Carl Van Doren: 3 books

Van Doren published this 1922 book on the American novel as it had developed in the past twenty years. He says of his book, “While criticism pauses to take stock, creation steadily goes on.” Here, he studies the style, argument, and art of Winston Churchill, Upton Sinclair, Edith Wharton, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Theodore Dreiser, and many other authors.

In this 1921 critical study, Van Doren examines the historical evolution of the American novel and the idea of the "Great American Novel."  His essay on Melville argued forcefully and successfully for that then-neglected author's literary rehabilitation. Also studied here are Mark Twain, Henry James, James Fenimore Cooper, and others.

Afferent, the city bus cramps to the curb and brakes through Solipsistic muteness With an exhaltation startled and choking