Archiv der Kategorie: Classics of Fiction (English)

Through The Eye Of A Needle – William Dean Howells

It is safe to say that Mr. Howells would rather have this book judged as a study in sociology than as a novel of no matter how deep a romantic interest. The earnestness with which the subject has been studied obviously supplements a habit of observation that is conscious and trained. Perhaps, then, it were best to say in the beginning that Mr. Howells’ book has two distinct attributes, between which it is a difficult matter to judge in respect to value: the fine literary quality is so wonderfully pervasive that the reader is con strained to label this a romance of distinction and interest; On the other hand, the … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

Between The Dark And The Daylight – William Dean Howells

Mr. Howells dips into psychological twilight in this volume of short stories. They are queer and creepy without being exactly supernatural. In “Editha” there is a war story of a new kind, although its heroine is the same old, inconsequent and exasperating girl that Mr. Howells has drawn for so many years, he could probably do it with his eyes shut by this time. “It all interested her intensely; she was undergoing a tremendous experience and she was being equal to it!” And so with the egotistic cruelty of youth she sends her lover to his death and has to face his mother afterward. The other tales are less tragic, … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

Certain Delightful English Towns – William Dean Howells

A companion volume to ‘London Films’, in which Mr. Howells writes of Bath, Oxford, Canterbury and other delightful English towns, with glimpses of the country in between. The author catches the true spirit and dominant tone of each locality, and he regales the reader with various little adventures along the road. Mr. Howells is especially alert for details that link English history with our own, and have a special interest for the American traveler.

Certain Delightful English Towns.

Format: eBook.

Certain Delightful English Towns.

ISBN: 9783849657802

Excerpt from the text:

No American, complexly speaking, finds himself in England for the first time, unless he is one of those many Americans who … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

London Films – William Dean Howells

In ‘London Films’ Mr. Howells certainly maintains his deserved reputation. His delightful essays are characterized by a genial sympathy quite unlike any other author’s of the present time. It is this sympathy with his subject that gives the charm to the book. There is a broad indefiniteness or lack of mathematical accuracy that gives a pleasing literary tone to the book. He writes of the royal family, its movements and customs, although confessing the royal family has rarely come his way. Mr. Howells is decidedly pro-British. In many respects they excel us. He calls the appearance of the English dames authorized rather than authoritative, and says the dignity of the old people of both … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

Miss Bellard’s Inspiration – William Dean Howells

‘Miss Bellard’s Inspiration’ has a charm altogether out of proportion to its pretensions. It is no more than a novelette in dimensions, and its story is of the simplest. but displays in the telling a very delicate art. There are six people concerned – Miss Ballard and her ¿ancé, the aunt and uncle with whom they spend a few days in the country, and a married couple who are their guests by chance. This couple proves to be singularly mismated, and the spectacle afforded by their bickerings so alarms the heroine that she discards her lover, lest some such future may be in store for them also. She speaks by way of explanation, … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

The Son Of Royal Langbrith – William Dean Howells

Mr. Howells is at his best in this novel. There is in it the same perfection of finish, the same absolute sureness of technique, the same realism (to use an overworked word, but here used in its true sense, not meaning either nastiness or stupidity) which one is always sure to find in his work. But there is something more in this book than in some of his others – more strength, more interest, and a bigger, and successful, attempt to show the more emotional and more vital side of life. The plot is almost precisely that of Ibsen’s “Ghosts,” with the very great difference, however, that the young man turns … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

Questionable Shapes – William Dean Howells

Boston had been busied with psychical research for some years, and Prof. William James has had a good deal to say about Mrs. Piper, so that it is not surprising after all to find Mr. W. D. Howells toying with the supernatural in his book ‘Questionable Shapes.’ Realists need not be startled – Mr. Howells is true to his colors and only takes his ghosts up with the tongs to hold them off as far as possible. His interest lies in the effect the ghost stories have on the bystanders, not in the ghosts themselves, in fact he tells only one ghost story, and that, one that may be explained away, in the three … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

Letters Home – William Dean Howells

A group of people from Boston and inland towns of Iowa and New York spent the three months between December and March, 1901 – 1902, in New York City for different reasons. Their “letters home” to various relations and friends tell an ingenious story. The fascination of the great city tells upon them all, and excellent descriptions of the turn-of-the-century New York appear in all the letters.

Letters Home.

Format: eBook.

Letters Home.

ISBN: 9783849657758

Excerpt from the text:

I.

From Mrs. Otis Binning to Mrs. Walter Binning, Boston.

 New York, Dec. 12, 1901.

My Dear Margaret:

I am afraid it will not do, and that you will have your brother-in-law back on … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

Literature And Life – William Dean Howells

One of the greatest rewards which literary fame has to give must be the power which it lends an author of being on intimate terms with his public. An author has won his spurs, his public know and love him, and he can then, if he will, talk to them in print as he might chat with friends. Trivial subjects become important because he chooses to write about them. He is at ease with his readers, so much so that he can drop all formality and discuss questions of the day, or tell them what he saw in a morning walk, or what he thinks on this or that literary subject, in much … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

The Flight Of Pony Baker – William Dean Howells

‘The Flight of Pony Baker’ will at once commend itself to boys and their elders because it is the work of William Dean Howells. Mr. Howells knows the modern American boy so thoroughly, his ambitions and traits, his temptations and joys, that one is predisposed to like Pony Baker. He lived in a small country town and was petted by his mother much to his disgust, and sternly suppressed by his father; and of course, being a boy, he planned to run away to the Indians, and, later, he made up his mind to join a circus-what boy has not? But through all these phases of his young life our author … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...