The Natural [Paperback]

The classical novel (and basis for the acclaimed film) now in a new edition

Introduction by Kevin Baker

The Natural, Bernard Malamud's first novel, published in 1952, is also the firstand some would say still the bestnovel ever written about baseball. In it Malamud, usually appreciated for his unerring portrayals of postwar Jewish life, took on very different materialthe story of a superbly gifted natural at play in the fields of the old daylight baseball eraand invested it with the hardscrabble poetry, at once grand and altogether believable, that runs through all his best work. Four decades later, Alfred Kazin's comment still holds true: Malamud has done something whichnow that he has done it!looks as if we have been waiting for it all our lives. He has really raised the whole passion and craziness and fanaticism of baseball as a popular spectacle to its ordained place in mythology.

This Teacher's Guide is divided primarily into two sections, which appear below.
The first, Reading and Understanding the Novel, will help students with reading
comprehension, conceptual appreciation, interpreting the narrative, grasping
the book's contexts, and related matters. Questions and Exercises for the Class,
the second section, will enable students to think more broadly, creatively, or comparatively
aboutThe Naturalboth as a group and individually. A brief supplementary
section, Suggestions for Further Reading, is offered in conclusion.
1. Explain whyThe Naturalis divided into two sections ( Pre-Game and Batter
Up! ). What sets the two sections apart, and what has occurred between them?
2. What do we learn about Roy Hobbs in the book's opening pages? What is he
carrying in his bassoon case? What do learn about Hobbs' pasthis boyhood and
backgroundover the course of the narrative? And what aspects of Hobbs remain
mysterious throughout the book?
3. Why does Hobbs reject tló