Set during the early 1890s in a fashionable summer resort somewhere on the East Coast of the United States, A Traveler from Altruria is narrated by a Mr Twelvemough, a popular author of light fiction who has been selected to function as host to a visitor from the faraway island of Altruria called Mr Homos. In the novel, the island state of Altruria serves as a foil to America, whose citizens, compared to Altrurians, appear selfish, obsessed with money, and emotionally imbalanced. Mainly, A Traveler from Altruria is a critique of unfettered capitalism and its consequences, and of the Gilded Age in particular. Through the Eye of the Needle is a Utopian novel that follows A Traveler from Altruria. Howells casts this book in the form of an epistolary novel — a form favored by some other Utopian and dystopian writers. Aristides Homos, Howells's Altrurian protagonist, writes a series of letters home to his friend Cyril. Homos is now located in the densely urban environment of New York City, where he confronts the contrasts between America c. 1900 and his own pastoral and agrarian Utopianism in their most extreme forms. The dramatic center of the book is the love affair between Homos and Evelith Strange, a wealthy widow of the American plutocracy. William Dean Howells (1837-1920) was an American realist author, literary critic, and playwright. Nicknamed "The Dean of American Letters", he was particularly known for his tenure as editor of the Atlantic Monthly as well as his own prolific writings, including the Christmas story "Christmas Every Day", and the novels The Rise of Silas Lapham and A Traveler from Altruria. Howells is known to be the father of American realism, and a denouncer of the sentimental novel.

Set during the early 1890s in a fashionable summer resort somewhere on the East Coast of the United States, A Traveler from Altruria is narrated by a Mr Twelvemough, a popular author of light fiction who has been selected to function as host to a visitor from the faraway island of Altruria called Mr Homos. In the novel, the island state of Altruria serves as a foil to America, whose citizens, compared to Altrurians, appear selfish, obsessed with money, and emotionally imbalanced. Mainly, A Traveler from Altruria is a critique of unfettered capitalism and its consequences, and of the Gilded Age in particular._x000D_ Through the Eye of the Needle is a Utopian novel that follows A Traveler from Altruria. Howells casts this book in the form of an epistolary novel — a form favored by some other Utopian and dystopian writers. Aristides Homos, Howells's Altrurian protagonist, writes a series of letters home to his friend Cyril. Homos is now located in the densely urban environment of New York City, where he confronts the contrasts between America c. 1900 and his own pastoral and agrarian Utopianism in their most extreme forms. The dramatic center of the book is the love affair between Homos and Evelith Strange, a wealthy widow of the American plutocracy._x000D_ William Dean Howells (1837-1920) was an American realist author, literary critic, and playwright. Nicknamed "The Dean of American Letters", he was particularly known for his tenure as editor of the Atlantic Monthly as well as his own prolific writings, including the Christmas story "Christmas Every Day", and the novels The Rise of Silas Lapham and A Traveler from Altruria. Howells is known to be the father of American realism, and a denouncer of the sentimental novel.

This carefully edited collection of William Dean Howells has been designed and formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. William Dean Howells (1837-1920) was an American realist author, literary critic, and playwright. Nicknamed "The Dean of American Letters", he was particularly known for his tenure as editor of the Atlantic Monthly as well as his own prolific writings, including the Christmas story "Christmas Every Day", and the novels The Rise of Silas Lapham and A Traveler from Altruria. Howells is known to be the father of American realism, and a denouncer of the sentimental novel. He was the first American author to bring a realist aesthetic to the literature of the United States. His stories of Boston upper crust life set in the 1850s are highly regarded among scholars of American fiction. Table of Contents: Introduction William Dean Howells by Charles Dudley Warner Novels A Forgone Conclusion A Chance Acquaintance A Modern Instance A Pair of Patient Lovers A Traveler from Altruria An Open-Eyed Conspiracy Annie Kilburn April Hopes Dr. Breen's Practice Fennel and Rue Indian Summer Questionable Shapes Ragged Lady The Coast of Bohemia The Kentons The Lady of Aroostook The Landlord at Lion's Head The Leatherwood God The Minister's Charge The Quality of Mercy The Rise of Silas Lapham The Story of a Play Through the Eye of the Needle The Flight of Pony Baker The March Family Trilogy: Their Wedding Journey A Hazard of New Fortunes Their Silver Wedding Journey Reminiscences and Autobiography A Boy's Town Years of My Youth

Speculative modernists--that is, British and American writers of science fiction, fantasy and horror during the late 19th and early 20th centuries--successfully grappled with the same forces that would drive their better-known literary counterparts to existential despair. Building on the ideas of the 19th-century Gothic and utopian movements, these speculative writers anticipated literary Modernism and blazed alternative literary trails in science, religion, ecology and sociology. Such authors as H.G. Wells and H.P. Lovecraft gained widespread recognition--budding from them, other speculative authors published fascinating tales of individuals trapped in dystopias, of anti-society attitudes, post-apocalyptic worlds and the rapidly expanding knowledge of the limitless universe. This book documents the Gothic and utopian roots of speculative fiction and explores how these authors played a crucial role in shaping the culture of the new century with their darker, more evolved themes.

Keeping track of prolific authors who write fiction series was quite challenging for even the most ardent fan until To Be Continueddebuted in 1995. Noew, readers will be happy that the soon-to-be-released second edition has added 1,600 new books and 400 new series. To Be Continued, Second Edition, maintians the first volume's successful formula that featured concise A-to-Z entries packed with useful information, including titles, publishers, publication dates, genre categories, annotations, and subject terms. Among the genre categories that can be found in To Be Continued are romance, science fiction, crime novel, horror, adventure, fantasy, humor, western, war, Christian fiction, and others.

American literary history of the nineteenth-century as a conflict between individualistic writers and a conformist society. In The Social Self, Joseph Alkana argues that such a dichotomy misrepresents the views of many authors. Sudden changes caused by the industrial revolution, urban development, increased immigration, and regional conflicts were threatening to fragment the community, and such writers as Nathaniel Hawthorne, William James, and William Dean Howells were deeply concerned about social cohesion. Alkana persuasively reintroduces Common Sense philosophy and Jamesian psychology as ways to understand how the nineteenth-century self/society dilemma developed. All three writers believed that introspection was the proper path to the discovery of truth. They also felt, Alkana argues, that such discoveries had to be validated by society. In these sophisticated readings of Hawthorne's short stories and The Scarlet Letter, Howells's utopian Altrurian romances, and James's The Principles of Psychology, it becomes obvious that characters who isolate themselves from the community do so at considerable psychological risk. The Social Self links these writers' interest in contemporary psychology to their concern for history and society. Alkana's argument that nineteenth-century expressions of individualism were defensive responses to the fear of social chaos radically revises the traditional narrative of American literary culture.

Culinary Aesthetics and Practices in Nineteenth-Century American Literature examines the preponderance of food imagery in nineteenth-century literary texts. Contributors to this volume analyze the social, political, and cultural implications of scenes involving food and dining and illustrate how "aesthetic" notions of culinary preparation are often undercut by the actual practices of cooking and eating. As contributors interrogate the values and meanings behind culinary discourses, they complicate commonplace notions about American identity and question the power structure behind food production and consumption.