Unit 5: American Literature

A New Wave

As the wounds of the Civil War slowly healed, many Americans became discontented with the growing materialism of society in the United States. Henry James (1843-1916), an American who lived in Europe, examined American society by observing the divergence between American and European culture in novels like The American and Portrait of a Lady.

"Regional" writers began to drop their narrow provincial focus, while still using realistic descriptions of everyday life. As they concentrated increasingly upon the grimmer aspects of reality and a deterministic view of life, they were called "naturalists," linking them to European naturalists such as French novelist Emile Zola. Again, William Dean Howells led the American realistic movement, both with his magazine criticism and with his own novels, such as The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885), a probing but sympathetic portrait

Stephen Crane

of an American businessman. Stephen Crane's(1871-1900) Maggie, A Girl of the Streets, in 1893, and Theodore Dreiser's (1871-1945) Sister Carrie, in 1900, were considered shocking because they described young urban women who fell into sexual sin. Crane's next novel, The Red Badge of Courage (1895) was set during the Civil War. By limiting itself to a young soldier's confused impressions of battle, it became the first impressionistic novel in America. Upton Sinclair's The Jungle (1906) exposed the horrible lives of meat-packing factory workers. Jack London's Call of the Wild (1903), the tale of a sled dog, was set in the snowy wilderness of the Northwest, where the discovery of gold had caused a rush of greedy prospectors. In this novel and other celebrated tales set in Alaska and in the South Pacific, London expressed his sense that primitive urges underlie all of life, reducing even humans to the level of animals.

While these controversial books disturbed the reading public, other writers were quietly exploring the fate of the individual. After the turn of the century, Henry James, still living in Europe, wrote three brilliant novels, The Wings of the Dove, The Ambassadors and The Golden Bowl, in which he plunged deep into the characters and personalities of his subjects. These were chiefly wealthy, cultured Americans living in Europe, but, like the lower-class characters of the naturalists' novels, James' people were trapped in their environment, struggling to find happiness. James' interest was psychological rather than social, however. Recording the most minute details of perception, he drew his readers close to his characters' mental and emotional processes. His writing style became increasingly complex, but this led attention away from action and setting and onto what the characters were feeling.

New York in Wharton's Time

Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was one of James' close friends and literary followers. She came from a socially prominent New York family and had married into an equally important Boston family. This high-toned social circle disapproved of her writing, but eventually she defied her peers and produced insightful novels and stories. One of her finest books, The House of Mirth (1905), tells the tragic story of a fading beauty hunting desperately for a rich husband and falling victim to the hypocritical high society of New York.The Age of Innocence (1920) is another successful novel written by Wharton, who exposed her upper-class world as only an insider could.

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