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Proclaimed by H.L. Mencken as one of the great masterpieces of the world and by Ernest Hemingway as the source of all modern American literature, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remains firmly established in both the American and world literary canons as a classic work of literature. Yet it continues to have its critical detractors and still arouses the kind of impassioned controversy that banned it from the Concord, Massachusetts, Public Library on publication as trashy and vicious. The Critical Response to Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn contains newspaper articles, book reviews, and scholarly essays spanning the period from the early response in the 1880s, through the centennial celebration, to the present.The collection reflects the major literary trends and issues of response to Huckleberry Finn, such as the persistent attempts to ban the book, the literary criticism concerning the book's ending, and the many thematic interpretations. Among the essayists included are literary figures such as T.S. Eliot and Twain specialist scholars such as Walter Blair, Leo Marx, and James Cox. The text of an ABC-TV Nightline News Special on the centennial, Huckleberry Finn: Literature or Racist Trash is printed. Editor Champion provides an introductory overview on the range and issues of critical response, a feature on the various adaptations of Huckleberry Finn, and a bibliography of additional scholarship. Of interest to any scholar or researcher of Mark Twain, the collection would be valuable to teachers and students reading Huckleberry Finn at any level from high school upward.
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The Scarlet Letter is virtually unique among works of American fiction because it has not lapsed from print in over 140 years. The history of its reception, which is fully articulated in the volume introduction, may be read as a case study in canon formation. The collection of documents in the volume outline the highs and lows of Nathaniel Hawthorne's literary reputation and the elevation of his first and best-known romance to the rank of masterpiece and classic. Also included is a selective bibliography of modern scholarship.Among the early documents reprinted are contemporary news accounts of Hawthorne's dismissal from the Salem Custom House in June 1849, which provide the immediate background to The Custom House introduction in the story, the publisher James T. Fields's anecdotal version of the book's composition history, and a generous sheaf of notices from both American and British newspapers upon its publication in March, 1850. Of special value are the various essays and other materials that trace the institutionalization of the romance within the genteel tradition of American letters in the late nineteenth century. More recently, The Scarlet Letter has become something of an academic shibboleth, inspiring dozens of New Critical, psychoanalytical, feminist, and other readings, which are also represented in this collection. Prominent among modern critics whose essays appear are Neal Frank Doubleday, Darrel Abel, and Nina Baym. A number of reviews of theatrical and cinematic adaptations of the story also underscore its stature as a cultural icon. This volume is essential for serious research on Nathaniel Hawthorne and provides a convenient body of valuable commentary accessible even to the student reading The Scarlet Letter for the first time.
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Extolled and maligned, Eugene O'Neill was unquestionably the first American playwright of international stature, and his major plays, such as The Iceman Cometh and Long Day's Journey Into Night, remain giants of the American stage. Acres of print have been devoted to O'Neill by theatre critics and literary scholars. This new collection assesses the full range of critical response, considered historically through the entire oeuvre and covering major themes and critical stances. It culls from opening night reviews of premieres and revivals as well as scholarly essays from influential critics and anonymous writers, from boosters and detractors, with the uniqueness of the critical observation being the main criterion for selection. An introduction outlines the major issues and avenues of O'Neill discourse, and a selective bibliography provides additional sources for O'Neill study.
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Author of The Right Stuff and other journalistic writings in a literary vein and the novel Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe has been lauded and vilified by the critics for breaking down the barriers between fact and fiction, journalism and literature, and for his stylistic idiosyncrasies. Beginning with The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby, published in 1965, he has turned his keen eye and high spirits--some would say mean spirits--to the sacred cows and icons of art, architecture, fashion, and politics as well as to cults and the drug culture, the Beautiful People, astronauts, and Wall Street stockbrokers.Doug Shomette collects from four to eight representative reviews and critical commentaries on each of Wolfe's eleven major works, including essays by novelists Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. and John Hersey, scholars Alan Trachtenberg and Albert Bergesen, journalist Garry Wills, and critic Hilton Kramer. Shomette's judicious introduction summarizes these fifty-four pieces as well as other notable critical reactions not reprinted. Also included is a chronology of important events in Wolfe's career; a bibliography of additional readings; and an index. An informative and entertaining reader and reference book, this work will be engrossing and enlightening to anyone who reads and enjoys Tom Wolfe or who is a student of postmodernism, contemporary literature, and the New Journalism.
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In the past decade, Raymond Chandler has come to be recognized as a major mid-century American novelist. Though an immensely popular writer of mysteries, Chandler is now receiving the serious attention of scholars. He is seen as a writer with a deliberate approach toward the creation of fictions that present a significant criticism of American life. The essays and reviews in this volume trace the response to Chandler's work from 1944 to the present.This volume traces the changing reception of Chandler's works. It includes essays and reviews from 1944 to the present. These pieces treat various aspects of Chandler's art, such as his writing style, the nature of the hard-boiled detective hero, the relation of Chandler to his contemporaries, Los Angeles as the setting for his fiction, studies of individual novels, and analyses of films of Chandler's works. An introductory chapter provides a context for understanding Chandler as a writer, and the bibliography at the end of the volume demonstrates the growing amount of attention his novels are receiving.
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William Styron has enjoyed a resurgence of popularity with the publication of Darkness Visible (1990), his account of his struggle with near-suicidal depression. His works are known for discussing psychological conflicts within families, religious doubt, existentialism, racial tension, and the role of history in fiction. Often compared with William Faulkner, Styron has emerged as one of the most important figures in contemporary American literature and is best known for his continuation of the Southern gothic tradition.Through original essays, reprints of previously published criticism, and excerpts from reviews, this volume traces the critical reception of Styron's writings over the last 40 years. All of Styron's novels are covered, but the majority of the selections focus on his three most important works: Lie Down in Darkness, The Confessions of Nat Turner, and Sophie's Choice. The pieces reflect a variety of critical perspectives, and the introduction overviews significant trends and omissions in Styron criticism. A bibliography lists Styron's writings, along with critical studies of his work.
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Ann Radcliffe was one of the most influential women writers of the 18th century. Best known as the author of The Italian and The Mysteries of Udolpho, she contributed to the rise of the English novel and the development of the female gothic. This book brings together, for the first time, almost one hundred documents on her work, including contemporary reviews, letters, diary entries, the most important critical assessments, and several new pieces. The volume begins with an extensive introductory essay on Radcliffe's work and the critical reception of it. The chapters that follow consist of chronologically arranged critical analyses of particular works by Radcliffe. Several chapters then present general critical responses to her writings. The book concludes with a bibliography of selected additional readings.
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Bosha collects major, representative criticism of John Cheever's fiction, and his posthumously published Letters and Journals, from the earliest reviews of 1943, through to the present. The volume provides a clear and comprehensive assessment of Cheever's critical reputation both during his lifetime, as each of his books was published and reviewed, and retrospectively, by academics and literary historians who have sought to place Cheever's work in a larger literary context. In addition to several new essays written specifically for this volume, this book publishes, for the first time, a long interview which John Cheever gave less than a year before his death. This interview, according to Prof. Robert G. Collins, who conducted it, is almost certainly the last to be publicly heard. The book begins with a critical introductory essay that traces the dominant themes and patterns in Cheever criticism and comments on the critical reception of his work over the last five decades. A chronology highlights the chief events in Cheever's life and career. The chapters that follow are arranged chronologically, with each chapter devoted to one of Cheever's works. Within each chapter are selections of criticism. The book concludes with a bibliography and index.
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Acknowledged as an original and important voice in American letters, Ann Beattie published her first short story at age twenty-five in 1972. Four years later, she issued her first short-story collection and first novel concurrently. This volume brings together book reviews, criticism, interviews, biographical materials, and bibliography spanning the entire corpus of Beattie's fiction to date---five short-story collections and four novels published through 1991. The editor's introduction analyzes the various critical stances, both positive and negative, informed also by her own 1992 interview with Beattie, which appears as the final selection. Newly commissioned essays supplement the reviews, articles, and earlier interviews to bring a wide range of contemporary theory to bear on the fiction. An extensive primary and secondary bibliography complete the work.
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Though one of the most significant American writers of the 20th century, Saul Bellow has continually elicited conflicting responses from critics. Some critics have seen him as America's greatest contemporary writer, while others have discounted him as discouragingly redundant. Not even his novel Herzog, generally considered his worthiest achievement, has gone unchallenged. The expansion of critical theory in the last decade has added to the controversy over Bellow's works.The reviews and essays gathered in this volume illustrate the many disparate critical responses and approaches to Saul Bellow over the last 50 years, from the late 1940s into the 1990s. Representative samples of criticism from the earliest reviews to the most recent assessments trace the different critical phases and approaches to Bellow's work over time. The selections included also reflect larger trends in literary criticism over the last half century and chart the history of the critical community's response to Bellow. The selections are arranged chronologically in clusters devoted to particular works.
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This volume collects some of the most significant critical responses to the works of Bram Stoker, a writer best known in our time as the author of Dracula. But Stoker wrote other works as well, and he responded to many of the issues that concerned Victorian England and which continue to concern the present-day reader. The introduction to the volume places Stoker in the larger context of the literature of his time and discusses his variety of works. Each section that follows is devoted to one of Stoker's works. Within each section are representative samples of criticism, ranging from the Victorian era to the present day. A selected bibliography concludes the volume. Through this book, Stoker emerges not only as a significant writer of horror fiction, but also as a writer concerned with the role of women in society, the social impact of science and technology, and the impact of racial and ethnic issues.
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Joan Didion is a major contemporary American novelist and journalist whose works have popular appeal and are widely studied from a variety of literary perspectives as well as for philosophical, psychological, and political insights into the times and topics with which they deal. This volume collects an extensive range of critical commentary, both reviews and scholarly examinations, including newly commissioned essays, covering the entire canon: four works of fiction and five of nonfiction published between 1963 and 1992. Individually, the selections explore diverse critical approaches to Didion's canon; collectively, they establish a critical map that will serve as a guide to future scholarship. A substantive introduction assesses the canon and the critical reaction to it. Other features include a brief chronology of Didion's accomplishments, a bibliography, and contributors and subject indexes.
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Eudora Welty holds a prominent position among Southern writers, receiving critical attention in publications that scan a wide range of interests. Journals that specialize in American literature, journals that publish general essays, and journals that focus on Southern literature frequently include articles about her works. Her writings have been included in anthologies and have been adapted for the stage and television. This book traces the evolving critical response to her fiction.In a lucid introductory essay, Champion presents an overview and summarizes the body of criticism on Welty's fiction. The rest of the volume presents representative selections of criticism from the initial reception of Welty's work to the present day. The selections are grouped in chapters devoted to Welty's principal writings. Her fiction is treated chronologically, and the selections within each chapter are also arranged in chronological order. Thus the book charts the development of Welty criticism over an extended period of time. A bibliography of works for further reading completes the volume.
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From the time he left his job as a publicist for General Electric in 1950 to pursue a career as a writer, Kurt Vonnegut has made an indelible mark on American literature. During the first decade of his career, his work appeared chiefly in paperback. With the hardcover publication of Cat's Cradle in 1963, his writings received increasing attention, with criticism of Vonnegut's work flourishing during the decades that followed. This volume traces the critical response to his work.Included in this book are reviews and critical essays on Vonnegut's writings from the roots of his career to the present day. The critical pieces are arranged chronologically from a review of Player Piano to an article on Hocus Pocus. The book systematically covers the critical response to every one of Vonnegut's novels. The first part of the book covers Vonnegut's rise to critical success with the publication of Slaughterhouse-Five in 1969, while the second part focuses on his later work, from Breakfast of Champions (1970) through Hocus Pocus (1990). A selected bibliography concludes the work.
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The selections of criticism in this anthology reveal the social, cultural, and economic contexts of the writings of Tillie Olsen. The essays link Olsen with socialism, feminism, and the American literary tradition, and show the potential for activism cultivated in her early years. They reflect her concern with women and children, and explore her belief in the power of the written and spoken word. The volume also serves as a companion to other full-length studies of Olsen.Tillie Olsen grew up in a Socialist, secular Jewish immigrant working-class home in the American midwest, and became one of the most striking writers of the twentieth century. The selections of criticism in this anthology survey the reception of her work over the past sixty years and clarify the social, cultural, and economic contexts of her writings. The volume includes selections of the most important criticism of her work, along with original contributions.The essays in this book are grouped in three sections, which correspond with different stages in the development of Olsen's life and art. The selections demonstrate the potential for social activism cultivated in her upbringing, her development as a young writer in the mid-1930s California Marxian milieu, and her maturation after years of balancing the responsibilities of childrearing and employment outside the home. The pieces link her with traditional American literary figures, and relate her to socialist feminist literary tradition and the Jewish American tradition as well. An important introduction to her work, the volume is also a companion to other studies.
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George Eliot is one of the most important women novelists of the 19th century. Throughout her writings, she explores the interconnectedness of the self and society. This theme of interconnectedness creates the social, psychological, and religious worlds of her fictional communities. Eliot distinguished herself from other Victorian novelists through her realism, her use of an engaging narrator, and her indebtedness to thinkers such as Comte, Mill, and Darwin.The essays assembled in this book represent the best criticism of Eliot's novels from the 19th century to the present day. The essays are grouped in sections devoted to particular novels, and within each section the essays are arranged chronologically to chart the evolving critical response to her work. An introductory chapter briefly overviews the philosophical influences on Eliot's novels, and a bibliography of selected additional readings concludes the book. The volume summarizes the critical response to Eliot's work and documents changing views toward her novels.
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H. G. Wells was one of the most influential authors of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is best remembered today as the author of classic works of science fiction, such as The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds, and The First Men in the Moon. He was also the author of The Outline of World History, an ambitious chronicle of the world from antiquity to the beginning of the 20th century. Through essays and reviews, this volume traces the critical reception of his works.An introductory essay overviews Wells's literary career and provides a context for understanding his works. Each of the sections that follow treats one of his major works, according to the publication date of his story. Within each section are reviews, essays, or excerpts that exemplify the critical response to that particular work from the time of its appearance to the present day. A bibliography at the end of the volume lists the most important modern critical studies of Wells and indicates the tremendous contemporary interest in Wells as an author.
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Richard Wright is widely recognized as one of the most important African-American writers and as a significant 20th-century author. With the publication of Native Son in 1940, Wright established his enduring reputation as a man of letters. With the immense critical success of Native Son, Wright went on to author Black Boy, The Outsider, and Eight Men. His writings reflect his experiences growing up in the poverty and racial strife of the South, and his thoughts on major social issues.This volume traces the critical reception of Wright's major works, from the publication of Native Son to the present day. An introductory chapter overviews the critical response to his writings, while two biographical chapters discuss his writings in relation to his life. Sections are then devoted to Native Son, Black Boy, and The Outsider. Each of these sections presents reviews and articles reflecting the best criticism of Wright's works. A final section, Richard Wright Today, offers contemporary assessments of Wright's reputation, as well as fascinating discussions of the recent Library of America editions of his works.
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Best known as the author of Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett was one of the most distinguished writers of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1969, and his works have secured him a lasting place in the literary canon. The critical response to his fiction has been overwhelming. Numerous books and thousands of articles have been published on Beckett, primarily in Europe, the United States, and Canada. Since he wrote most of his works in French, and then translated them himself into English, critics responded to different versions of his works. This reference book documents the critical response to Beckett from his earliest prose and poetry to the public reaction to his death in 1989. Reviews and scholarly articles representing the response to Beckett's creative works are included. Selections are arranged chronologically, so that the reader may trace the reception of Beckett's works over time. An introduction summarizes Beckett's enormous contribution to literature, and a bibliography lists works for further reading.Winner of the 1969 Nobel Prize for literature, Irish-born author Samuel Beckett earned a solid reputation for being one of the most important authors of the 20th century. Best known as the author of Waiting for Godot, Beckett wrote other dramatic works, such as Endgame and Krapp's Last Tape. He wrote several novels, including Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable, and a number of poems and short stories. His innovative approach to language, character, plot, and narrative style was appreciated but sometimes criticized, and his nontraditional concepts of time and space taught readers to approach literature in a new way. Though he experimented with literary forms, his works are within the 20th century intellectual tradition of alienation, isolation, and pessimism.Through essays and reviews, this reference book documents the critical response to Beckett's poetry, fiction, and drama from his earliest works to the public reaction to his death in 1989. Because Beckett often wrote in French and then translated his works into English, scholars responded to several versions of the same work. Because Beckett also had an exceptional knowledge of world literature, philosophy, mathematics, and the sciences, his works are dense with meaning and have invited a broad range of critical approaches. This reference is divided into several sections that roughly correspond with the different genres Beckett utilized. Within each section, reviews and seminal articles are arranged chronologically, so that the reader may trace the response to Beckett over time. An introductory essay discusses the overall response to Beckett, and a bibliography lists works for further reading.
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Presenting roughly sixty year's worth of Miller scholarship, Centola and Cirulli offer a wide range of interpretations and critical responses to the playwright's work. Incorporating insights from several disciplines including, but not limited to, philosophy, psychology, and sociology, this work also contains discussions of his work in light of new understandings discovered through considerations of cultural contexts, performance issues, feminist concerns, as well as deconstructionist and postmodernist redefinitions of the textuality of Miller's writing.Presenting roughly sixty year's worth of Miller scholarship, Centola and Cirulli offer a wide range of interpretations and critical responses to the playwright's work. Incorporating insights from several disciplines including, but not limited to, philosophy, psychology, and sociology, this work also contains discussions of his work in light of new understandings discovered through considerations of cultural contexts, performance issues, feminist concerns, as well as deconstructionist and postmodernist redefinitions of the textuality of Miller's writing.Bearing witness to the enduring value of Miller's work and the relevance of his artistic vision, this body of critical essays reveals why the writer's influence has been so widespread. Adept at dramatic experimentation, Miller succeeded in inspiring the work not only of American playwrights but also that of dramatists around the world.
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Paradise Lost was recognized as a major epic poem soon after its publication in 1667. For more than three centuries, critics have been describing, interpreting, and evaluating it. Regardless of their approaches to changing literary values, they have generally accepted it as the prime example of the epic in English. As many critics have observed, the poem brought biblical, literary, cultural, social, scientific, and political elements into such aesthetic harmony that even its detractors have been forced to recognize its greatness. And because of its complexity, it has become a test case in literary studies as a focal point for changing critical assumptions and literary values. This reference book traces the critical reception of Paradise Lost from the 17th century to the present. The volume is organized in chapters devoted to particular centuries, with each chapter presenting a selection of reviews and critical essays from that period. Thus the reader is able to chart the changing response to ^IParadise Lost^R over time. An introductory essay summarizes the reception of Milton's work, and a bibliography lists important sources of additional information.The volume is organized in chapters devoted to particular centuries. Each chapter then presents a selection of reviews and critical essays from that period. Thus the reader is able to read the 17th-century responses of Samuel Barrow, John Dryden, and Joseph Addison; the 18th-century reactions of Alexander Pope, Samuel Johnson, and William Blake; the 19th-century reactions of British Romantic and Victorian poets; and the 20th-century contributions of major scholars such as E.M.W. Tillyard, Stanley Fish, Louis Martz, and Northrop Frye. The volume closes with a sampling of Milton's own comments about Paradise Lost and the epic, and a selected bibliography of major editions, reference works, and critical studies.
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This volume contains the key pieces of criticism on London's major works arranged chronologically to reconstruct the literary debate on London's work from earliest reviews to recent analyses. The essays contained here show how the perception of London's ideas and concerns have evolved throughout the 20th century to reflect the changes in American ethos itself.Jack London continues to be one of America's most popular writers. While most critics have ignored him or underestimated his contribution to American letters for that reason, this anthology shows that some of the best minds of the 20th century have regarded London's work highly. This volume contains the key pieces of criticism on London's major works arranged chronologically to reconstruct the literary debate on London's work from earliest reviews to recent analyses. The essays contained here show how the perception of London's ideas and concerns has evolved throughout the 20th century to reflect the changes in the American ethos itself.London represents the American spirit which views life as dynamic rather than static, changing rather than stable. His philosophy of life was broad to the extent of including contradictions, not narrow and harmonious with the selective ideas of an ideology. He has been the best-selling American writer throughout the world, and has been translated more extensively than any other American or English novelist of the 20th century.
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As author of Red Harvest, The Maltese Falcon, The Thin Man, and other works, Dashiell Hammett is one of the most popular American writers of detective fiction. The critical response to his work has been diverse. Edmund Wilson saw little merit in his novels, while Raymond Chandler pointed to Hammett's originality and artistry. While some critics have considered it foolish to search for deeper meanings in his novels, many others have praised his writings as profound social and literary documents.Spanning more than 60 years of critical response, this collection includes contemporary reviews of Hammett's novels from the 1920s and 1930s as well as more than 20 full-length essays representing diverse critical approaches and assessments. It is the first collection of critical essays devoted to Hammett's work. Included are essays by major novelists such as Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald, along with pieces by influential literary critics such as Edmund Wilson and John G. Cawelti. Moreover, two of the essays were written specifically for this volume. An introductory essay traces the development of Hammett's literary reputation, and an extensive bibliography lists sources for further reading.
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From the publication of his first major volume in 1946, Lord Weary's Castle, to a few years before his death in 1977, Robert Lowell held sway as the premier English-language poet of his time. Lord Weary's Castle seemed to push poetic language and cultural critique in exciting new directions, yet they were directions sanctioned by the New Criticism of his time. In 1959, Lowell's Life Studies dramatically broke the very traditions he had previously revitalized. During the 1960s, his works elaborated his new poetic mode and engaged with personal, political, and historical issues. But with the 1973 publication of his poetic trilogy, History, For Lizzie and Harriet, and The Dolphin, his reputation suffered. Though his final work, the autobiographical Day by Day—published shortly before his death in 1977—was favorably received, critics continued to attack him in the decades that followed.Thus Lowell's reputation, as this volume makes clear, has fluctuated, and at the close of the twentieth century, there is still no critical consensus about any aspect of his work. This book provides a representative sample of the critical discourse concerning Lowell's poetry, drama, and prose, and shows that discourse at its most varied and vital. An introductory essay surveys the response to Lowell's writings. The first three sections then track Lowell's volumes chronologically. Most of his books receive one or two reviews followed by several scholarly essays, arranged in the order of their publication. Along with the reprinted articles are two essays written specifically for this volume. The fourth section presents several broad overviews of Lowell and his works, and an extensive bibliography of primary and secondary sources concludes the book. The volume also contains an essay by Lowell himself, in which he reflects on his career.
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The appeal of Katherine Mansfield's work knows no geographical boundaries. All of her writings remain in print, she is widely read, taught, and anthologized throughout the world, and her work has been translated into diverse languages. The essays in this volume chart the response to Mansfield's work across time and place. Included are the earliest reviews of her writing from the beginning of the twentieth century, as well as pieces exemplifying modern critical approaches to her work.Born in New Zealand in 1888, Katherine Mansfield left Wellington when she was nineteen to begin a career as a writer in London. In the years that followed, she received critical acclaim and counted among her friends T. S. Eliot, D. H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, Bertrand Russell, and Aldous Huxley. Since her untimely death from tuberculosis in 1923, her writings have drawn increasingly varied critical attention.Through a collection of essays and reviews, this volume traces the critical response to Mansfield's writings. The volume includes the earliest reviews of her work in 1911 through the most recent examinations of her fiction. Though the pieces included are written in English, some essays discuss her links with Europe and with French, German, and Asian critics. An introductory essay and chronology briefly overview the critical reception of her work, and a selected bibliography lists bibliographical, biographical, and critical studies.
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Born in 1795, Thomas Carlyle was a preeminent figure in Victorian letters. Carlyle was widely reviewed, discussed, praised and criticized during his lifetime, because of his controversial ideas as well as his masterful biographies, histories and extended essays, all forms deemed more canonical in the nineteenth century. Although opinion about him and assessments of his work have fluctuated greatly in the years since his death in 1881, interest in his writings has seldom waned. This volume presents some of the most inaccessible and some of the best critical opinion dealing with four of Carlyle's major works that are arguably most representative of his thought. These includeSartor Resartus (1833-34), The French Revolution (1837), On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History (1841), and ^IPast and Present^R (1843). Through reviews and essays, this reference work summarizes the critical reception of Carlyle's writings from their initial appearance to the present day.Born in 1795, Thomas Carlyle was one of the preeminent figures of Victorian letters. Carlyle was widely reviewed, discussed, praised and criticized during his lifetime, primarily because of his masterful biographies, histories, and extended essays, all forms deemed more canonical in the nineteenth century. His Sartor Resartus (1833-34) anticipated the spiritual crisis of the Victorian period, engaged the ideas of German philosophers, and was influential in shaping American Transcendentalism and the works of such authors as Emerson and Thoreau. Carlyle's historical writings were consistently praised for their vigorous style, their vividness, and their accuracy. Although opinion about him and assessments of his work have fluctuated greatly in the years since his death in 1881, interest in his writings has seldom waned.This volume presents some of the most inaccessible and some of the best critical opinion dealing with four of Carlyle's major works that are arguably most representative of his thought. These include ^ISartor Resartus^R (1833-34), ^IThe French Revolution^R (1837), ^IOn Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History^R (1841), and ^IPast and Present^R (1843). Through reviews and essays, this reference work summarizes the critical response to Carlyle's writings from their initial appearance to the present day. The volume emphasizes early reviews while the selections of critical articles from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries reflect mature assessments of Carlyle and include pieces that are not well known or easily accessible. The volume begins with an introductory essay that discusses Carlyle's response to his reviewers, and it closes with a bibliography of major studies.
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Best known for her diary, Anais Nin was also the author of several novels, short fiction, and a book on D.H. Lawrence. As a woman who made a career of her aesthetic femininity, her works helped shape the future of gender studies and feminist literary criticism. Her writings have challenged numerous critics, while her life has been equally fascinating. The selections in this book represent the critical response to her works, from her first efforts in the 1930s to the posthumous publication of unexpurgated diary volumes beginning in 1986, including the views of major biographers and contemporary critics.Born in France in 1903, Anais Nin spent her life in New York, Paris, and Los Angeles, where she died in 1977. Like the chaotic passages of her life, her writings have not easily fallen into neat categories. Though she published several novels, short fiction, and erotica, she is best known for her enormous and captivating diary, which sometimes commanded more attention in unpublished form than her published fiction did. As a woman writer who made a career of her aesthetic femininity, her works helped shape the future of gender studies and feminist literary criticism.The selections in this volume trace the critical response to Nin's works from the 1930s to the present. Though Nin died nearly 20 years ago, the posthumous publication of several of her works, including three unexpurgated diary volumes, has prompted renewed critical attention, including two major biographical studies. Because biographical concerns dominate critical studies, this book contains not only sections on her work in general, her short fiction, and her novels, but also special sections on her monumental diary and on her public and private selves. Within each section, critical articles and reviews are reprinted chronologically, so that the reader may trace the response to Nin over time. A bibliography lists works for further consultation, and an introductory essay explores the direction of critical attention to her writings.
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The work of Chester Himes is now undergoing a critical and popular reevaluation as it gradually comes back into print after years of neglect. His protest novels from the 1940s and early 1950s, his Harlem Domestic crime books, first published in France and later released in English in the United States, and his remarkable two-volume autobiography are now gaining a wider readership through their republication. Nonetheless, the critical writings on his work remain scattered and are often difficult to obtain. This collection of reviews and essays from both popular and academic sources traces the critical response to his work from 1946 to 1996 and thus sheds light on the critical reputation of one of the most distinguished but underrated African American authors.Himes has a wide international reputation, but this reference book focuses on those essays and reviews in the English language which provide a clearer assessment of his controversial literary standing in his native country, where his reputation has been most under debate. The book includes a balanced assessment of all his work, along with an interview with Himes's brother that offers some corrective commentary on his autobiography. The volume also provides a chronology, a checklist of his writings, and a bibliography.
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When it was initially published in 1939, John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath instantly became a bestseller. Like many phenomenally popular works, it has elicited a wide range of critical responses. Some earlier reviewers faulted Steinbeck for his apparent sentimentality, while others were disturbed by his portrait of heartless, greedy Americans. Others, too, criticized his aesthetics. His novel became an important part of the American curriculum, many readers praised his epic vision, and modern critics have tended to respond favorably to his works. But despite the publication of four new editions of the book from 1989 to 1997, its place in the American literary canon is precarious.Through reprints of early reviews and scholarly articles, along with original essays and reviews of the four most recent major editions, this volume traces the critical reception of Steinbeck's novel. The first part of the book looks back at the first 50 years of the novel's reception, from 1939 to 1989, while the second examines the response to Steinbeck during the 1990s. Some of these later essays reflect on the lasting significance of the novel, while others note that some scholars and educators have questioned its relevance. The volume includes a chronology and bibliography, and an extensive introductory essay overviews the major trends in Steinbeck scholarship.
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Ishmael Reed has emerged as one of the most innovative and controversial novelists in contemporary African American literature. By focusing on his nine published novels, this volume charts the critical response to his works over time. The book is organized by decade, with each section containing book reviews and articles. Beginning with material from the 1960s, it explores Reed's concern with artistic freedom and examines the evolution of his Neo-HooDoo aesthetic, which combines satire and parody, comedy and fantasy, African and African American religion, and myth, history, film, and other forms of popular culture. It celebrates and at times criticizes how Reed's fiction defies popular academic conceptions of what American writers, particularly black American writers, ought to be. The book also includes a substantial introduction, a transcript of a recent conversation in which Reed discusses his novels in progress, and an extensive bibliography.Since the publication of his first novel, The Free-Lance Pallbearers, in 1967, Ishmael Reed has emerged as one of the most innovative and controversial African American writers. Despite his belief that he and other black male artists have been misrepresented and virtually ignored in the press, he has received more critical attention than almost any other contemporary African American male author. The majority of this criticism has studied Reed's literary innovations and what he once called his Neo-HooDoo aesthetic, which draws on satire and parody, comedy and fantasy, African and African American religion, and myth, history, film, and various other elements of popular culture. Since the 1970s, many articles and reviews have looked at his commitment to multiculturalism, while others have examined his views on gender and how they help define his position in the literary world. This volume chronicles the critical response to Reed's works.Organized by decades, the book centers primarily on Reed's nine published novels. It contains book reviews and essays devoted to these novels, as well as a recent interview in which Reed discusses his works in progress, including Making a Killing, a novel about the O.J. Simpson trial. While Reed has attained success as a poet and social critic, his novels continue to attract most of the attention. These include a science fiction fantasy, a western, two mysteries, a neo-slave narrative, two political parodies, a trickster tale about contemporary race and gender issues, and a satire on modern academia. The reaction to his works varies from ridicule and condemnation to respect and high praise. A substantial introduction overviews the response to his works, and a chronology lists the major events in his life and career. The volume concludes with extensive bibliographical information.