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

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 ixAcknowledgments xvIntroduction 11 Toward the "Great American Novel": Romance andRomanticism in the Age of Realism 92 Of Realism and Reality: Definitions and Contexts 253 Dramas of the Broken Teacup: American "Quiet"Realism 414 The Nature of Naturalism: Definitions and Backgrounds 555 Implacable Nature, Household Tragedy, and Epic Romance 736 Frank Norris: The Beast Within 917 The Rocking Horse Winners: Theodore Dreiser and UrbanNaturalism 1098 Subjective Realism: Stephen Crane's ImpressionistFictions 1259 Impressions of War: The Interior Battlefield 14110 Sense and Sensibility: Sentimental Domesticity and "NewWoman's Fiction" 15711 Domestic Feminism: The Problematic Louisa May Alcott 17912 "All the Happy Endings": Marriage, Insanity, andSuicide 19513 Vulgarians at the Gate: Edith Wharton and the Collapse ofGentility 21514 Tea-Table as Jungle: Henry James and "ThePsychopathology of Everyday Life" 23515 Economies of Pain: W. D. Howells 26116 The "Gilded Age": Genteel Critics and MilitantMuckrakers 28317 What Is An American? Regionalism and Race 29918 The Territory Ahead: Emerging African American Voices 32319 The "Dream of a Republic": War, Reconstructionand Future History 34320 At the Modernist Margin: Mark Twain 367Bibliographical Resources 387Index 421