Angle of Repose (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Wallace Stegner
- First Published: 1971
- Type of Work: Novel
- Genres: Long fiction, Realism, Historical fiction
- Subjects: Family or family life, North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, Twentieth century, Nineteenth century, California, West, U.S., Novelists, Historians, Mexico or Mexicans, Pacific Northwest, Diseases
- Locales: California, Mexico, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Idaho
Angle of Repose is generally considered to be Stegner's best novel. The narrator, Lyman Ward, a retired history professor, is writing a biography of his grandmother, Susan Burling Ward, and recounting her adventures in the West during the 1870's and 1880's. At the same time, the narrator is recording his own problems as a biographer and as a lonely, divorced retiree. This stylistic device allows Stegner to write about the past in the third-person voice and about the present in the first-person voice.
Stegner based his novel on a collection of letters written by Mary...
[The entire page is 797 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
See Also
