num_pages: 900
description: The foremost champion of realism in late-nineteenth-century American fiction, William Dean Howells was both a sympathetic observer and a sharp critic of the social beliefs and practices of his time. The three novels in this Library of America volume perceptively and often satirically examine the conflict between Christian ideals and commercial success, the contrast between a society’s rituals of courtship and the realities of love, and the way in which a community’s democratic aspirations are contradicted by its class divisions. Frequently confused and uncertain in their actions, Howells’s characters reflect their creator’s sense of the complexity and vigor of what he called “poor Real Life.”In The Minister’s Charge (1886), Lemuel Barker leaves his impoverished farm and comes to Boston hoping to become a published poet. Proud, innocent, and implacably honest, he is quickly plunged into the humiliating depths of urban homelessness. His plight weighs on the conscience of David Sewell, a minister who could not bear to tell Barker how bad his poetry was. As he witnesses Lemuel’s attempts to live a dignified life in a city marked by cruel indifference and unexpected kindness, Sewell must confront the “complicity” he shares in the fate of every member of his society.April Hopes (1887) was, by Howells’s later recollection, the first novel that he wrote “with the distinct consciousness that he was writing as a realist.” Alice Pasmer is the only daughter of parents whose dwindling investments have forced their return from Europe to New England. When Alice meets Dan Mavering, the easygoing son of a wealthy wallpaper manufacturer, her mother begins a careful campaign to bring about their marriage. Mrs. Pasmer’s plans, and Dan Mavering’s hopes, are soon frustrated by Alice, whose character combines high moral scruples with easily aroused jealousy.The heroine of Annie Kilburn (1888) returns to her Hatboro’, Massachusetts, home after eleven years abroad and finds a once-quiet village rapidly turning into a sprawling factory town with paved streets, electric lights, and a department store. Unmarried at thirty-one, the daughter of a prominent “old” family, she renews ties with old friends and begins a life devoted to good deeds. Her charitable goals are questioned by the Reverend Peck, a widower who preaches egalitarianism while neglecting his own small daughter. When her efforts to help the poor prove futile, Annie is attracted both by the minister’s radical vision and by the gentle tolerant skepticism of her friend Dr. Morell. Throughout Annie Kilburn, Howells portrays the faults and virtues of his heroine and her neighbors with affection, understanding, and wit.
language: English
title: Novels 1886–1888: The Minister's Charge / April Hopes / Annie Kilburn
titlecomplete: Novels 1886–1888: The Minister's Charge / April Hopes / Annie Kilburn
ratings_count: 14
publisher: Library of America