Explore the latest books of this year!
Bookbot

The American Novel and Its Tradition

Book rating

More about the book

"Since the earliest days," writes Richard Chase in this classic study, "the American novel, in its most original and characteristic form, has worked out its destiny and defined itself by incorporating an element of romance." In his detailed study of works by Charles Brockden Brown, James Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Mark Twain, Henry James, Frank Norris, George Washington Cable, William Dean Howells, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and William Faulkner, Chase identifies and traces this tradition through two centuries of American literature.The best novelists, he argues, have found uses for romance beyond the escapism, fantasy, and sentimentality often associated with it. Through romance, these writers mirror the extremes of American culture—the Puritan melodrama of good and evil, or the pastoral idyll inspired by the American wilderness.

Book purchase

The American Novel and Its Tradition, Richard Chase

Language
Released
1980
product-detail.submit-box.info.binding
(Paperback)
We’ll email you as soon as we track it down.

Payment methods

3.4
Okay
34 Ratings

We’re missing your review here.

Title
The American Novel and Its Tradition
Language
English
Publisher
JHU Press
Released
1980
Format
Paperback
Pages
266
ISBN10
080182303X
ISBN13
9780801823039
Series
Rating
3.4 out of 5
Description
"Since the earliest days," writes Richard Chase in this classic study, "the American novel, in its most original and characteristic form, has worked out its destiny and defined itself by incorporating an element of romance." In his detailed study of works by Charles Brockden Brown, James Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Mark Twain, Henry James, Frank Norris, George Washington Cable, William Dean Howells, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and William Faulkner, Chase identifies and traces this tradition through two centuries of American literature.The best novelists, he argues, have found uses for romance beyond the escapism, fantasy, and sentimentality often associated with it. Through romance, these writers mirror the extremes of American culture—the Puritan melodrama of good and evil, or the pastoral idyll inspired by the American wilderness.