This Faustian tale of the spiritual disintegration of a young minister, written in the 1890s, deals subtly and powerfully with the impact of science on innocence and the collective despair that marked the transition into the modern age. In its realism, "The Damnation of Theron Ware" foreshadows Howells; in its conscious imagery it prefigures Norris, Crane, Henry James, and the "symbolic realism" of the twentieth century. Its author, Harold Frederic, internationally famous as London correspondent for the "New York Times," wrote the novel two years before his death.

This study of late 19th-century American literature uses the period's rural fiction to reveal the increasingly intricate and sometimes problematic connections between urban and rural life.

Published in 1896, "The Damnation of Theron Ware or Illumination" is a profound psychological portrait of the spiritual undoing of a guileless Methodist minister who is taken in by a rural townspeople's various progressive ideas, from liberalism to bohemianism, only to be spurned by them for being too conventional. Described by Everett Carter as "among the four or five best novels written by an American during the nineteenth century," the novel, as Joyce Carol Oates writes in her Introduction, has "shrewd, disturbing insights into the human pysche." This Modern Library Paperback Classic is set from the text of the authoritative Harold Frederic Edition.

Jerry Arterburn's story parallels that of thousands of men who are troubled by homosexual desires, but want to change. Rejected, alienated, and seduced into the world of homosexuality, Jerry suffered the devastating effects of AIDS before finding hope, acceptance, and an escape. Jerry's story, told with his brother, Steve Arterburn, gives readers hope. They give a way out of homosexuality for those who want to escape. It's a frank story that tells the truth about homosexuality and about how to find freedom and a new life. Why do men become homosexuals? Is there a Way out? What should parents do when early signs of homosexuality develop? How should family and friends respond to gay loved ones? What about gays who have AIDS? Stephen Arterburn founded New Life Clinics, created the Women of Faith conferences attended by more than 1,000,000 women, and hosts the daily radio program, New Life Live. He is the author of more than 40 books, and has been featured in the New York Times and USA Today. Stephen lives with his family in Laguna Beach, California. He wrote this book with his brother, Jerry, who passed away from the effects of AIDS in 1988.

The idea of "the great American novel" continues to thrive almost as vigorously as in its nineteenth-century heyday, defying 150 years of attempts to dismiss it as amateurish or obsolete. In this landmark book, the first in many years to take in the whole sweep of national fiction, Lawrence Buell reanimates this supposedly antiquated idea, demonstrating that its history is a key to the dynamics of national literature and national identity itself. The dream of the G.A.N., as Henry James nicknamed it, crystallized soon after the Civil War. In fresh, in-depth readings of selected contenders from the 1850s onward in conversation with hundreds of other novels, Buell delineates four "scripts" for G.A.N. candidates. One, illustrated by The Scarlet Letter, is the adaptation of the novel's story-line by later writers, often in ways that are contrary to the original author's own design. Other aspirants, including The Great Gatsby and Invisible Man, engage the American Dream of remarkable transformation from humble origins. A third script, seen in Uncle Tom's Cabin and Beloved, is the family saga that grapples with racial and other social divisions. Finally,mega-novels from Moby-Dick to Gravity's Rainbow feature assemblages of characters who dramatize in microcosm the promise and pitfalls of democracy. The canvas of the great American novel is in constant motion, reflecting revolutions in fictional fashion, the changing face of authorship, and the inseparability of high culture from popular. As Buell reveals, the elusive G.A.N. showcases the myth of the United States as a nation perpetually under construction.