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9780801868245 Academic Inspection Copy

Civil Wars

American Novelists and Manners, 1880-1940
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Observers from Alexis de Tocqueville to Lionel Trilling have found the United States wanting in what it takes to produce a novelist of manners–namely, a rich enough past and sufficiently stratified classes. In a work that recovers the broader meaning of ''manners'' for past generations, Susan Goodman demonstrates that American writers have consistently tied the subject of national identity to the norms and behaviors of everyday life–that, in fact, the novel of manners is a dominant form of American fiction. Goodman concentrates on a cluster of writers–William Dean Howells, Henry James, Edith Wharton, Willa Cather, Ellen Glasgow, and Jessie Fauset–whose analyses of manners offer several distinct social histories. Under her scrutiny, these writers' works allow us to view the creative interaction of individual lives, social dynamics, and historical legacies–what might be called the panorama of manners themselves–as well as the development of American fiction. Above all, Goodman shows that novels of manners are central to American literature, and that these novels speak in a large cultural way about who and what composes America.


Contents:

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction: American Novelists and Manners

1 William Dean Howells: The Lessons of a Master

2 Henry James: The Final Paradox of Manners

3 Edith Wharton: A Backward Glance

4 Willa Cather: ""After 1922 or Thereabout""

5 Ellen Glasgow: A Social History of America

6 Jessie Fauset: The Etiquette of Passing

Conclusion: Excursives

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

""Goodman presents an original and compelling argument that forces readers to acknowledge that the novel of manners'which typically focused on attitudes toward race, class, and national identity'did in fact play a central role in American literary and cultural history. This book is notable for its insight and originality.""

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