INDEX
aesthetics, language of, 1–3, 25, 56, 57–59, 63
African American readers, 215n4
Alcott, Louisa May, 10
Alden, Henry Mills, 62
Aldrich, Thomas Bailey, 206
Allen, James Lane, 81, 102, 117, 174, 206; The Choir Invisible, 102, 172, 186, 205, 209; Flute and Violin, 209
Arena, 59
Arnold, Matthew, 206; Culture and Anarchy, 195; Essays in Criticism, 195
Atlantic Monthly, 13–14, 24, 29, 50, 62, 64, 69, 99, 105, 171, 174, 185, 195, 214n35, 217n44
Austen, Jane, 82, 102, 118; Northanger Abbey, 179–80
authorship: anxieties about misreading, 12–19; construction of, 14; intention and, 11; realism and, 14–15
Baedeker’s, 113
Balzac, Honoré de, 15–17, 206, 214n37; characters in, 17–18; Eugénie Grandet, 115; Père Goriot, 2, 15–17
Barrish, Phillip, 16
Baym, Nina, 126
Bell, Michael Davitt, 14, 116, 214n37
Bennett, Arnold, 170
Bennett, Jesse Lee, What Books Can Do For You, 10
Bentley, Nancy, 223n14
Berkson, Dorothy, 47
Besant, Walter, 116
best-sellers, 48, 54, 137, 138, 166–67
The Bible, 205
biography, 41
Blackwood’s, 122
Bode, Carl, 212n5
Bok, Edward, 25–26, 29–33, 35, 38, 41, 63–64, 69–71, 77–80, 216n16, 216–17n24,
Bok Syndicate Press, 29
book clubs. See under literature
Book-of-the-Month Club, 5, 7, 8, 19, 197
(Boston) Literary World, 126
Bourdieu, Pierre, 155
Boyeson, Hjalmar Hjorth, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 219n33
Bridges, Robert, 32–35, 57, 216–17n24; “Droch” columns, 44 (see also “Droch”); “Heroines in Fiction,” 34–35
Brodhead, Richard, 176
Brontë sisters, 10
Brown, Bill, 214n37
Bulwer-Lytton, Edward, The Last Days of Pompeii, 191
Burnett, Frances Hodgson, Little Lord Fauntleroy, 31
Buzard, James, 113
Byron, George Gordon, “Manfred,” 113
Cable, George Washington, 21, 31, 81, 104, 117, 173, 184, 206; The Cavalier, 182; Doctor Sevier, 181; The Grandissimes, 102, 172, 181–86, 193, 205, 209, 224–25n19; 1907 edition, 183–84; genre of, 185; identification in, 184; illustrations in, 183–84; John March, Southerner, 181; as literary tourism, 185; “local color” in, 185; Old Creole Days, 81, 182, 205, 209; readership of, 184; as romance, 185
Cady, Edwin Harrison, 218n2
Campbell, Donna M., 174
capital, 8, 20, 54–55. See also cultural capital
Carleton, Will, 31
Carlyle, Thomas, 206
Carter, Everett, 220n64
Cawelti, John G., 160
Certeau, Michel de, 9, 149–50, 162
Cervantes, Miguel de, Don Quixote, 75
Channing, William Ellery, 54
characters, 17–18, 52–53, 59, 61, 83–84, 103, 123–26, 134, 175
Charles Scribner’s Sons, 29, 103, 163–64
Chautauqua movement, 195
Chicago Daily Tribune, 150
Chicago Evening Post, 119, 126
Churchill, Winston: Coniston, 209; The Crisis, 186, 209; Mr. Crewe’s Career, 209; Richard Carvel, 186, 190–91, 192
Clarke, George, 59
Clarke, James Freeman, Self-Culture, 195
class, 26–27, 38, 149–56, 165, 177–78, 213–14n25, 215–16n10, 222n3. See also status; upward mobility
Clay, Bertha M., Dora Thorne, 2
consumer culture, 3–4, 6, 8–9, 12, 26, 60, 139–40, 143, 150, 172, 198
Cooke, Delmar Gross, William Dean Howells: A Critical Study, 66–67
Cooper, James Fenimore, 34, 50, 118, 206; The Deerslayer, 102; The Last of the Mohicans, 84, 102; The Spy, 206, 209
Copeland, Stephanie, 164
Cowley, Malcolm, 62
Crawford, F. Marion, 104, 127–36, 193, 206 (see also Crawford, F. Marion, works of); characterization and, 134; Corleone, 128; genre and, 135; literary marketplace and, 135; readership of, 130–31, 134; reading as leisure, 135–36; realism and, 134–35; resemblance and, 134; romance and, 134–35
Crawford, F. Marion, works of: Cecilia, 128; The Cigarette-Maker’s Romance, 128; The Novel: What It Is, 99, 134; A Roman Singer, 128; Saracinesca, 127, 128–34; Stradella, 128; Via Crucis, 128
The Critic, 174
critics/criticism: “genteel critics,” 36, 62; Mabie and, 43–44; professional status of, 14–15; realism and, 14–15. See also specific critics
cultural capital, 20, 40, 54–59
Cummins, Maria Susanna, The Lamplighter, 167
Curtis, Cyrus, 26, 29, 64, 216n16
Curtis Publishing Company, 25, 26, 64
Defoe, Daniel, Robinson Crusoe, 206
Deland, Margaret, 31, 206; The Awakening of Helena Ritchie, 167; Old Chester Tales, 209
De Morgan, William Frend, 206
Dickens, Charles, 10, 34, 102, 167, 206; David Copperfield, 81, 115, 172, 205; A Tale of Two Cities, 206
discipline, versus talent, 108–9
Dixon, Thomas, The Clansman, 167
Doyle, Arthur Conan, The Hound of the Baskervilles, 43
Dreiser, Theodore, 19; An American Tragedy, 201; Sister Carrie, 2–3, 15, 211–12n4, 214n37
“Droch,” 32–35, 37–38, 44, 57, 216–17n24. See also Bridges, Robert
“The Duchess,” 31
Dumas, Alexandre, 34; Pitou, Ange, 191
Dunn, Martha Baker, 13, 15; “A Plea for the Shiftless Reader,” 13–14
economics, language of, 1–3, 20, 25, 56–59. See also capital
Edgworth, Maria, 118
“Edmunds, Frederica,” 190
education, 53–56, 86, 108–9. See also self-culture; self-education, 53–56
Eggleston, Edward, A Hoosier Schoolmaster, 209
Eliot, George, 102, 117–18, 206; Adam Bede, 117, 205; The Mill on the Floss, 115, 117, 205
elite culture. See highbrow culture
Eller, Jonathan R., 68, 219n23
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 50, 56, 206
escapism, 57, 59, 142, 161, 186, 192, 213n20
Everyman’s Library, 195
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 198, 225–26n10
Fetterly, Judith, 217n32
Fish, Stanley, 11
Fiske, John, 206
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, The Great Gatsby, 201
Five-Foot Shelf of Books, 195–97
Foote, Marly Hallock, The Led-Horse Claim, 209
Ford, Paul Leicester, Janice Meredith, 191, 192
Foucault, Michel, 199
Fox, John Jr., 206; The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come, 210
Franzen, Jonathan, 195; The Corrections, 197–204, 225–26n10; Freedom, 202–3
Fresh Air, 198
Garland, Hamlin, 127, 174, 206; Main Travelled Roads, 209
gender, reading and, 34–35, 48–49, 59, 70–71, 193, 199–200, 214n26, 215n4, 217n35
genre, 45, 50–51, 53, 135, 182. See also specific genres
Gibbon, Edward, 41
Gilder, Richard Watson, 62, 185
Gilmore, William J., 9
Gissing, George, 116
Gladstone, William, 116, 142, 172
Glazener, Nancy, 14–15, 50, 214n35, 217n44
Glyn, Elinor, Three Weeks, 158, 223n25
Grant, Robert, Unleavened Bread, 210
Gras, Felix, Reds of the Midi, 191
Great American Novel, 201
Green, Anna Katharine, The Millionaire Baby, 167
Griffith, D. W., Birth of a Nation, 167
Habermas, Jürgen, 213n20
Haggard, Rider, 136
Hamerton, Philip Gilbert, Intellectual Life, 195
Hardy, Thomas, 206; Far from the Madding Crowd, 117; Under the Greenwood Tree, 117
Harland, Henry, 158
Harper’s Monthly, 11, 174, 218n10, 219n33; Editor’s Study columns, 72, 219n31
Harte, Bret, Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Stories, 209
Hartman, Saidiya V., 10
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 34, 50, 78, 102, 118, 206; The House of Seven Gables, 81, 168, 175, 206, 209; The Marble Faun, 49, 102, 112, 205; The Scarlet Letter, 84, 172, 182, 205
Hay, John, 119
Hendler, Glenn, 213n20, 217n35
Herrick, Robert: The Common Lot, 56, 210; The Memoirs of an American Citizen, 210
Herter, Albert, 184
Hichens, Robert Smythe, The Garden of Allah, 167
highbrow culture, 20, 139–40, 143, 151–56, 165, 171, 175, 213–14n25, 214–15n40, 217n44. See also upper class
high society. See upper class
historical fiction, 186–87, 189–92
Hochman, Barbara, 10, 16, 213n22, 223–24n32
Holmes, Joseph, 158
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 118, 206; Elsie Venner, 175
The Home Monthly, 188
Houghton Mifflin, 105
Howells, John Mead, 219n33
Howells, Mildred, 219n33
Howells, William Dean, 15, 18–20, 24, 49–50, 59, 118, 127, 171, 173, 176, 185–86, 193, 218n2, 219n23. See also Howells, William Dean, works of; biography of, 68–69; correspondence with Bok, 70–71; earnings of, 218n10, 218n11; as exemplary, 70–71, 80; family and, 70–73, 219n33; identification and, 18–19; imagination and, 219n31; James and, 100; The Ladies’ Home Journal and, 62, 63–98; lightness of, 82–84; literary marketplace and, 94; readership of, 74, 79, 85–86, 87–90; reading and, 70–71, 75–77, 80; realism and, 8, 68, 71, 73–74, 77–78, 97, 214n37, 214–15n40, 219n31, 220n64; on reviewing, 76–77; romance and, 95–96, 219n31; romanticism and, 74, 87; sentimentality and, 95–96; on Spanish literature, 75; success of, 70–71; sympathy and, 96; taste and, 214–15n40
Howells, William Dean, works of: autobiography of, 64; A Chance Acquaintance, 93; The Coast of Bohemia, 64, 65–68, 69, 80, 89–90, 93, 94, 218n10; Criticism and Fiction, 15–16, 134; Editor’s Study columns, 72, 219n31; A Hazard of New Fortunes, 20, 31–32, 63, 81, 83, 91, 93–97, 209, 220n64; The Kentons, 83–84, 93; The Lady of Aroostook, 20, 63, 81, 83, 91–93; A Modern Instance, 83; “My Book Friends” idea, 69, 77; My Literary Passions, 68–81, 218n10; The Rise of Silas Lapham, 16–17, 20, 22, 52, 55, 61–98, 102, 168, 171, 186, 205, 209; Mabie’s review of, 81–91; reading in, 85–86; realism of, 83–84; Their Wedding Journey, 32, 93
Howells, Winifred, 219n33
Hugo, Victor, 34
Hutner, Gordon, What America Read, 7
identification, 7–12, 15, 17, 46, 61, 72, 85–86, 166, 204, 212–13n19, 213n20; Cable and, 184; Howells and, 18–19; James and, 103, 111–12, 114; Jewett and, 174–81; readers and, 219–20n39; reading up and, 161–63; Wharton and, 162–63
imagination, 10, 212–13n19, 219n31
impressionism, 116
Independent, 169
Ingelow, Jean, 178–79; “The Days without Alloy,” 178–79; Mopsa the Fairy, 178
Ingersoll, Robert Sturgis, Open That Door!, 4
instrumentalism, 71
intentions, authorial, 11
interiority of characters, 18
interpretation. See also misreading: author anxieties about misreading, 12–19; interpretive communities, 11; interpretive violence, 12
Irving, John, The World According to Garp, 201
Irving, Washington, 34, 50, 206; Sketch Book, 181
Jacobson, Marcia, 116
James, Henry, 15, 19–21, 99–127, 136, 157, 171–73, 193, 206. See also James, Henry, works of; accessibility of, 100; on Balzac, 17, 18; characters and, 103, 106; Howells and, 100; identification and, 103, 111–12, 114; involvement with syndication, 100; literary status of, 100; pessimism of, 126; popularity and, 99–100; psychology and, 104; publication in periodicals, 99–100; readership of, 100, 120, 122–24, 221n9; realism and, 116, 214n37; romance and, 114–27; sympathy and, 106–14
James, Henry, works of: The Ambassadors, 101, 104; The American, 20, 21, 101, 104; “The Art of Fiction,” 52, 104; Bostonians, 81; Daisy Miller, 92; The Golden Bowl, 100, 101; Guy Domville, 116; A Hazard of New Fortunes, 115; “The Lesson of the Master,” 104; “The Lesson on Balzac,” 18; New York Edition, 20–21, 101, 103–6, 121–23, 126, 221n8; The Outcry, 101; The Passionate Pilgrim, 104; The Portrait of a Lady, 20–21, 66, 81, 100–105, 118–27, 128, 136, 160–61, 171–72, 182; as bildungsroman, 122; characterization in, 123–26; reception of, 119–23, 126; revisions of, 123–24; romance and, 118–27; success of, 126; The Princess Casamassima, 100, 103, 114–18, 126, 132; “The Real Thing,” 104; Roderick Hudson, 20–21, 100–114, 117–18, 126, 129, 171, 221n10; identification in, 114; publication of, 105; reviews of, 106; The Spoils of Poynton, 116; The Tragic Muse, 99; The Turn of the Screw, 100; What Maisie Knew, 116; The Wings of the Dove, 101, 104, 119, 126
James, William, 99
Jewett, Sarah Orne, 21, 45, 81, 168, 173–74, 184, 206. See also Jewett, Sarah Orne, works of; readership of, 177, 178
Jewett, Sarah Orne, works of: A Country Doctor, 175; The Country of the Pointed Firs, 175, 176, 177, 209; Deephaven, 102, 175–81; class in, 177–78; identification in, 175–81; reading in, 180–81; reception of, 175–76; sympathy in, 178; “The Dulham Ladies,” 177; The Queen’s Twin, 177; Tales of New England, 177; The Tory Lover, 47–48, 174, 175, 209
Johanningsmeier, Charles, 100
Johnson, Samuel, 40
Keats, John, 34
King, Grace F., Balcony Stories, 210
Kingsley, Charles, Westward Ho, 181
Kinnicutt, Francis, 164
Kipling, Rudyard, 63–64, 206; Just-So Stories, 84
Ladies’ Home Journal, 1, 5–8, 12, 19–20, 22–35, 45–46, 84, 171–75, 193, 195, 197, 216n16. See also under Mabie, Hamiliton Wright, works and columns of; African American readers and, 215n4; Books and Bookmaking column, 28–29, 30–31; circulation of, 25, 79; class and, 26, 215–16n10; columns in, 25; cost of, 215n6; eclecticism of, 65; as a family magazine, 25–26; female readership of, 215n4; Howells and, 62, 63–98; illustrations in, 66, 67, 82; impact of, 25; James and, 100–101, 123, 126; lack of inclusivity, 215–16n10; letters in, 143–44; Literary Leaves column, 29–31; Literary Talks column, 33; male readership of, 25–26, 215n3; reader letters in, 211n2; readership of, 2–3, 25–28, 35–38, 42–43, 47, 53–55, 70–71, 74, 79–87, 112, 121, 177, 184, 211n2; reading advice in, 28, 32–33, 37–44; as taste maker, 26–27; Wharton and, 139, 141, 144, 150, 169
Lamb, Charles, Essays of Elia, 181
Larned, J. N., Books, Culture, and Character, 4
Lathrop, George Parsons, 185
Lee, Hermione, 169
Lewis, Sinclair, 62, 218n3; Main Street, 212n12
Lidoff, Joan, 166
Lincoln, Abraham, 116
Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, 116
literature. See also specific genres: as capital, 4; contemporary, 22; elite, 3, 4, 7–8; friendship with books, 75, 77–78; instrumentalism of, 71; literariness, 192; literary classification, 50–51, 53, 94–95; literary clubs, 31, 76–77, 172, 193; literary hierarchies, 13, 94–95; literary magazines, 172, 174; literary marketplace, 3, 19, 24, 40, 54, 94, 135, 140, 174, 198, 214n35; literary standards, 40; literary status, 3–4, 7–8, 13, 24, 33, 40, 42–43, 54–55, 64, 84–85, 94–95, 139–40; literary value, 1–2; marketing of, 140; as pleasurable, 33–34; popular, 138–39, 140, 147; Spanish, 75; utility of, 136
“local color,” 172, 173, 175, 176–77, 185
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 206
Lorimer, George C., What I Know about Books and How to Use Them, 4
Lowell, James Russell, 71
Mabie, Hamilton Wright, 1, 5–8, 11–13, 15, 19–60, 171–72, 174, 181–82, 193, 195, 216–17n24. See also Mabie, Hamilton Wright, works and columns of; advice of, 38–39; aesthetic goals of, 44; approach of, 38, 44–45, 56–57; on best-sellers, 48, 166–67; biography of, 23, 36, 37–38; Cable and, 185–86; on canonicity, 84–85, 205–7; character and, 175; columns of, 39, 100–101, 172–73 (see also specific columns); compared to Bridges’s “Droch” columns, 44–45; correspondence of, 36–37; Crawford and, 127–36; criticism and, 43–44; generic classifications and, 45, 50–51, 53, 182; historical fiction and, 187, 192; holiday books column, 55; Howells and, 61–98; James and, 100–127, 136, 221n9; Jewett and, 174–81; literary classification of, 50–51, 53; on magazines, 40–41; Mitchell and, 186–92; pessimism and, 126; philosophy of, 39–40; reader queries and, 114–15, 143–44, 186, 203, 221n9; readership of, 37–43, 53–55, 59–60, 78, 86–87, 91, 95, 102, 107, 112, 115, 118, 136–40, 173–74, 177–78, 182, 185–86; reading habit and, 141–45, 148, 212n12; reading up and, 197; realism and, 45–51, 53, 61, 63, 81–85, 91, 168, 173, 181–82, 193, 218n2; on reception, 50–51; regionalism and, 117, 169–70, 172–81; reviewing philosophy of, 39–44; romance and, 115, 117, 173, 186; romanticism and, 49, 97, 170; selection process of, 43–44; self-culture and, 195; “Self-Culture Is Possible through Books,” 53–54; sentimentality and, 175, 217n35; on sexual morality, 48; “six rules for those who read,” 144–45; on successful novels, 187–88; sympathy and, 110, 175, 181; terminological imprecision of, 45, 53; three tests of a good novel, 52; Wharton and, 138–44, 148, 150, 151–52, 167, 168–70
Mabie, Hamilton Wright, works and columns of: “The American Romance,” 115, 116; “Are the American Novelists Deteriorating?,” 49–50, 173; “Are the Best-Sellers Worth Reading?,” 48, 137, 166–67; “Are the Later Poets Worth Reading?,” 101; “A Beginning in the Best Fiction,” 105, 117, 175; “Best American Novels,” 105; “Books about Europe for Home Reading and Travel,” 128; Books and Reading; or, What Books Shall I Read and How Shall I Read Them?, 5; “Courses of Novel-Reading,” 51, 175; “Courses of Reading for Summer Moods,” 81; “How to Form the Reading Habit,” 141–42; “How to Live on 24 Hours a Day,” 57; “Living Novelists Best Worth Reading,” 101; March 1909 column, 187; Mr. Mabie Answers Some Questions, 39; “Mr. Mabie Comments on Books of the Season,” 42; “Mr. Mabie on Sunday-School Books,” 50; “Mr. Mabie on the Home as a School,” 108; Mr. Mabie’s Literary Talks, 39; “Mr. Mabie Suggests Courses for Private Reading,” 171, 193; “Mr. Mabie Tells about the Books,” 60; “Mr. Mabie Tells What to Read,” 39; “New Books Worth Reading,” 44; “New Novels of Incident,” 44; “Novels Descriptive of American Life,” 168, 209–10; “Novels for Summer Reading,” 84; “Novels of Realism,” 81; October 1905 column, 182; October 1908 column, 187; reading lists for women’s clubs, 193; “Read What You Like,” 40–41; “The Relation of Books and Wealth,” 55; “A Short Course in Fiction,” 81; “Should the Young Read Novels,” 161–62; “Should the Young Read Novels?,” 169; “Some Standard Novels” list, 175; “A Typical Novel,” 61–98; “When a Club Can Do Good Work,” 193; “Which Way Is Literature Going?,” 101, 169–70; writings in The Outlook, 45
Mabie, Jeanette, 36
Machor, James L., 11; Readers in History, 8
Macmillan, 105
magazines. See periodicals; specific magazines
Mailloux, Steven, 11
Marden, Orison Swett, Pushing to the Front, 4
Marvel, Ik, 74; Tears, Idle Tears, 87–88
mass culture. See consumer culture
mass-market magazines, 6, 7, 8, 24–25
Matthews, Brander, 174, 186–88; His Father’s Son, 210
McCutcheon, George Barr: Beverly of Graustark, 84, 167; Graustark, 84
men. See gender, reading and
Meredith, George, 34
Michaels, Walter Benn, 223n14
middlebrow culture, 3, 5, 7–8, 19, 165–66, 167, 213–14n25
middle class, 3, 4, 5, 7–12, 19, 26, 38
Middleton, George, 192
Milton, John, 79–80; “Il Penseroso,” 79; “Ode on Christ’s Navitity,” 79–80; Paradise Lost, 79
misreading, 11, 12–21, 160, 162–63, 171. See also interpretation
Mitchell, S. Weir, 173, 206; dismissal from the Society of Friends, 189; Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker, 172, 186–92, 205, 210; as genre-bending, 188; as historical fiction, 187; as a metaphor for the new nation, 189–90; realism in, 188
Modern Library, 197
Modjeska, Helena, 6
Montgomery, Maureen, 155
Morse, Edwin W., 36
Mott, Frank Luther, 215n3, 224–25n19
The Mount, 164
Murfree, Mary Noailles, 117; The Prophet of the Great Smoky Mountains, 102
Murray, John, Guide to Rome, 113–14
National Public Radio, 198
naturalism, 13, 14–15, 48, 50, 51, 53, 101, 116, 170, 172
newspapers. See periodicals; specific newspapers
New Thought theology, 199
New York Daily Tribune, 150–51
New York Herald, 106, 120, 122
New York Public Library, 137
New York Times, 119, 120, 122–23, 164, 169, 187–92, 196, 203. See also New York Times Book Review
New York Times Book Review, 21, 155–59, 163, 189–92, 196–97, 223n18
Norris, Frank, 49–51, 62, 118, 127; The Octopus, 50, 168, 170, 209; The Pit, 50, 168, 170, 209; “A Plea for Romantic Fiction,” 49
The North American Review, 43, 139, 171, 174
Norton, Charles, 164
Oliphant, Margaret, 122
Oprah.com message boards, 199–203
Oprah’s Book Club, 22, 197–204
Osgood, J. R., 105
O: The Oprah Magazine, 198
Oxley, J. Macdonald, “Literary Improvement Clubs,” 76–77
Page, Thomas Nelson, 81, 117, 206; Red Rock, 81, 206, 209; short stories of, 209
Paul R. Petrie, 176
periodicals, 6–8, 40–41, 196. See also specific periodicals; elite, 24, 172, 175; literary, 11, 172, 174; literary content of, 40–41; literary magazines, 172, 174; literary status of, 40–41; mass-market, 6, 7, 8, 24–25; as medium of literary fineness, 40; newspapers, 196; readership of, 40–41, 172
Philadelphia Times, 216n16
Poe, Edgar Allan, 34, 103, 206
Porter, Noah, Books and Reading; or, What Books Shall I Read and How Shall I Read Them?, 4, 7, 195
Prose, Francine, 198
Pryse, Marjorie, 217n32
psychological novels, 17
publishers, 3, 4, 13. See also specific publishers
Puskar, Jason, 220n64
Ramsey, A. R. (Annie), 28–32, 38, 216n16
Rascoe, Burton, 62
“Rborja76,” 200
readers, 2–3, 18, 24, 134, 159, 204, 219–20n39. See also under specific authors and works; African American, 215n4; ambitious, 142–43; born, 146–47; elite, 143; female, 34–35, 48–49, 59, 70–71, 193, 214n26, 215n4; identification and, 219–20n39; male, 215n4; mechanical, 13, 139–48, 159, 164; middle-class, 3–5, 7–12, 38, 140–43, 149–50, 165–66; misreading by, 12–22; orientation of, 136; “sense-of-duty,” 138–40; upwardly mobile, 85–86, 148, 149–56
Reader’s Subscription, 197
reading, 8, 10–11, 75–76, 154; benefits of, 193–94; books vs. newspapers, 196; friendly, 75, 77–78; as information, 46, 47; as information gathering, 7; as leisure, 135–36; leisured, 75–76; middlebrow, 7–12; phenomenology of, 149; as pleasurable, 46, 47; popularization of, 24; self-interested, 76–77; sentimentality and, 47; success and, 196–97; sympathy and, 161–62, 166; utility of, 135–36
reading advice, 2–5, 24–25, 28, 32–33, 37–44, 140–41, 165–66
reading culture, Victorian, 10–11
reading manuals, 4–7, 59, 140, 154, 165–66
reading up, 2–4, 19–20, 38, 40, 44, 57, 63, 85, 107, 129, 136, 148–56, 161–62, 171, 193–94, 196–97, 204; contemporary literature, 22; identification and, 161–62
realism, 170, 172–73, 203, 214n35, 214n37, 217n44, 218n2, 219n31, 220n64; as advice manual, 71; aesthetics of, 12; authorship and, 14–15; Crawford and, 134–35; critics and, 14–15; critics/criticism and, 14–15; as cultural capital, 20; high, 173, 182, 193, 195, 203; Howells and, 8, 63, 68, 71–74, 77–78, 83–84, 97, 116, 214n37, 214–15n40, 219n31, 220n64; James and, 116, 134–36, 214n37; Mabie and, 8, 10, 17, 19–20, 24, 33, 35, 44–53, 60–61, 63, 81–85, 91, 168, 173, 181–82, 193, 218n2; mass culture and, 3–4; Mitchell and, 188; realist criticism, 15; transition to, 181
reception, 7–12, 44, 50–51, 146–47
regionalism, 20–22, 46, 47, 53, 102, 115, 117, 169–70, 172–81, 209–10, 217n32
Repplier, Agnes, 195
Revolutionary War novels, 189–90, 191
Rice, Alice Hegan, Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch, 84
Riis, Jacob: How the Other Half Lives, 33; Making of an American, 142
Ringe, Donald A., 185
romance, 12, 14–15, 17, 19–20, 22, 35, 44–47, 49–50, 52–53, 60, 182, 186–92, 219n31; American, 116; Cable and, 185; of chivalry, 115; comforts of, 171–74; Crawford and, 128, 134–35; Howells and, 63–64, 74, 90, 95–97, 219n31; James and, 114–27; Mabie and, 115, 116, 117, 173, 186; transcendentalist, 102; of the workshop, 115
romanticism, 51, 60, 62, 71–72, 103, 169–70, 171–94, 214n35; Howells and, 74, 87; Mabie and, 49, 97, 170
Romines, Ann, 179
Rooney, Kathleen, 199
Roscoe, William, Leo the Tenth, 112
Rose, Jonathan, 9
Ross, Albert, Moulding a Maiden, 2
Rossetti, Christina, 178
Rowson, Susanna, Charlotte Temple, 167
Rubin, Joan Shelley, 3, 196; The Making of Middlebrow Culture, 7, 28
Ruskin, John, 178
Santayana, George, 62
Saturday Evening Post, 25
Scherman, Harry, 8
Scott, Walter, 10, 13–14, 17, 34, 50, 102, 117–18, 167, 206; Ivanhoe, 81, 117, 205; Quentin Durward, 49, 115; Waverly, 117
Scribner’s [Monthly] Magazine, 29, 32, 33, 164, 185, 216–17n24
self-culture, 53–54, 56, 59, 82, 107, 118, 161, 172, 182, 195
self-help books, 4
sentimentality, 9–12, 14–15, 17, 19–20, 30, 46–49, 52–53, 173, 192, 203, 213n20; Howells and, 63, 90, 95–96; Mabie and, 175, 217n35; reading and, 47; Wharton and, 154
Shakespeare, William, 34, 74, 78, 206
Shuman, Edwin L., How to Judge a Book, 154
Sicherman, Barbara, 10–11, 19, 214n26
Sienkiewicz, Henryk, Quo Vadis, 191
Simms, William Gilmore, The Partisan, 209
Sinclair, May, 53
Sinclair, Upton, The Jungle, 167
Sismondi, J.-C.-L. Simonde de, History of Italian Republics, 112
Smith, Adam, 10
Smith, F. Hopkinson, 82, 206, 212–13n19; The Fortunes of Oliver Horn, 209; Kennedy Square, 169
Staël, Madame (Anne Louise Germaine) de, 112; Corrine, 112
status, 2–3, 6–8, 13, 24, 26–27, 33. See also class; literary status
Stendhal, 17
Stevenson, Robert Louis, 28–29; Treasure Island, 81, 205
Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 118; Minister’s Wooing, 175; Oldtown Folks, 175; Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 48–49, 102, 167, 172, 187, 205
success, 70, 108, 136, 142, 161, 196–97; morality and, 91; success culture, 24, 54, 57
Swift, Jonathan, Gulliver’s Travels, 73
sympathy, 9–10, 15–17, 22, 59, 72, 96, 219n31; Howells and, 96; James and, 106–14; Jewett and, 178; Mabie and, 110, 175, 181; reading and, 161–62, 166
talent, discipline and, 108
Tarkington, Booth, 7–8, 52–53, 206; Conquest of Canaan, 167
taste, 15, 40, 56–57, 94–95, 214–15n40; culture of, 4–5, 10–11, 26–27; education and, 86; language of, 20; taste-making ventures, 197
Tennyson, Alfred, 34, 206; Idylls of the King, 181
Tennyson, Alfred Lord, In Memoriam, 205
Thackeray, William Makepeace, 18, 34, 74, 102, 167, 193, 206; Henry Esmond, 74, 115, 205; Vanity Fair, 20, 63, 81–82, 115, 186, 205; The Virginians, 187, 191
Thanet, Octave: Heart of Toil, 209; Stories of a Western Town, 209
Thurston, Katherine Cecil: The Masquerader, 43–44, 167, 205; Max, 43–44
Tolstoy, Leo, Anna Karenina, 205
Trachtenberg, Alan, 218n2
transportation, public, 142–43
Travis, Trysh, 199
Trollope, Anthony, Barchester Towers, 81
Twain, Mark, 127, 173, 206; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 102, 121, 206
upper class, 151–56, 158, 165, 178. See also highbrow culture
upward mobility, 2, 4, 19, 57, 60, 171, 193–94, 196–97. See also reading up; Howells and, 81, 85; James and, 103, 107; Wharton and, 137, 140–41, 148–56, 161–62
Van Dyke, Henry, 206
“Veritas,” 192
Virgil, Georgics, 79
Waid, Candace, 162–63, 223n14, 224n34
Ward, Mrs. Humphry, 118, 168, 206; Eleanor, 112; Robert Elsmere, 29
Warner, Charles Dudley, 174
Warner, Susan, The Wide, Wide World, 167
Washington, Booker T., Up from Slavery, 142
Watts, Mary, 173
Wharton, Edith, 15, 19, 20, 53, 171, 173, 193, 206. See also Wharton, Edith, works of; on Balzac, 17–18; on born readers, 146–47; correspondence of, 163–64; criticism of society journalists, 155; identification and, 18–19; marketing and, 140; on the “mechanical reader,” 140, 145–46, 147, 159; misreading of, 140; popularity and, 147–48; publication and, 148; readerly hierarchies and, 146–47; readership of, 21, 137–48, 149, 155, 159, 163; on reception, 146–47; Sanctuary, 168–69
Wharton, Edith, works of: A Backward Glance, 165; Custom of the Country, 223n14; Ethan Frome, 169, 170, 172; The House of Mirth, 21, 81, 94, 137–70, 171–72, 206, 210, 223–24n32, 224n34; controversy over, 189–90; ending of, 139; identification in, 162–63; letters to Wharton about, 163–64; misreading of, 150–51, 160; negative reviews of, 150; popularity of, 137–38, 150–51, 164; readership of, 164–65, 166, 222n3; reading in, 153–54, 160–61; reception of, 155–59, 223n18; sales of, 222n3, 222–23n6,; success and, 161, 222n3, 222–23n6; tableau vivant scene in, 152–54, 223n14; The Valley of Decision, 168; “The Vice of Reading,” 13, 21, 43, 139–40, 142–43, 145–48; The Writing of Fiction, 17
Whittier, John Greenleaf, 206; “Snow-Bound,” 181
Wiggin, Kate Douglas, 100, 193, 206
Wilkins Freeman, Mary E., 21, 46, 53, 81, 168, 174, 176, 184, 206; The Heart’s Highway: A Romance of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century, 174; A New England Nun, 45, 209; Pembroke, 102, 209; The Portion of Labor, 45–47, 174
Wilson, Christopher P., 12, 212n12
Wister, Owen, 173, 206; Lady Baltimore, 205, 209; The Virginian, 168, 172, 186, 205, 209
women, 34–35, 48–49, 59, 70–71, 193, 214n26, 215n4; education of, 212n6; reading and, 214n26; women’s clubs, 172, 193; working, 26, 215–16n10
Woodberry, George E., 206
Wright, Mary Tappan, 82