{"product_id":"reading-the-american-novel-1865-1914-isbn-9780631234067","title":"Reading the American Novel 1865 - 1914","description":"An indispensable tool for teachers and students of American literature, \u003ci\u003eReading the American Novel 1865-1914\u003c\/i\u003e provides a comprehensive introduction to the American novel in the post-civil war period.  \u003cul\u003e \u003cli\u003eLocates American novels and stories within a specific historical and literary context \u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eOffers fresh analyses of key selected literary works \u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eAddresses a wide audience of academics and non-academics in clear, accessible prose\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eDemonstrates the changing mentality of 19th-century America entering the 20th century\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eExplores the relationship between the intellectual and artistic output of the time and the turbulent socio-political context\u003c\/li\u003e \u003c\/ul\u003e  Preface ix  \u003cp\u003eAcknowledgments xv\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIntroduction 1\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e1 Toward the “Great American Novel”: Romance and Romanticism in the Age of Realism 9\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e2 Of Realism and Reality: Definitions and Contexts 25\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e3 Dramas of the Broken Teacup: American “Quiet” Realism 41\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e4 The Nature of Naturalism: Definitions and Backgrounds 55\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e5 Implacable Nature, Household Tragedy, and Epic Romance 73\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e6 Frank Norris: The Beast Within 91\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e7 The Rocking Horse Winners: Theodore Dreiser and Urban Naturalism 109\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e8 Subjective Realism: Stephen Crane’s Impressionist Fictions 125\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e9 Impressions of War: The Interior Battlefield 141\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e10 Sense and Sensibility: Sentimental Domesticity and “New Woman’s Fiction” 157\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e11 Domestic Feminism: The Problematic Louisa May Alcott 179\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e12 “All the Happy Endings”: Marriage, Insanity, and Suicide 195\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e13 Vulgarians at the Gate: Edith Wharton and the Collapse of Gentility 215\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e14 Tea-Table as Jungle: Henry James and “The Psychopathology of Everyday Life” 235\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e15 Economies of Pain: W. D. Howells 261\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e16 The “Gilded Age”: Genteel Critics and Militant Muckrakers 283\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e17 What Is An American? Regionalism and Race 299\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e18 The Territory Ahead: Emerging African American Voices 323\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e19 The “Dream of a Republic”: War, Reconstruction, and Future History 343\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e20 At the Modernist Margin: Mark Twain 367\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBibliographical Resources 387\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIndex 421\u003c\/p\u003e   \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eG. R. Thompson\u003c\/b\u003e is Emeritus Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Purdue University. He has written widely on the topic of American fiction and romanticism, including books and articles on the relation of the romance to the realist tradition, the gothic fiction of Edgar Allan Poe, the short stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the travel narratives of Herman Melville. He is the editor of various editions, including the \u003ci\u003eNorton Critical Edition of The Selected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe\u003c\/i\u003e. He is the former editor of \u003ci\u003ePoe Studies\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eESQ: A Journal of the American Renaissance\u003c\/i\u003e.  An indispensable tool for teachers and students of American literature, \u003ci\u003eReading the American Novel 1865-1914\u003c\/i\u003e provides a comprehensive introduction to the American novel in the post-civil war period. Leading literary scholar G. R. Thompson shares his insights into the fiction of one of the most pivotal periods in American literature, and each chapter offers both a lucid distillation of the key conditions of the historical and cultural contexts and a practical guide for studying literary works.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e   \u003cp\u003eAn accessible introduction to the literature of the period, this book demonstrates the changing mentality of 19th-century America entering the 20th century, framed between two monumental wars. Demonstrating different attitudes toward and representations of contemporary concerns as they appeared in literature, Thompson addresses the relationship between the intellectual and artistic output of the time and the turbulent socio-political context. Written in clear and accessible prose, with fresh insights and textual analysis, this is an illuminating read for anyone interested in 19th-century and early modern fiction, American literature, and American cultural history.\u003c\/p\u003e  \"Written as a guide to the American novel, 1865-1914, this absorbing volume sums up a lifetime of reading, thinking, and teaching by a formidable scholar-critic. Incisive readings of individual works and illuminating commentary on intellectual and social history make this an indispensable resource, not just for students but for readers of all sorts--including those (like myself) who \u003ci\u003ethought\u003c\/i\u003e they knew this field fairly well already. The sheer amount of knowledge that G. R. Thompson brings to bear on his subject is prodigious, and his insights into the persistence of romanticism and the romance genre in an era associated with realism, naturalism, and early modernism seemed especially provocative.\"\u003cbr\u003e —\u003cb\u003eJ. Gerald Kennedy\u003c\/b\u003e, Louisiana State University  \u003cp\u003e\"With extraordinary skill and exemplary clarity, G. R. Thompson deftly unravels the complex definitional tangles of late 19th-century American fiction to reveal how the dynamic double helix of realism and romance fostered an artistically rich array of hybrid literary forms resistant to simplistic labeling.\"\u003cbr\u003e —\u003cb\u003eWilliam J. Scheick\u003c\/b\u003e, University of Texas at Austin\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wiley-Blackwell","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47989918499045,"sku":"NP9780631234067","price":48.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780631234067.jpg?v=1761785903","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/reading-the-american-novel-1865-1914-isbn-9780631234067","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}