Don DeLillo, Underworld

Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error
Underworld

is the twelfth novel by American author Don DeLillo. Published in 1997 to enormous critical acclaim, it has gone on to be one of the most celebrated works of American fiction of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries; in 2006 a survey conducted by

The New York Review of Books

declared it the second best work of American fiction of the previous twenty-five years (after Toni Morrison’s

Beloved

). As well as being one of DeLillo’s most admired works and, at over eight hundred pages in length, his longest,

Underworld

is also his most complex and multifaceted novel to date: it spans five decades, employs a non-linear narrative framework, features a huge cast of characters, is variously narrated in the first, third and even second person, and deals with themes that…

5437 words

Citation: Perfect, Michael. "Underworld". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 March 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=12028, accessed 28 March 2024.]

12028 Underworld 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.