Mark Twain
American literature is dated from Mark Twain. Much of
his writing was autobiographical. "Life on the Mississippi" was a
story of his experiences as a pilot learning the great river and the country
that it crossed, and the society that lived on its boats or along its banks. In
1884 came the greatest of his achievements "Huckleberry Finn". 'All
modern literature comes from "Huckleberry Finn"', said Ernest
Hemingway, and the aphorism is really true. Mark Twain was considered by his
contemporaries the Lincoln of American literature.
The "valley of democracy" that created Mark
Twain produced his friend W. D. Howells. In his writing Howells gave the most
comprehensive picture of middle-class American society to be found in the whole
of American literature. Probably no other novelist except Balzac ever made so
elaborate a report on his society as did W. D. Howells. He drew genre pictures
of the New England countryside, the best of all portraits of the
"self-made" businessman, the extravagant life of the Ohio frontier,
the rough life and work in New York City, and the clash of cultures in European
resorts. Howells was not only one of the most representative American
novelists; but he was, too, at the same time, the leading American Literature
literary critic. He edited the great "Atlantic Monthly". He
introduced Ibsen, Zola, and Turgenev to American audiences, discovered and
sponsored younger writers like Stephen Crane and Frank Norris.
The third of the major novelists who emerged during
the 1870s and reached maturity in the transition years was Henry James. Henry
James took middle-class America for his theme. His best novels -"The
Portrait of a Lady", "The American", "The
Ambassadors", "The Wings of the Dove" - explore the themes of
manners and morals. Very often they are cast into a pattern of New World
innocence and Old World corruption. Of all American novelists between Hawthorne
and Faulkner, James was most completely preoccupied with moral problems.
Because James wrote of characters and subjects alien to the average American,
and in a style intricate and sophisticated, he achieved little popularity in
his own lifetime.
Vocabulary
pilot - лоцман
comprehensive - исчерпывающий, полный
frontier - граница
contemporary - современник
genre pictures - жанровые сцены
transition
years - переходный период
preoccupy -
занимать, поглощать внимание
character - персонаж
subject - тема
alien - чуждый
intricate - замысловатый
average - средний
maturity -
зрелость
defiant -
вызывающий
literary
currents - литературные направления
novel - роман
Questions
1. Who is considered to be the founder of American
literature?
2. What did Mark Twain produce?
3. How was Mark Twain characterized by his
contemporaries?
4. Who did the "valley of democracy"
produce?
5. What classes of the American society did W. D.
Howells depict?
6. Was Howells only a novelists? What else did he do?
7. What novels did Henry James create?
8. What problems was Henry James preoccupied with?
9. Was Henry James popular in his own lifetime? Why?
Список
литературы
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