Miss Lonelyhearts, published in 1933, is Nathanael West's second novel.

In the story, Miss Lonelyhearts is an un-named male newspaper columnist writing an advice column which is viewed by the newspaper as a joke. As Miss Lonelyhearts reads the letters from the desperate writers he feels terribly burdened and falls into a cycle of deep depression, marked by irrational violence. He also suffers from the pranks and cynical advice of his editor at the newspaper, named "Shrike", which is also a type of predatory bird.

Miss Lonelyhearts tries several approaches as a way out of this depression (including religion, escaping to the countryside, and sex) but only comes out of this more confused. Miss Lonelyhearts has an affair with one of his readers and ends up beating her in a rage. In the last scene, the woman's husband comes to kill Miss Lonelyhearts, and Miss Lonelyhearts, in the grip of a kind of religious mania, fails to understand this. The man shoots Miss Lonelyhearts, and the two men roll down a flight of stairs together.

The general theme of the novel is one of extreme disillusionment with post-depression American society, a consistent theme throughout West's novels. However, the novel is essentially a black comedy and is characterized by an extremely dark but hilarious sense of humor.

In 1933 the novel was very loosely adapted as a movie. Titled "Advice to the Lovelorn" it became a comedy/drama about a hard-boiled reporter who becomes popular when he adopts a female pseudonym and dispenses fatuous advice. He agrees (for a hefty payment) to use the column to recommend a line of medicines, but finds out they are actually harmful drugs when his mother dies. He then agrees to help the police track down the criminals and ends up happily married (!)

In 1958 it was filmed as "Lonelyhearts" starring Montgomery Clift. Although following the plot of the book more closely many changes were made, greatly softening ther cynical edge of the original book. It was again filmed in 1983 as "Miss Lonelyhearts", again undercutting the cycicism by making the author a figure of pathos. 1933 novels | American novels