emotionally. I would have rated the "novel" four stars for this reason alone. As a compelling narrative, however, the chapters were too disjointed, and the flow of the story was perhaps the best that the editor could create from the material he had available in manuscript form.

[William Ried · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was Thomas Wolfe’s last work, culled posthumously by his editor from a great mountain of manuscript. It felt more like the backstory of the Joyner family and life in the South than a novel and trails off without any real conclusion. Wolfe’s style is prolix but he has an extraordinary command of language and much of his writing is poignant and compelling. Thought at one time to deserve mention alongside his contemporaries, Hemingway and Fitzgerald (all edited at one time by Maxwell Perkins), Wolfe seems to have drifted into obscurity, but his writing remains powerful.

For more one-paragraph reviews of classic literature, see wmrauthor.com/other-books-i-love

[Lann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have never been able to finish a book by Thomas Wolfe until now. I assigned myself this book for my summer reading, choosing it because it was short and in my cupboard at school. I got irritated with his using 16 words to show something when two would do, and his sentences were long, long, but I loved the way the people seemed so real. And the style was that of family telling stories about family, which I love to do. I'm glad I gave myself this for homework. It goes on the honors reading list for next year.

[Wess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wolfe's writing more or less follows the same pattern in each of the stories in The Hills Beyond: A mundane setting is established which is eventually subjected to horrible tragedy. The few exceptions to this theme I would by no means call up-beat; they're just not painfully depressing. There are some beautiful passages here, which helped facilitate my progression through this book in all its misery. Wolfe was a sad, talented man.

[David Mathews · Rating 4 out of 5]

I discovered Thomas Wolfe later in life. Even in the South I was not introduced to his works in high school or college. The racial language that came so natural in this region and others permeates Wolfe's writings and it's really "too bad". His poetic naturalness is lyrical and his descriptions are vivid and raw. Especially for any who were raised near the South. I can only rave any of what I have read in Wolfe's short career and this doesn't disappoint.

[Jake Berlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

wolfe can craft sentence both witty and poignant, and his insights into human nature are formidable. here, he crafts family history into a rich narrative. i'm curious if j.k. rowling ever read this book, since there's a school called Hogwart (granted, singular, not plural) and even a chapter entitled "The Battle of Hogwart Heights"

[RYD · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thomas Wolfe is my favorite largely forgotten author. It is pretty clear that his influence has waned, especially with revelations of how heavily edited his published works are. This book, released posthumously, contains some of his lesser writings. Some are powerful and others not so much.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Period in my life when Thomas Wolfe spoke to my feelings.

[Coco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wandering collection of manuscript material left by Thomas Wolfe. Southern lit. I found some of it compelling, some not so much.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thomas Wolfe - 5 stars. Enough said.

[Richard Larsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

More great stuff in the Thomas Wolfe legend. Also enjoyed Edward Aswell's postscript.

[David Mestelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think The Hills Beyond would have been his best novel yet if he had been able to finish it.