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Howells spent several years in Italy, including a stint as United States consul in Venice. He used Italy as the backdrop in several works, including his novel Ragged Lady, the story of a young woman from New England who travels to Venice to meet her future husband.

In addition to his eminence as a novelist, William Dean Howells was a prominent figure in the development of the American theater. He wrote the play, A Counterfeit Presentment in 1877. The comedy develops a slightly romantic and dramatic side as it follows the two main characters, Barlett and Cummings.

A prolific novelist, playwright, and literary critic, Howells was an ardent proponent of realism in fiction. He also wrote juvenile fiction, including this book, one of his more popular novels. It tells the story of Pony Baker, and his cousin Frank and buddy Jim, and all their attempts to run away, and why they always give up.

This 1895 collection of verse, gorgeously illustrated by Howard Pyle, contains among other poems "The Bewildered Guest," "Midway," "From Generation to Generation," "The Burden," "Reward and Punishment," and "Friends and Foes." After losing his daughter a few years before, Howells proved with this collection that he was not an irrepressible optimist.

Annie Kilburn, a New Englander, desperately tries to save her hometown from the negative effects of industrialization and eventually realizes that what they truly need is justice. Annie Kilburn reflects Howells’s deepening disillusionment with American society.

Howells was proud of his Ohio roots, and often drew from his experiences growing up there for his popular collections of reminiscences. His family moved from town to town, and lived for a year at a utopian commune in Eureka Mills, which Howells later described in this semi-autobiographical novel.

Imagine meeting a literary legend. In this whimsical fantasy, William Dean Howells does just that. Here, Howells pretends to meet Shakespeare at the Shakespeare Festival. They are joined by Sir Francis Bacon, leading to jokes about the Bacon-Shakespeare controversy. To Howell’s delight, Shakespeare provides many glimpses into the jovial times in which he lived.

Should a son who’s delusional about his dead father be told the truth—that in fact, his father was a scoundrel who tyrannized his wife? That’s the ethical dilemma in this tale by author William Dean Howells, dealing with questions of loyalty, honor, family, and honesty.

Published in two volumes, Howells's studies in the great heroines of nineteenth century English-language fiction make delightful reading. This first volume takes the reader from Fanny Burney's unforgettable Evelina to the Bronte sisters' remarkable Jane and Catherine. Along the way, female protagonists...

A trio of semi-autobiographical novels, Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth portray a rich landowner’s son and his growing realization of the gulf between himself and his family’s peasants. Tolstoy’s childlike perspective, leavened with adult understanding, weaves a universal tale of the emotions, confusions,...

If there are still such things, in this ironic postmodern age, as "dangerous thoughts," surely no book is more overflowing with them than Friedrich Nietzsche's Will to Power. No other great work of recent literature has heralded the decline of modern Western civilization as emphatically....

In this expansive collection, the breadth and wealth of Santayana’s thinking is on full display. Covering topics such as philosophy, literature, society, naturalism, and multiculturalism (a century before the term was coined), these pieces demonstrate his profound influence on intellectual thought and cement his place as a seminal figure in classical American philosophy.

Edited by Thoreau’s long-time associate Franklin Benjamin Sanborn, this is a 1905 compilation of the philosopher-poet’s early fragments, diaries, verse, drafts, and metaphysical musings on nature. Included are accounts of his 1839 trip with his brother along the Concord and Merrimac Rivers, as well as travels to Staten Island and his famous “Journey West,” to Minnesota.

This edition includes a modern introduction and a list of suggested further reading. Cynical quips like “Marriage: the end of hope” and “Wife: a former sweetheart” led critics to label H. L. Mencken "the country's high priest of woman-haters." Needless to say, his publication of In Defense of...