A Modern Instance (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: William Dean Howells
- First Published: 1882
- Type of Work: Novel
- Genres: Long fiction, Domestic realism
- Subjects: Journalism or journalists, Nineteenth century, New England, Divorce, Newspapers
- Locales: Boston, MA, New England, Maine
A Modern Instance, the first complete treatment of divorce in a serious American novel, was the most intense study of American society that Howells had done up to that point in his writing career.
In the novel, Howells uses the divorce theme to portray the widening cultural divisions in American society, and in this way, A Modern Instance anticipates many of Howells's later novels in both its style and preoccupations. Old and new, rural and urban, life in the West and life in the East, and traditional orthodoxy and modern intellectual skepticism are compared in a...
[The entire page is 920 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
See Also
