Reading the American Novel 1865 - 1914

An indispensable tool for teachers and students of American literature, Reading the American Novel 1865-1914 provides a comprehensive introduction to the American novel in the post-civil war period. Locates American novels and stories within a specific historical and literary context Offers fresh analyses of key selected literary works Addresses a wide audience of academics and non-academics in clear, accessible prose Demonstrates the changing mentality of 19th-century America entering the 20th century Explores the relationship between the intellectual and artistic output of the time and the turbulent socio-political context

Preface ix Acknowledgments xv Introduction 1 1 Toward the “Great American Novel”: Romance and Romanticism in the Age of Realism 9 2 Of Realism and Reality: Definitions and Contexts 25 3 Dramas of the Broken Teacup: American “Quiet” Realism 41 4 The Nature of Naturalism: Definitions and Backgrounds 55 5 Implacable Nature, Household Tragedy, and Epic Romance 73 6 Frank Norris: The Beast Within 91 7 The Rocking Horse Winners: Theodore Dreiser and Urban Naturalism 109 8 Subjective Realism: Stephen Crane’s Impressionist Fictions 125 9 Impressions of War: The Interior Battlefield 141 10 Sense and Sensibility: Sentimental Domesticity and “New Woman’s Fiction” 157 11 Domestic Feminism: The Problematic Louisa May Alcott 179 12 “All the Happy Endings”: Marriage, Insanity, and Suicide 195 13 Vulgarians at the Gate: Edith Wharton and the Collapse of Gentility 215 14 Tea-Table as Jungle: Henry James and “The Psychopathology of Everyday Life” 235 15 Economies of Pain: W. D. Howells 261 16 The “Gilded Age”: Genteel Critics and Militant Muckrakers 283 17 What Is An American? Regionalism and Race 299 18 The Territory Ahead: Emerging African American Voices 323 19 The “Dream of a Republic”: War, Reconstruction, and Future History 343 20 At the Modernist Margin: Mark Twain 367 Bibliographical Resources 387 Index 421