ABSTRACT

Originally published in 1963. The ‘Americanness’ of the American novel is as readily apparent as it is elusive of definition. It is the purpose of this study not to discover the reluctant formula, the comprehensive statement of national identity, but to examine the evidences of this identity in the work of some individual American writers. This study explores the works of many prominent American authors including Edgar Allan Poe, Nathanial Hawthorne, and Mark Twain.

chapter One|52 pages

The Poetic Inception

chapter Two|44 pages

Poe and the Romantic Experiment

chapter Three|44 pages

Politics and Pastoral in Cooper

chapter Four|51 pages

The Tragic Phase: Melville and Hawthorne

chapter Five|44 pages

Twain as Satirist

chapter Six|29 pages

Edith Wharton and the Realists

chapter Seven|23 pages

Modern American Fiction and its Inheritance