** "Short Stories and Essays (from Literature and Life)" by William Dean Howells is a compilation of observations about life, culture, and society, written in the late 1800s, that show slices of American life from Howells' perspective. The book opens with an essay, "Worries of a Winter Walk," placing the reader on a cold street within a tenement neighborhood while the narrator describes how barren and empty it is by contrasting it against how busy it should be. He sees a young girl getting coal and her spirit makes him think a lot about how tough life is for poor, working-class children. This makes him think deeply about whether it's right to use real-life situations as material for fiction. The opening invites readers to think about the challenges and lives that are described throughout the collection of stories. **
Short Stories and Essays (from Literature and Life)
By William Dean Howells
** In a collection of tales set in late 19th-century America, a writer wrestles with the ethics of turning real struggles into fiction while exploring society’s hidden corners and the resilience of its people.
Summary
About the AuthorWilliam Dean Howells was an American realist novelist, 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 for the novels The Rise of Silas Lapham and A Traveler from Altruria, and the Christmas story "Christmas Every Day," which was adapted into a 1996 film of the same name.
William Dean Howells was an American realist novelist, 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 for the novels The Rise of Silas Lapham and A Traveler from Altruria, and the Christmas story "Christmas Every Day," which was adapted into a 1996 film of the same name.
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