Novels for students vol 1

We hope that by en-tering the time and place of the novel and sharing the thoughts and actions of the characters, we will find enjoyment.. Con-sciously and unconCon-sciously, we ask ques

The Informed Dialogue:

Interacting with Literature

When we~ick up a book, we usually do so with

the anticipation of pleasure We hope that by

en-tering the time and place of the novel and sharing

the thoughts and actions of the characters, we will

find enjoyment Unfortunately, this is often not the

case; we are disappointed But we should ask, has

the author failed us, or have we failed the author?

We establish a dialogue with the author, the

book, and with ourselves when we read

Con-sciously and unconCon-sciously, we ask questions:

"Why did the author write this book?" "Why did

the author choose that time, place, or character?"

"How did the author achieve that effect?" "Why

did the character act that way?" "Would I act in the

same way?" The answers we receive depend upon

how much information about literature in general

and about that book specifically we ourselves bring

to our reading

Young children have limited life and literary

experiences Being young, children frequently do

not know how to go about exploring a book, nor

sometimes, even know the questions to ask of a

book The books they read help them answer

ques-tions, the author often coming right out andtelling

young readers the things they are learning or are

expected to learn The perennial classic,The Little

Engine That Could, tells its readers that, among

other things, it is good to help others and brings

happiness:

"Hurray, hurray," cried the funny little clown and all

the dolls and toys "The good little boys and girls in

A novel is made up of many parts interacting

to create a coherent whole In reading a novel, themore obvious features can be easily spotted-theme, characters, plot-but we may overlook themore subtle elements that greatly influence how thenovel is perceived by the reader: viewpoint, moodand tone, symbolism, or the use of humor By fo-cusing on both the obvious and more subtle liter-ary elements within a novel,Novels for Students

aids readers in both analyzing for message and indetermining how and why that message is com-municated In the discussion on Harper Lee's To

Kill a Mockingbird (Vol 2), for example, the

mockingbird as a symbol of innocence is dealt with,

among other things, as is the importance of Lee's

use of humor which "enlivens a serious plot, adds

depth to the characterization, and creates a sense

of familiarity and universality." The reader comes

to understand the internal elements of each novel

discussed-as well as the external influences that

help shape it

"The desire to write greatly," Harold Bloom

of Yale University says, "is the desire to be

else-where, in a time and place of one's own, in an

orig-inality that must compound with inheritance, with

an anxiety of influence." A writer seeks to create

a unique world within a story, but although it is

unique, it is not disconnected from our own world

It speaks to usbecauseof what the writer brings to

the writing from our world: how he or she was

raised and educated; his or her likes and dislikes;

the events occurring in the real world at the time

of the writing, and while the author was growing

up When we know what an author has brought to

his or her work, we gain a greater insight into both

the "originality" (the world of the book), and the

things that "compound" it This insight enables us

to question that created world and find answers

more readily By informing ourselves, we are able

to establish a more effective dialogue with both

book and author

Novels for Students, in addition to providing a

plot summary and descriptive list of

characters-to remind readers of what they have read-also

ex-plores the external influences that shaped each

book Each entry includes a discussion of the

au-thor's background, and the historical context in

which the novel was written.Itis vital to know, for

instance, that when Ray Bradbury was writing

Fahrenheit451 (Vol I), the threat of Nazi

domi-nation had recently ended in Europe, and the

Mc-Carthy hearings were taking place in Washington,

D.C This information goes far in answering the

question, "Why did he write a story of oppressive

government control and book burning?" Similarly,

it is important to know that Harper Lee, author of

To Kill a Mockingbird,was born and raised in

Mon-V o l u m e

roeville, Alabama, and that her father was a lawyer.Readers can now see why she chose the south as asetting for her novel-it is the place with which shewas most familiar-and start to comprehend hercharacters and their actions

Novels for Studentshelps readers find the swers they seek when they establish a dialoguewith a particular novel It also aids in the posing

an-of questions by providing the opinions and pretations of various critics and reviewers, broad-ening that dialogue Some reviewers of To Kill A Mockingbird,for example, "faulted the novel's cli-max as melodramatic." This statement leads read-ers to ask, "Is it, indeed, melodramatic?" "Ifnot,why did some reviewers see it as such?""Ifit is,why did Lee choose to make it melodramatic?" "Ismelodrama ever justified?" By being spurred to askthese questions, readers not only learn more aboutthe book and its writer, but about the nature of writ-ing itself

inter-The literature included for discussion in els for Students has been chosen because it hassomething vital to say to us Of Mice and Men, Catch-22, The Joy Luck Club, My Antonia, A Sep- arate Peaceand the other novels here speak oflifeand modem sensibility In addition to their indi-vidual, specific messages of prejudice, power,love or hate, living and dying, however, they andall great literature also share a common intent.They force us tothink-aboutlife, literature, andabout others, not just about ourselves They pry usfrom the narrow confines of our minds and thrust

Nov-us outward to confront the world of books and thelarger, real world we all share.Novels for Students

helps us in this confrontation by providing themeans of enriching our conversation with litera-ture and the world, by creating an informeddia-logue, one that brings true pleasure to the personalact of reading

Sources

Harold Bloom,The Western Canon, The Books and School

of the Ages, Riverhead Books, 1994.

Watty Piper, The Little Engine That Could Platt& Munk, 1930.

Anne Devereaux JordanSenior Editor,TAU (Teaching and Learning Literature)

Purpose of the Book

The purpose of Novels for Students (NfS) is to

provide readers with a guide to understanding,

en-joying, and studying novels by giving them easy

access to information about the work Part of Gale's

"For Students" Literature line, NfS is specifically

designed to meet the curricular needs of high school

and undergraduate college students and their

teach-ers, as well as the interests of general readers and

researchers considering specific novels While each

volume contains entries on "classic" novels

fre-quently studied in classrooms, there are also entries

containing hard-to-find information on

contempo-rary novels, including works by multicultural,

in-ternational, and women novelists

The information covered in each entry includes

an introduction to the novel and the novel's author;

a plot summary, to help readers unravel and

under-stand the events in a novel; descriptions of

impor-tant characters, including explanation of a given

char-acter's role in the novel as well as discussion about

that character's relationship to other characters in the

novel; analysis of important themes in the novel; and

an explanation of important literary techniques and

movements as they are demonstrated in the novel

10 addition to this material, which helps the

readers analyze the novel itself, students are also

provided with important information on the

liter-ary and historical background informing each

work This includes a historical context essay, a

box comparing the time or place the novel was

writ-ten to modern Western culture, a critical overviewessay, and excerpts from critical essays on the

novel A unique feature of NfS is a specially

com-missioned overview essay on each novel by an demic expert, targeted toward the student reader

aca-To further aid the student in studying and joying each novel, information on media adapta-tions is provided, as well as reading suggestions forworks of fiction and nonfiction on similar themesand topics Classroom aids include ideas for re-search papers and lists of critical sources that pro-vide additional material on the novel

en-Selection Criteria

The titles for each volume of NfS were selected

by surveying numerous sources on teaching ture and analyzing course curricula for variousschool districts Some of the sources surveyed in-

litera-cluded: literature anthologies; Reading Lists for

College-Bound Students: The Books Most mended by America's Top Colleges; textbooks onteaching the novel; a College Board survey of nov-els commonly studied in high schools; a NationalCouncil of Teachers of English (NCTE) survey ofnovels commonly studied in high schools; the

Recom-NCTE's Teaching Literature in High School: The

Novel; and the Young Adult Library Services sociation (YALSA) list of best books for youngadults of the past twenty-five years

As-Input was also solicited from our expert sory board, as well as educators from various ar-

advi-eas From these discussions, it was determined that

each volume should have a mix of "classic"

nov-els (those works commonly taught in literature

classes) and contemporary novels for which

infor-mation is often hard to find Because of the

inter-est in expanding the canon of literature, an

em-phasis was also placed on including works by

international, multicultural, and women authors

Our advisory board members-i-current high school

teachers-helped pare down the list for each

vol-ume.Ifa work was not selected for the present

vol-ume, it was often noted as a possibility for a future

volume As always, the editor welcomes

sugges-tions for titles to be included in future volumes

How Each Entry Is Organized

Each entry, or chapter, inNfSfocuses on one

novel Each entry heading lists the full name of the

novel the author's name, and the date of the

novel's publication The following elements are

contained in each entry:

• Introduction: a brief overview of the novel

which provides information about its first

ap-pearance, its literary standing, any controversies

surrounding the work, and major conflicts or

themes within the work

• Author Biography: this section includes basic

facts about the author's life, and focuses on

events and times in the author's life that inspired

the novel in question

• Plot Summary: a description of the major

events in the novel, with interpretation of how

these events help articulate the novel's themes

Lengthy summaries are broken down with

sub-heads

• Characters: an alphabetical listing of major

characters in the novel Each character name is

followed by a brief to an extensive description

of the character's role in the novel, as well as

discussion of the character's actions,

relation-ships, and possible motivation

Characters are listed alphabetically by last name

Ifa character is unnamed-for instance, the

nar-rator in Invisible Man-the character is listed as

"The Narrator" and alphabetized as "Narrator."

Ifa character's first name is the only one given,

the name will appear alphabetically by the name

Variant names are also included for each

char-acter Thus, the full name "Jean Louise Finch"

would head the listing for the narrator of To Kill

a Mockingbird.but listed in a separate

cross-ref-erence would be the nickname "Scout Finch."

V o l u m e

I n t r o d u c t i o n

• Themes: a thorough overview of how the majortopics, themes and issues are addressed withinthe novel Each theme discussed appears in aseparate subhead, and is easily accessed throughthe boldface entries in the SubjectfTheme Index

• Style: this section addresses important style ements of the novel, such as setting, point ofview, and narration; important literary devicesused, such as imagery, foreshadowing, symbol-ism; and, if applicable, genres to which the workmight have belonged such as Gothicism or Ro-manticism Literary terms are explained withinthe entry but can also be found in the Glossary

el-• Historical and Cultural Context: This sectionoutlines the social, political, and cultural climate

in which the author lived and the novel was ated. This section may include descriptions ofrelated historical events, pertinent aspects ofdaily life in the culture, and the artistic and lit-erary sensibilities of the time in which the workwas written.Ifthe novel is a historical work, in-formation regarding the time in which the novel

cre-is set cre-is also included Each section cre-is brokendown with helpful subheads

• Critical Overview: this section provides ground on the critical reputation of the novel,including bannings or any other public contro-versies surrounding the work For older works,this section includes a history of how novel wasfirst received and how perceptions of it mayhave changed over the years; for more recentnovels, direct quotes from early reviews mayalso be included

back-• Sources: an alphabetical list of critical materialquoted in the entry, with full bibliographical in-formation

• For Further Study: an alphabetical list of othercritical sources which may prove useful for thestudent Includes full bibliographical informa-tion and a brief annotation

• Criticism: an essay commissioned by NfS

which specifically deals with the novel and iswritten specifically for the student audience, aswell as excerpts from previously published crit-icism on the work

In addition each entry contains the followinghighlighted sections, set apart from the main text

as sidebars:

• Media Adaptations: a list of important film andtelevision adaptations of the novel, includingsource information The list also includes stage

adaptations, audio recordings, musical

adapta-tions, etc

• Compare and Contrast Box: an "at-a-glance"

comparison of the cultural and historical

differ-ences between the author's time and culture and

late twentieth-century Western culture This box

includes pertinent parallels between the major

scientific, political, and cultural movements of

the time or place the novel was written, the time

or place the novel was set (if a historical work),

and modem Western culture Works writtenaf-:

ter the mid-1970s may not have this box

• WhatDoI Read Next?: a list of works that might

complement the featured novel or serve as a

con-trast to it This includes works by the same

au-thor and others, works of fiction and nonfiction,

and works from various genres, cultures, and eras

• Study Questions: a list of potential study

ques-tions or research topics dealing with the novel

This section includes questions related to other

disciplines the student may be studying, such as

American history, world history, science, math,

government, business, geography, economics,

psychology, etc

Other Features

NfS includes "The Informed Dialogue:

Inter-acting with Literature," a foreword by Anne

Dev-ereaux Jordan, Senior Editor for Teaching and

Learning Literature (TALL), and a founder of the

Children's Literature Association This essay

pro-vides an enlightening look at how readers interact

with literature and how Novels for Students can

help teachers show students how to enrich their

own reading experiences

A Cumulative Authorffitle Index lists the

au-thors and titles covered in each volume of theNfS

series

A Cumulative NationalitylEthnicity Index breaks

down the authors and titles covered in each volume

of theNfS series by nationality and ethnicity.

A Subjectffheme Index, specific to each

vol-ume, provides easy reference for users who maybe

studying a particular subject or theme rather than

a single work Significant subjects from events to

broad themes are included, and the entries

point-ing to the specific theme discussions in each entry

are indicated in boldface

Each entry has several illustrations, including

photos of the author, stills from film adaptations

(when available), maps, and/or photos of key

his-torical events

Citing Novels for StudentsWhen writing papers, students who quote di-rectly from any volume ofNovels for Students may

use the following general forms These examplesare based on MLA style; teachers may request thatstudents adhere to a different style, so the follow-ing examples may be adapted as needed

When citing text from NfS that is not

attrib-uted to a particular author (i.e., the Themes, Style,Historical Context sections, etc.), the following for-mat shouldbeused in the bibliography section:

"The Adventures of HuckIeberry Finn." Novels for Students. Ed Diane Telgen Vo! 1 Detroit: Gale, 1997.8-9.

When quoting the specially commissioned say from NfS (usually the first piece under the

es-"Criticism" subhead), the following format should

beused:

James, Pearl Essay on "The Adventures of

HuckIe-berry Finn." Novels for Students Ed Diane Telgen.

Vol 1 Detroit: Gale, 1997 8-9.

When quoting a journal or newspaper essaythat is reprinted in a volume ofNfS, the following

form maybeused:

Butler, Robert J "The Quest for Pure Motion in

Richard Wright's Black Boy." MELUS 10, No 3 (Fall, 1983),5-17; excerpted and reprinted in Nov- els for Students, Vol I,ed Diane Telgen (Detroit: Gale, 1997), pp 61-64.

When quoting material reprinted from a bookthat appears in a volume ofNfS, the following form

maybeused:

Adams, Timothy Dow "Richard Wright: 'Wearing

the Mask,'" in Telling Lies in Modem American tobiography (University of North Carolina Press,

Au-1990) 69-83; excerpted and reprinted in Novels for Students, Vol I, ed Diane Telgen (Detroit: Gale, 1997), pp 59 61.

We Welcome Your Suggestions

The editor of Novels for Students welcomes

your comments and ideas Readers who wish tosuggest novels to appear in future volumes, or whohave other suggestions, are cordially invited to con-tact the editor You may contact the editor via e-mail at: CYA@gale.com Or write to the editorat:

Editor,Novels for Students

Gale Research

835 Penobscot Bldg

645 Griswold St

Detroit, MI 48226-4094

Literary Chronology

1775: Jane Austen is born December 16, 1774, to

George and Cassandra Austen, in Steventon,

Hampshire, England

1797: Mary Shelley is born Mary Wollstonecraft

Godwin on August 30, 1797, to William and

Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, in London,

Eng-land

1804: Nathaniel Hawthome is born on July 4, 1804,

in Salem, Massachusetts

1813: "First Impressions" is the original version of

Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and is

re-jected by a London publisher in 1797 Austen

revised the story, and it is published as Pride

and Prejudice in 1813

1814: After Percy Shelley threatens to commit

sui-cide, Mary Godwin elopes with him to France,

even though he is already married They

even-tually marry and have four children, three of

whom die in infancy Percy Shelley drowns in

1822

1817: Jane Austen dies (probably of Addison's

dis-ease) on July 18, 1817, in Winchester,

Hamp-shire, England

1818: Mary Shelley beginsFrankenstein; or, The

Modem Prometheusin July, 1816, while

visit-ing Lord Byron at Lake Geneva in Switzerland

with her husband, poet Percy Bysshe Shelley;

Byron challenges each of his guests to write a

ghost story The novel is published in March,

1818

1835: Mark Twain is born Samuel LanghomeClemens on November 30, 1835, to John Mar-shall and Jane Lampton Clemens, in Florida,Missouri He first uses the name "Mark Twain"

on February2, 1863

1850: Nathaniel Hawthome's The Scarlet Letter,

the story of a woman who must wear a scarlet

"A" because she committed adultery, is lished in 1850

pub-1851: Mary Shelley dies of meningioma on ruary I, 1851, in London, England

Feb-1864: Nathaniel Hawthome dies on May 19, 1864,

at Plymouth, New Hampshire, and is buried onMay 23, 1864, at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, inConcord, Massachusetts

1884: Mark Twain establishes the Charles L ster Publishing Co in order to secure greatercontrol over his books

Web-1884: Mark Twain beginsThe Adventures leberry Finn, Tom Sawyer's Comrade in thesummer of 1876 while he is at Quarry Farm,near Elmira, New York, and finishes it in thesummer of 1883 The novel is published Febru-ary 18, 1884

ofHuck-1899: Emest Hemingway is born on July21 1899,

in Oak Park, lllinois

1902: John Steinbeck is born on February 27 1902,

in Salinas, California His father, John Emst, Sr.,

is a miller and treasurer and his mother is a mer school teacher

for-L i t e r a r y C h r o n o l o g y

1908: Richard Wright is born to Nathan and Ella

Wright on September 4, 1908, on a farm near

Natchez, Mississippi

1910: Mark Twain dies of angina pectoris on April

21, 1910, in Redding, Connecticut

1914-1918: World WarI.Ernest Hemingway

vol-unteers to be an ambulance driver for the Red

Cross in 1918 He is assigned to an Italian war

theater, and he receives serious wounds at

Fos-salta, Italy He retumes from the war in 1919

Hemingway's main character in A Farewell to

Armsis also an ambulance driver during the war

1919: Jerome David Salinger is born January 1,

1919, to Sol and Miriam Jillich Salinger, in New

York City

1920: Ray Bradbury is born on August 22, 1920,

in Waukegan, Illinois

1923: Joseph Heller is born May 1, 1923, to Isaac

and Lena Heller in the Coney Island section of

Brooklyn, New York

1928: Gabriel Garcia Marquez is born on March 6,

1928, in Aracataca, Colombia

1929: Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms,

the story of an American ambulance driver and

his desire for an English nurse during World

War I, is published

1931: Toni Morrison is born Chloe Anthony

Wof-ford on February 18, 1931, to George and

Ramah Willis Wofford, in Lorain, Ohio

1932: Sylvia Plath is born October 27, 1932, to

Otto Emil and Aurelia Schober Plath, in Boston,

Massachusetts

1936: Judith Guest is born March 29, 1936, to

Harry Reginald and Marion Aline Guest, in

De-troit, Michigan

1937: John Steinbeck writes of the white male

mi-grant workers who were becoming extinct from

American culture in Of Mice and Men.

1939: World War IT begins when Nazi Germany,

led by Adolf Hitler, invades Poland and

Eng-land and France declare war in response The

repressive Nazi regime, with its thought control

and book bumings, helps inspire the society in

Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451.

1944: During World Warn,Joseph HeUer is

sta-tioned on the island of Corsica (located in the

Mediterranean Sea, off the coasts of France and

Italy), where he serves as a bombardier who flew

sixty combat missions His novel Catch-22 will

use a similar wartime setting

x i "

1945: Richard Wright publishes his autobiography,

Black Boy, in 1945 The unused portions of hisoriginal manuscript are published in 1977 as

American Hunger.

1950: Sen Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin firstmakes the claim that there are over 200 knownCommunists working in the federal government,setting off the "Red Scare" that leads to gov-ernment hearings and blacklisting of suspectedCommunists This emphasis on conformity in-fluences several novels of the era, including Ray

Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and J D Salinger's

The Catcher in the Rye.

1951: J D Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye is

published July 16, 1951, and Salinger avoids thepublicity by traveling to Europe

1952: Amy Tan is born on February 19, 1952, toJohn and Daisy Tu Ching Tan, in Oakland, Cal-ifornia

1953: Ray Bradbury wrote the 25,OOO-wordnovella, "The Fireman," which appeared in

Galaxy in 1952 Fahrenheit 451, his first novel,

is the expanded version of that novella and ispublished in October, 1953

1954: Ernest Hemingway receives the Nobel Prize

in Literature

1960: Richard Wright dies of a heart attack on vember 28, 1960, in Paris, France

No-1961: Joseph HeUer began writing Catch-22 while

working in the New York advertising business.The book is published in 1961

1961: Ernest Hemingway commits suicide on July

2, 1961, in Ketchum, Idaho

1962: John Steinbeck receives the Nobel Prize forLiterature

1963: Sylvia Plath publishes The Bell Jar in

Janu-ary, 1963, under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas.1963: Sylvia Plath commits suicide on February

11, 1963, in London, England

1968: John Steinbeck dies of a severe heart attack

in New York City on December 20, 1968

1970: Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, published

in 1970, is her first novel

1976: Judith Guest's first novel, Ordinary People,

is published It is the first unsolicited manuscriptaccepted by its publisher in twenty years.1982: Gabriel Garcfa Marquez receives the NobelPrize in Literature

N o v e l s f o r S t u d e n t s

1985:Gabriel Garcfa Marquez's Love in the Time

of Cholera, published in 1985, is based in part

on his parents' marriage

L i t r : r a r y C h r o n o l o g y

1989: Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Clubis published

1993:Toni Morrison receives the Nobel Prize forLiterature

x v

The editors wish to thank the copyright holders of

the excerpted criticism included in this volume and

the permissions managers of many book and

maga-zine publishing companies for assisting us in

secur-ing reproduction rights We are also grateful to the

staffs of the Detroit Public Library, the Library of

Congress, the University of Detroit Mercy Library,

Wayne State University PurdylKresge Library

Com-plex, and the University of Michigan Libraries for

making their resources available to us Following is

a list of the copyright holders who have granted us

permission to reproduce material in this volume of

NfS Every effort has been made to trace copyright,

but if omissions have been made, please let us know

COPYRIGHTED EXCERPTS IN NFS,

VOL-UME 1, WERE REPRODUCED FROM THE

FOLLOWING PERIODICALS:

Ball State Teachers College Forum, v VI,

Winter, 1965 © 1965, renewed 1993 Ball State

University Reprinted by permission of the

pub-lisher

The CEA Criuc, v 36, November, 1973

Copyright © 1973 by the College English

Associ-ation, Inc Reproduced by permission

CIA Journal, v XXII, June, 1979 Copyright,

1979 by The College Language Association

Re-produced by permission of The College Language

Association.CIA Journal, v XXXVI, December,

1992 Copyright, 1992 by The College Language

Association Reproduced by permission of The

College Language Association

Critkal Inquiry, v 10, March, 1984 right © 1984 by The University of Chicago Re-produced by permission

Copy-Los Angeles Times Book Review, April 17,

1988 Copyright, 1988, Los Angeles Times produced by permission.Los Angeles Times Book Review,March 12, 1989 Copyright, 1989, Los An-geles Times Reproduced by permission

Re-MELUS, v 10, Fall, 1983 Copyright,

MELUS, The Society for the Study of nic Literature of the United States, 1983 Repro-duced by permission

Multi-Eth-The Midwest Quarterly,v XV, January, 1974.Copyright, 1974, by The Midwest Quarterly, Pitts-burg State University Reproduced by permission

Modem Fiction Studies, v XIV, Autumn,

1968 Copyright © 1968 by Purdue Research dation, West Lafayette, IN 47907 All rights re-served Reproduced by permission of The JohnsHopkins University Press

Foun-Modem Language Quarterly, v XXV, cember, 1964 © 1966, renewed 1994 University

De-of Washington Reproduced by permission De-of DukeUniversity Press

The Nation, New York,v 246, Apri123, 1988.Copyright 1988 The Nation magazineflbe NationCompany, Inc Reproduced by permission

The New Republic, v 164, May 8, 1971 ©

1971 The New Republic, Inc Reproduced by mission of The New Republic

per-The New York Review of Books, June 10,

1976 Copyright © 1976 Nyrev Inc Reproduced

with permission from The New York Review of

Books.

The New York Times Book Review,March 19,

1989 Copyright © 1989 by The New York Times

Company Reproduced by permission

Nineteenth-Century Fiction, v 19,

Septem-ber, 1964 for "Arthur Dimmesdale as Tragic Hero"

by Bruce Ingham Granger © 1964, renewed 1992

by The Regents of the University of California

Reprinted by permission of the publisher and the

author

Notes and Queries,v 190, June 15, 1946 for

"The Noble Savage in Mary Shelley's

Franken-stein" by Milton Millhauser © Oxford University

Press Reproduced by permission of the publisher

and the Literary Estate of Milton Millhauser

Women's Studies: An Interdisciplinary

Jour-nal, v 12, February, 1986 © Gordon and Breach

Science Publishers Reproduced by permission

COPYRIGHTED EXCERPTS IN NFS,

VOL-UME 1, WERE REPRODUCED FROM THE

FOLLOWING BOOKS:

Adams, Timothy Dow From Telling lies in

Modern American Autobiography.The University

of North Carolina Press, 1990.© 1990 The

Uni-versity of North Carolina Press All rights reserved

Reproduced by permission of the publisher and the

author

Baker, Carlos From "Chapter 17," in The

American Novel from Cooper to Faulkner. Edited

by Wallace Stegner Basic Books, 1965 © 1965

by Basic Books, Inc., Publishers Reproduced by

permission of Basic Books, a division of

Harper-CoIlins Publishers, Inc

Brown, Julia Prewitt From "The 'Social

His-tory' of 'Pride and Prejudice' ," inApproaches to

Teaching Austen's Pride and Prejudice.Edited by

Marcia McClintock Folsom Modem Language

As-sociation of America, 1993 Reproduced by

per-mission of the Modem Language Association of

America

Johnson, WayneL.FromRay Bradbury.

Fred-erick Ungar Publishing Company, 1980 Copyright

© 1980 by Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., Inc

Reproduced by permission

Kneedler, Susan From "The New Romance

in 'Pride and Prejudice,''' in Approaches to

Teaching Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Edited

by Marcia McClintock Folsom Modem Language

Association of America, 1993 Reproduced by

Neuhaus, Ron From "Threshold Literature: ADiscussion of 'Ordinary People,''' in Censored Books: Critical Viewpoints.Nicholas J Karolides,Lee Burress, John M Kean, eds The ScarecrowPress, Inc., 1993 Copyright© 1993 by Nicholas J.Karolides, Lee Burress, John M Kean Reproduced

by permission

Scarseth, Thomas From "A Teachable GoodBook: 'Of Mice and Men,''' in Censored Books: Critical Viewpoints. Nicholas J KaroJides, LeeBurress, John M Kean, eds The Scarecrow Press,Inc., 1993 Copyright © 1993 by Nicholas J.Karolides, Lee Burress, John M Kean Reproduced

by permission

Sewall, Richard B From The Vision of Tragedy.Yale University Press, 1959 Copyright

© 1959 by Yale University Press, Inc Renewed

1987 by Richard B Sewall All rights reserved produced by permission of the author

Re-Wood, Diane S From "Bradbury and Atwood:Exile as Rational Decision," in The Literature of Emigration and Exile. Edited by James Whitlarkand Wendall Aycock Texas Tech University Press,

1992 Copyright 1992 Texas Tech University Press.All rights reserved Reproduced by permission ofthe publisher

APPEARING IN NFS, VOLUME 1, WERE

SOURCES:

APIWIDE WORLD PHOTOS:Clemens, uel (seated in a rocking chair), photograph.APlWide World Photos Reproduced by permis-sion Guest, Judith (in striped sweater), 1976, pho-tograph APlWide World Photos Reproduced bypermission Helier, Joseph, photograph APlWideWorld Photos Reproduced by permission GarciaMarquez, Gabriel, photograph APlWide WorldPhotos Reproduced by permission Morrison, Toni(bandanna on head), photograph APlWide WorldPhotos Reproduced by permission Morrison, Toni(accepting Nobel Prize), 1993, photograph

Sam-APlWide World Photos, Inc Reproduced by

per-mission Plath, Sylvia, photograph APlWide

World Photos Reproduced by permission

Salinger, J D., photograph APlWide World

Pho-tos Reproduced by permission Tan, Amy,

photo-graph APlWide World Photos Reproduced by

per-mission

ARCHIVE PHOTOS, INe.: Arkin, Alan, in the

film "Catch 22," photograph Archive Photos

Re-produced by permission Bradbury, Ray,

photo-graph Archive Photos, Inc Reproduced by

per-mission Hirsch, Judd, and Timothy Hutton in the

movie "Ordinary People," photograph Archivel

Paramount Reproduced by permission Steinbeck,

John, photograph Archive Photos, Inc

Repro-duced by permission Wright, Richard, photograph

Archive Photos Reproduced by permission

THE BETTMANN ARCHIVElNEWSPHOTOS,

INe.: Cooper, Gary, and Helen Hayes, in film "A

Farewell to Arms," photograph

UPIICorbis-Bettmann Reproduced by permission English

am-bulance driver (standing next to truck), c 1918,

Italy, photograph UPIICorbis-Bettmann

Repro-duced by permission Field hands sitting on bagged

wheat, c 1880, Moro, Oregon, photograph by W

A Raymond Corbis-Bettmann Reproduced by

permission Garcfa Marquez, Gabriel (being

inter-viewed, on couch), photograph

UPIICorbis-Bettmann Reproduced by permission Gish,

Lil-lian, and Lars Hanson in the film "The Scarlet

Letter," 1926, photograph

Springer/Corbis-Bett-mann Reproduced by permission Laborers

weigh-ing cotton, horse and wagon, c 1910, photograph

Corbis-Bettmann Reproduced by permission

Mis-sissippi riverboat loading logs, print by Currier and

Ives Corbis-Bettmann, Reproduced by permission

Nazi youths burning books, 1933, Berlin,

photo-graph UPIICorbis-Bettmann Reproduced by

per-mission Nurse attending patient sleeping on floor,

photograph UPIICorbis-Bettmann Reproduced by

permission Office workers seated at desks, large

windows along side, 1952, photograph

UPIICor-bis-Bettmann Reproduced by permission Puritan

with musket standing in doorway, 1882, woodcut

Corbis-Bettmann Reproduced by permission

Rooney, Mickey, as Huck Finn in "The Adventures

of Huckleberry Finn," photograph

Springer/Cor-bis-Bettmann Reproduced by permission Shelley,

Mary Wollstonecraft (daisy trim), painting by

x v i i i

Samuel John Stump Corbis-Bettmann duced by permission Street scene (buses, rick-shaws, carriers in street), Chungking, China, 1944,photograph UPIICorbis-Bettmann Reproduced bypermission Temple, Shirley (as a child, curtseying

Repro-in accordion-pleated dress), photograph Bettmann Reproduced by permission Troops ofthe 85th Division march through the Porta Mag-giore, 1944, Rome, photograph Corbis-Bettmann.Reproduced by permission Two young men stand-ing outside Swing Rendezvous club, 1955, Green-wich Village, photograph UPIICorbis-Bettmann.Reproduced by permission Wright, Richard(seated, typing next to window), photograph Cor-bis-Bettmann, Reproduced by permission

Corbis-BLACK STAR: Hemingway, Emest (fringed

buckskin shirt), photograph Hans MalmbergIBlackStar Reproduced by permission

GALE RESEARCH INe (Detroit): Map of

Colombia, illustration Gale Research Inc duced by permission

Repro-THE KOBAL COLLECTION: Chin, Kieu(with other cast members) in the film "The JoyLuck Club," photograph The Kobal Collection.Reproduced by permission Christie, Julie, and Os-karWemer in the movie "Fahrenheit 451," photo-graph The Kobal Collection Reproduced by per-mission Garson, Greer and Laurence Olivier (in ascene from the 1940 motion picture "Pride andPrejudice"), photograph The Kobal Collection.Reproduced by permission Hassett, Marilyn (sit-ting on floor), in the film "The Bell Jar" by SylviaPlath, photograph The Kobal Collection Repro-duced by permission Hutton, Timothy and DinahManoff (in a scene from the 1980 motion picture

"Ordinary People"), photograph The Kobal lection Reproduced by permission Karloff, Boris(walking in village), in movie "Frankenstein,"

Col-1935, photograph The Kobal Collection duced by permission Sinise, Gary, and JohnMalkovich, in film of "Of Mice and Men" by JohnSteinbeck, photograph The Kobal Collection Re-produced by permission

Repro-SOURCE UNKNOWN: Austen, Jane,

water-color drawing by Cassandra Austen First tion of the Frankenstein Monster, by Mary Shelley.Hawthome, Nathaniel, photograph Jane Austen'shome at Chawton, photograph

illustra-The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Although probably no other work of American lit- 1\lark Twain

eraturehasbeen the source of so much controversy,

Mark Twain'sThe Adventures ofHuckleberry Finn 1884

is regarded by many as the greatest literary

achievement America has yet produced Inspired

by many oftheauthor's own experiences as a

river-boat pilot, the book tells of two runaways-a white

boy and a black man-and their journey down the

mighty Mississippi River When the book first

ap-peared, it scandalized reviewers and parents who

thought it would corrupt young children with its

depiction of a hero who lies, steals, and uses coarse

language.In the last half ofthetwentieth century,

the condemnation of the book has continued on the

grounds that its portrayal of Jim and use of the word

"nigger" is racist The novel continues to appear on

lists of books banned in schools across the

coun-try

Nevertheless, from the beginningThe

Adven-tures of Huckleberry Finn was also recognized as

a book that would revolutionize American

litera-ture The strong point of view, skillful depiction of

dialects, and confrontation of issues of race and

prejudice have inspired critics to dub it "the great

American novel." Nobel Prize-winning author

Ernest Hemingway claimed in The Green Hills of

Africa (1935), for example, that "All modem

American literature comes from one book by Mark

Twain called Huck Finn There was nothing

be-fore There has been nothing as good since."

Author Biography

Best known as Mark Twain, Samuel Clemens

was born 30 November 1835 and raised in

Hanni-bal, Missouri There he absorbed many of the

in-fluences that would inform his most lasting

contri-butions to American literature During his youth,

he delighted in the rowdy play of boys on the river

and became exposed to the institution of slavery

He began to work as a typesetter for a number of

Hannibal newspapers at the age of twelve In the

late 1850s, he became a steamboat pilot on the

Mis-sissippi River This job taught him the dangers of

navigating the river at night and gave him a

first-hand understanding of the river's beauty and

per-ils These would later be depicted in the books Life

on the Mississippi and The Adventures of

Huckle-berry Finn.

After a brief stint as a soldier in the

Confed-erate militia, C1emens went out west, where he

worked as a reporter for various newspapers He

contributed both factual reportage and outlandish,

burlesque tales This dual emphasis would

charac-terize his entire career as a journalist During this

phase of his career, in 1863, he adopted the

pseu-donym Mark Twain, taken from the riverboat slang

that means water is at least two fathoms (twelve

feet) deep and thus easily travelled

His second book, The Innocents Abroad

(1869), a collection of satirical travel letters the thor wrote from Europe, was an outstanding suc-cess, selling almost seventy thousand copies in itsfirst year On the heels of this triumph, Clemensmarried 01ivia Langdon and moved to the East,where he lived for the rest of his life In the East,Clemens had to confront the attitudes of the east-ern upper class, a group to which he felt he neverbelonged Nevertheless, he did win influentialfriends, most significantly William Dean Howells,editor of the Atlantic Monthly.

au-Clemens's first two novels, The Gilded Age

(1873), written with Charles Dudley Warner, and

The Adventures ofTom Sawyer (1876), a children's

book based on his boisterous childhood in bal, won Clemens widespread recognition Shortlyafterwards, he began to compose a sequel to Tom'sstory, an autobiography of Tom's friend, HuckFinn He worked sporadically on the book over thenext seven years, publishing more travel books andnovels in the meantime When it was finally pub-lished, The Adventures ofHuckleberry Finn was an

Hanni-immediate success, although it was also demned as inappropriate for children The bookdraws on Clemens's childhood in Hannibal, in-cluding his memories of the generosity of whiteswho aided runaway slaves, in addition to the pun-ishments they endured when caught In fact, in

1841, his father had served on the jury that victed three whites for aiding the escape of fiveslaves

con-In the 1890s, Clemens's extensive financialspeculations caught up with him, and he went bank-rupt in the depression of 1893-94 With an eye topaying back his many debts, he wrote a number ofworks, including continuing adventures of TomSawyer and Huck Finn He spent his final decadedictating his autobiography, which appeared in

1924 Clemens died on 21 April 1910

Chapters 1-7: Huck's Escape

Mark Twain begins The Adventures of leberry Finn with a notice to the reader He iden-

Huck-tifies Huckleberry Finn as "Tom Sawyer's rade," and reminds the reader that this novelresumes where The Adventures of Tom Sawyer left

Com-off: in St Petersburg, Missouri, on the MississippiRiver, "forty to fifty years" before the novel was