| This book is meant to serve as a chapter in the history of the American imagination. |
| —Preface |
| Carl Van Doren |
The American Novel
Carl Van Doren
This historical treatment of the development of the “Great American Novel” expands upon Van Doren’s chapters on fiction in the Cambridge History of American Literature.
Contents
| TO IRITA VAN DOREN |
| NEW YORK: MACMILLAN, 1921 NEW YORK: BARTLEBY.COM, 2000 |
Ch. 1. The Beginnings of Fiction
§ 1. Arguments and Experiments
§ 2. The Three Matters of American Romance
Ch. 2. James Fenimore Cooper
Ch. 3. Romances of Adventure
§ 1. Materials and Men
§ 2. Herman Melville
Ch. 4. Nathaniel Hawthorne
Ch. 5. Blood and Tears
Ch. 6. Howells and Realism
§ 1. New Frontiers and Old Settlements
§ 2. William Dean Howells
Ch. 7. Mark Twain
Ch. 8. Henry James
Ch. 9. The Eighties and Their Kin
§ 1. Varied Types
§ 2. Francis Marion Crawford
Ch. 10. Reaction and Progress
§ 1. Toward the Right: Rococo Romance
§ 2. Toward the Left: Naturalism
Bibliographical Notes