The Complete Short Stories of W.D. Howells (Illustrated Edition)

Book excerpt: This unique collection of William Dean Howells' complete short stories has been designed and formatted to the highest digital standards. William Dean Howells (1837-1920) was an American realist author, literary critic, and playwright. Nicknamed "The Dean of American Letters", he was particularly known for his tenure as editor of the Atlantic Monthly as well as his own prolific writings, including the Christmas story "Christmas Every Day", and the novels The Rise of Silas Lapham and A Traveler from Altruria. Howells is known to be the father of American realism, and a denouncer of the sentimental novel. He was the first American author to bring a realist aesthetic to the literature of the United States. His stories of Boston upper crust life set in the 1850s are highly regarded among scholars of American fiction. Table of Contents: Introduction WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS by Charles Dudley Warner Short Stories Christmas Every Day Turkeys Turning the Tables The Pony Engine and the Pacific Express The Pumpkin Glory Butterflyfutterby and Flutterbybutterfly Adventures in a Boy's Town Life in a Boy's Town Games and Pastimes Glimpses of the Larger World The Last of a Boy's Town A Sleep and a Forgetting The Eidolons of Brooks Alford A Memory that Worked Overtime A Case of Metaphantasmia Editha Braybridge's Offer The Chick of the Easter Egg A Daughter of the Storage A Presentiment Captain Dunlevy's Last Trip The Return to Favor Somebody's Mother The Face at the Window An Experience The Boarders Breakfast is My Best Meal The Mother-Bird The Amigo Black Cross Farm The Critical Bookstore A Feast of Reason City and Country in the Fall Table Talk The Escapade of a Grandfather Self-Sacrifice A Fearful Responsibility At the Sign of the Savage Tonelli's Marriage Buying a Horse Reminiscences and Autobiography A Boy's Town Years of My Youth