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Love and Death in the American Novel

Love and Death in the American Novel

by Leslie Fiedler

$24.95
$24.95
American Literature Available as E-Book
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Leslie Fiedler was one of the most influential critics of the twentieth century, a maverick of American letters whose fearless and impassioned criticism polarized readers but also informs much of our understanding of American literature and culture today. First published in 1960, Love and Death in the American Novel is Fiedler’s magnum opus, a groundbreaking study of the American novel from the time of the revolution to the time of Fiedler’s writing.

Fiedler conceived of his book as being itself a kind of gothic novel, one whose subject was the American experience as portrayed in classic American fiction. Through clear-eyed examinations of the works of writers such as Cooper, Poe, Twain, Melville, Hawthorne, and Faulkner, Fiedler makes the audacious—and compelling—argument that the American novel differs from its European counterpart in its inability to deal with sexuality between men and women, and its obsession instead with violence, escape, and death.

Additional Book Information

Series: NYRB Classics
ISBN: 9781681379692
Pages: 544
Publication Date:

Praise

"One of the great, essential books on the American imagination . . . an accepted major work.” —The New Yorker “Prof. Fiedler's entertaining account of the American novel's obsessions remains one of the key works of American studies.” —Publishers Weekly

Genuinely original . . . a work of lasting importance . . . a powerful indictment of our culture and of modern culture in general.
—Richard Chase

I know few works of criticism that are so likely to involve the reader whose interest in literature is not of a professional kind . . . it amounts to a general cultural history of the nation.
—Lionel Trilling

In its insights the book remains immensely intelligent, immediate, and vital.
—David Plante, Bookforum

It is not possible to read Leslie Fiedler's criticism without a sense of awe and excitement.
—Los Angeles Times

Dr. Fiedler's witty, exasperating, energetic, penetrating book will prove indispensable...a high level of scholarship and intelligence.
—The Specator

Something of a classic...witty and arresting...[Fiedler] has contrived to make the Americana heritage less wholesome, but far more interesting than once seemed likely.
—Encounter

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