A Sleep And A Forgetting

Description

Nowhere in the prodigious output of Howells' work is there a more poignant example of his heartfelt dedication to the Realist movement than in this achingly suspensful novella. A young psychologist meets a woman, who, in subsequent encounters, has no recollection of him. The doctor then launches a psychological investigation which appears to be based on the most painful memories of the author himself. In a surprising end, the author reveals his deft craftmanship and his faith in the power of literature.

William Dean Howells was born in Martins Ferry, Ohio in 1837. The son of an itinerant newspaper editor, he began printing and typesetting work at an early age. In 1866 he started as an assistant editor for The Atlantic Monthly, becoming editor by 1871, a position he held until 1881. His own literary reputation took off a year later with the 1882 publication of the realist novel A Modern Instance. The Rise of Silas Lapham, Annie Kilburn, and A Hazard of New Fortunes followed. A close friend of Mark Twain and Henry James, he also wrote criticism and essays supporting such authors as Tolstoy, Ivan Turgenev, Stephen Crane, and Emily Dickinson. He was one of seven chosen for membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1904, and later became its president. He died in 1920.

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