the nicest shades of national manners, and the broadest contrasts of national character.

This quotation was positioned at the beginning of a book of short stories by American authors, which provides insight into Mitford's meaning. She is instructing the reader, who will soon delve in to the book, that they are about to get a glimpse into what everyday life is like in America. Writing can instruct the reader about the place that is the setting for the story and sometimes even about the place the author calls home. For instance, she writes further in the preface:

With Mr. Washington Irving, indeed, we are sufficiently familiar; but, in spite of a few inimitable sketches of New York in its Dutch estate, his writings are essentially European.

She continues,

To remedy this deficiency in our own literature, by presenting to the English public some specimens of shorter American Stories, is the intention of the following work.

In other words, the quotation and the statement show that Mitford believes the reader will learn about what life is like in America because the American short story authors will provide a "completer picture of the habits of living, and the ways of thinking" of Americans.

In 1830, when the collection was published, people did not travel much. First, travel was not as easy then as it is today. In order for a European to visit America, that person had to endure a long sea voyage, which often meant sea sickness and long days away from family and friends. For instance, the American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in 1833, some three years after the publication of the book of short stories, that

The road from Liverpool to New York, as they who have traveled it well know, is very long, crooked, rough, and eminently disagreeable.

In addition to being “disagreeable,” travel was also generally too costly for the average European or American to make the transatlantic trip. Thus, although visiting in person might have been preferred, the easiest way for a European to become acquainted with the US was to read its literature, and vice versa.

To answer this question, you might consider how the works you have read present a unique commentary on American society which reflect the societal contexts in which they were written.

For example, you could examine the way the stories you have read demonstrate the way expected manners and values often clashed with the realities of American communities at the point in history in which they were published. If you read The Scarlet Letter, you might consider how the Puritan society simultaneously upheld a strict religious code of behavior while failing to offer grace to Hester. In their quest for strict adherence to Biblical laws, they failed to present Christlike forgiveness for Hester's sins. In this story, you might examine how "national manners" were sometimes a hypocritical and shallow reflection of a deeply flawed society.

Poe's stories are often dark and reveal the way the American consciousness was perhaps hiding grim truths. You might consider the way narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart" initially welcomes the police into his home, confident that they will not find any evidence of his crimes. He willingly submits himself to the law, symbolic of his respect of national values, despite the fact that he has committed an atrocious crime. Perhaps this allows some insight into American character in the decades leading up to the Civil War; a great fracture was becoming more visible between the ideologies of conflicting national values.

"Rip Van Winkle" examines the way societal structures can be oppressive and confining. Early in the nineteenth century, the protagonist Rip Van Winkle was a descendant of people who were "figured so gallantly in the chivalrous days" of that era. Yet Van Winkle himself longed for an escape from standards of chivalrous decorum. He felt oppressed by the British government and by his wife who "hen-pecked him." Only after his long sleep does he awaken to a new era where the former societal expectations which had plagued him are removed. This examination of individual freedom and the national character which united Americans was noteworthy as the fairly new country began to define "American" values which existed apart from external influences.

I hope this helps as you examine the works you read by these authors. Do consider the significant points of national history which surrounded the context of these works and examine how the characters and conflicts are shaped by the values (and clash of values) which existed at those moments in national history.