Neglected popular fiction of the Gilded Age : a quest for certainty /
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| Other Authors: | , , , |
| Format: | Thesis Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
1991.
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Link to OAKTrust copy |
| Abstract: | The popular fiction of any era often reflects the cultural values of the day, and the best sellers of the Gilded Age are of particular interest as they give us some sense of our recent ancestors' loneliness, hardships, and anxieties. This study examines best-selling fiction between the Civil War and World War I, revealing several areas of concern: urbanization, materialism, industrialization, ecological destruction, breakdown of traditional family values, and secularization. Ironically our own fin de siecle culture still wrestles with these problems, many of them greatly intensified during the past century. What the Gilded Age best sellers reveal most poignantly is a search for meaning, a quest for certainty in a rapidly changing world. The reading public made rich those writers like Zane Grey, Harold Bell Wright, Charles Sheldon, and Gene Stratton-Porter who shared their concerns and who offered sure, if simplistic, answers, whose writing was inspirational and filled with honest sentiment, and who reassured their readers that "God's in His heaven; all's right (or will be) with the world!" |
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| Item Description: | Typescript (photocopy). Vita. "Major subject: English." |
| Physical Description: | v, 187 leaves ; 29 cm |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references. |