William Dean Howells: Novels 1875-1886 (Loa #8): A Foregone Conclusion / Indian Summer / A Modern In

William Dean Howells, America's most influential man of letters at the turn of the century, has been too long underappreciated. These four classic novels explore the conflicts of private life and social institutions with unflinching realism, psychological penetration, and a keen ironic humor. "A Forgone Conclusion" and "Indian Summer" are engaging dramas of complex romantic entanglements within the glamorous provocations of an Italian setting. "A Modern Instance" is the first full-scale study of infidelity and divorce in American fiction. "The Rise of Silas Lapham, " Howell's best-known work, is a brilliantly skeptical portrait of American business and new money.