Monatsarchive: März 2021

Annie Kilburn – William Dean Howells

Mr. Howells’ novel exhibits the influence of many disturbing elements upon the mind of the writer. What they call the “zeitgeist” in Germany is strongly reflected in the pages of “Annie Kilburn;” and the lenses through which current social phenomena are viewed are not those of optimism. The heroine is a not quite young woman, who, after a long residence abroad, returns orphaned to her old home. This is a New England manufacturing town in a transition state between colonial Puritanism and nobody knows what. Annie Kilburn stands for that peculiarly modern condition of mind in which dissatisfaction with social relations as they exist is rather paralyzed than tempered by the operation of a … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

April Hopes – William Dean Howells

Mr. Howells shows a light and exquisite touch in “April Hopes,” a novel, it is safe to say, in which all his finer qualities are seen at their best. The sweetness of it is perhaps a trifle cloying now and then to robust palates, but the story is for all the world like a spring day where showers and sunshine grace fully intermingle. Story, we say, while in reality there is no story at all, in accordance with Mr. Howells’ views of the lack of stories in “real” life. Only an account of how two young things fell in love with one another and quarreled and made up, and quarreled again, and made up … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

Modern Italian Poets – William Dean Howells

How many of the intelligent play-goers of this intelligent land and of the present period could tell, without the play-bills in their hands, that Alfieri was the creator of Ristori’s “Mirra” and of Salvini’s “Saul” ? How many of the general readers of English verse know who Alfieri was or what he did ? And yet Vittorio Alfieri is the most familiar figure among the score of ‘Modern Italian Poets’ upon whom Mr. Howells dwells in his volume of Essays and Versions. Tommaso Grossi, Giacomo Leopardi, Giuseppe Giusti, Aleardo Aleardi, and their contemporaries, who flourished in Italy between the last quarter of the eighteenth century and the last quarter of this, mean as … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

The Minister’s Charge – William Dean Howells

With ‘The Minister’s Charge’ Mr. Howells has reached the point where his books are less interesting individually than as parts of a series, and one has the satisfaction with these later works of being able to read them by the light of the author’s own canons of criticism. These show that Mr. Howells cannot only preach a philosophy, but live up to it ; for the story of Lemuel Barker, so far as it is told, has the ” respect for probability, the fidelity to conditions, human and social, which,” he has told us, ” can alone justify the reading and writing of novels.” We say, “so far as it is told,” for … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

Indian Summer – William Dean Howells

Mr. Howells is giving us in ‘ Indian Summer’ some of the very best work he has ever done ; full of the same dainty piquantness, but alive with deeper sympathies and meanings. This is full, not merely of what average people say and do, but of what average people think and feel behind what they say and do. The difference between ‘Silas Lapham’ and ‘Indian Summer’ is like the difference between a pearl and an opal : the opal has a soul. Nothing could be more entertaining than the letter of Mrs. Bowen as a perfect illustration of a poor woman trying to be just, but unconsciously adding a touch to make it … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

The Rise Of Silas Lapham – William Dean Howells

“The Rise of Silas Lapham” is a Bostonian novel. A Boston family of the strict Brahminical type, the Coreys, finds itself under obligations for help in a painful emergency to the Laphams, a family of crude manners, mushroom wealth, and sterling virtue. The Laphams, pricked to social ambition by the new acquaintance, build a house on the Back Bay. The contrast of the two social worlds is amusingly depicted in the chapters that record their intercourse; and the elder Lapham allows himself to become intoxicated at a dinner to which he and his family have been self-sacrificingly invited by the Coreys. Meanwhile, Tom Corey, only son of the distinguished family, has … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

The Minor Dramas – William Dean Howells

Apart from his many novels, William Dean Howells was a prolific author of plays, especially farces. This volume includes the following of his works: The Parlor-Car, The Sleeping Car, The Register, The Elevator, The Garotters, Five O’clock Tea, A Likely Story, The Albany Depot, A Letter Of Introduction, The Unexpected Guests, Evening Dress, Bride Roses.

The Minor Dramas.

Format: eBook.

The Minor Dramas.

ISBN: 9783849657420

Excerpt from the text:

THE PARLOR-CAR.

Scene: A Parlor-Car on the New York Central Railroad. It is late afternoon in the early autumn, with a cloudy sunset threatening rain. The car is unoccupied save by a gentleman, who sits fronting one of the windows, with his … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

Tuscan Cities – William Dean Howells

To meet Mr. Howells again on his Italian rambles is like rejoining an old friend in the midst of scenes associated with the beginning of our friendship. This rich volume is a grateful recollection of the book which first gave him a place in our standard literature. Much of the old charm of ‘Venetian Life’ is certainly here. The daring disregard of conventionality, the happy discovery of aspects of life un noticed by previous travelers, the artistic and novel use of illustrative side-lights, the quick insight into the characteristics of places, the unforced flow of delicate humor, the fascination of a style distinguished more by natural grace than by laborious polish, and the genial … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

Three Villages – William Dean Howells

In this volume Mr. Howells has collected three short pieces which show his power under various aspects. The pleasantest and in a literary sense the best of the three is the charming paper on ‘Lexington,’ originally contributed to Longman’s Magazine. It is distinguished by that happy faculty of description, that sure artistic eye, and that genial spirit which constitute so much of the fascination of his larger works; flashes of characteristic humor surprise us in its delicate pages; and it has all that strong individual flavor which makes the best writing of Mr. Howells so different from the rest of the good writing which is getting to be abundant in books. The second village … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

A Woman’s Reason – William Dean Howells

“A Woman’s Reason” is certainly one of the most ambitious novels Mr. Howells has written, not merely because it is so long, but because the author has reached out for effects which he neglected in his earlier books. It is not a radical departure from his established methods, but it indicates a larger and broader conception of the scope, the opportunities, and the resources of his art. The story of Helen Harkness’s struggles has an enduring claim upon every reader’s sympathy, the incidents of the book are spirited, and the movement is alert, vigorous, and at times highly dramatic in its surprises and suspended interest. The author is so loyal to his heroine … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...