Title: A sense of things
First published: 2003
Description: "Brown's new study explores the roots of modern America's fascination with things and the problem that objects posed for American literature at the turn of the century. This was an era when the invention, production, distribution, and consumption of things suddenly came to define a national culture. Brown shows how crucial novels of the time made things not a solution to problems, but problems in their own right.

Writers such as Mark Twain, Frank Norris, Sarah Orne Jewett, and Henry James ask why and how we use objects to make meaning, to make or remake ourselves, to organize our anxieties and affections, to sublimate our fears, and to shape our wildest dreams. Offering a remarkably new way to think about materialism. A Sense of Things will be essential reading for anyone interested in American literature and culture."--BOOK JACKET.
Subjects: History, Material culture, Production (Economic theory) in literature, Consumption (Economics) in literature, History and criticism, Possessiveness in literature, Economics and literature, Material culture in literature, American fiction, American fiction, history and criticism, 19th century, Production (economic theory), Consumption (economics)
Places: United States
Time periods: 19th century
LC classification: PS374.M39 B76 2003