A Modern Instance

by William Dean Howells

Overview

A novel centered on the theme of divorce was a radical concept in 1882, and this portrait of a failing marriage captures a transitional moment in literary history. A cornerstone of American realism, it contrasts old and new worlds to explore social and moral issues involving family life and women's traditional roles.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780486468877
Publisher:	Dover Publications
Publication date:	11/24/2008
Series:	Dover Literature: Literary Fiction
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

William Dean Howells (1837-1920) was born in Martins Ferry, Ohio. His father was a printer and newspaperman, and the family moved from town to town. Howells went to school where he could. As a boy he began learning the printer’s skill. By the time he was in his teens he was setting type for his own verse. Between 1856 and 1861 he worked as a reporter for the Ohio State Journal. About this time his poems began to appear in the Atlantic Monthly. His campaign biography of Abraham Lincoln, compiled in 1860, prompted the administration to offer him the consulship at Venice, a post he held from 1861 to 1865. He married Elinor Gertrude Meade, a young woman from Vermont, in 1862 Paris. On his return to the United States in 1865, Howells worked in New York before going to Boston as assistant to James T. Fields of The Atlantic Monthly. In 1871 he became editor-in-chief of the magazine. In this position he worked with many young writers, among them Mark Twain and Henry James, both of whom became his close friends. His first novel, Their Wedding Journey, appeared in 1872. The Rise of Silas Lapham was serialized in Century Magazine before it was published in book form in 1885. A Hazard of New Fortunes was published five years later. His position as critic, writer, and enthusiastic exponent of the new realism earned William Dean Howells the respected title of Dean of American Letters.