Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities - Hertog Foundation

The man in the iconic white suit, Tom Wolfe is often celebrated as an ironist, gadfly, or stylist. But he was also a thinker of originality and power – overlooked as a counter-intellectual because his method was not polemic but devastating, irresistible satire. His writing did not mirror history but anticipated it.

This seminar will focus on Wolfe’s first novel – the literary blockbuster Bonfire of the Vanities – and its portrait of New York in the 1980s, a city seething with racial tension, class animosity, and unbridled status competition.

Image Credit: New York City-Midtown Manhattan Skyline from Hamilton Park 02, Daniel Mennerich, Flickr.

Matt Continetti on Conservative Intellectuals

Faculty

Matthew Continetti

Matthew Continetti is resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, Prior to joining AEI, he was Editor in Chief of the Washington Free Beacon. His articles and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.

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