Wright American fiction

In 1919 Wright used the Ozarks again for his ninth novel, The Re-Creation of Brian Kent. Unfortunately, the novel does not maintain the quality which can be found in the earlier novel. In The Shepherd of the Hills, the landscape descriptions are realistic, depicting both the beauty of the spring season and the brutality of a drought. In contrast, Wright dwells upon trite sunsets in his later novel. The novel focuses on Brian Kent, a bank clerk who steals money from the Chicago bank where he works to placate his extravagant wife who socializes with members of a degenerate, rich clique. When he discovers her infidelity, he attempts suicide by drowning but is saved by Auntie Sue, an elderly woman who lives in the Ozarks. She is modeled after Wright's real Auntie Sue. With the assistance of her companion, Judy Taylor, a crippled girl abused by her alcoholic father, she helps Brian to return to his former good character before his wife's influence affected him. After the school teacher rehabilitates the former thief through hard work, he stays to help her. They discuss river philosophy and she suggests that he write a book. He agrees after he explains that he failed when he tried to write before. This time he succeeds because he has learned the meaning of life with Auntie Sue's help. To prepare the manuscript for the publisher, Betty Jo, a friend of Auntie Sue's, comes to serve as a typist. Brian and his typist fall in love, but a barrier stands between them -- Brian's wife. Also, Judy Taylor declares her love for Brian and unsuccessfully attempts to kill Betty Jo. A group of tourists, which includes his wife, discovers Brian. She has become a totally dissipated woman as a result of her reckless, but wealthy life with her lover. Fortunately, the wife drowns in the river in an opportune accident though Brian attempts to save her, an action which demonstrates the height of his moral character, since her death would free him to marry Betty Jo. Brian and Betty Jo marry upon the arrival of her uncle and guardian, the bank president from whom Brian stole the money. Not recognizing the "recreated" Brian, the uncle lauds him as the new genius whose book is so sensible. Glad to find him so much changed, Betty Jo's guardian grants his consent for the marriage, and the entire group is happy, including Judy, who realizes that she can never have Brian. She will try to become a better human being by following the example set by Brian and Auntie Sue. - Dr. Joyce Kinkead.

Third Printing 1969

"The huge man-fig tree that sits on the town square in the fictional Coastal Bend town of Thornham (probably West Columbia) is the gathering place for the town's male gossips. Under this tree reputations are made and broken, rumors are spread, and a twisted folk history of the town is created.". "Under the Man-Fig is part romance, realism, local color, and satire. The idea that men are the purveyors of gossip rings a change on the usual cliche that women are the worst rumormongers. Davis's main characters, drawn mostly from Victorian romance, are true to the genre, and her African Americans borrow heavily from the moonlight-and-magnolias format of many novels about the Old South.". "But there are many things in the novel that make it important to early Texas writing. The Juneteenth scene with its interesting Centre Figger captures a part of folklore not often seen. And the flavor of life just north of the Texas Gulf Goast is rarely captured in fiction.". "In 1895, the year Under the Man-Fig was published, there was not a large body of Texas writing besides the Wild West tales published in dime novels. Davis's novel was more realistic than the shoot-em-ups that featured bold cowboys and degenerate or bloodthirsty Indians. Her mixture of realism and romance appealed to the audience of the times but has long since been overwhelmed by the Texas of the wild frontier."--BOOK JACKET.

A novel of two families wrestling with questions of honor, class, loyalty, democracy, and independence during the American Revolution. In The Linwoods, Catharine Maria Sedgwick illuminates the American character and explores issues of civic virtue and national identity in the early republic, through the lives of two families: the Linwoods, dutiful loyalists, and the Lees, passionate revolutionaries. At the novel's heart is Isabella Linwood, a bright and independent young woman who will transform from a proud Tory to ardent Rebel, challenging not only British rule but its accepted social, economic, and political institutions, including the aristocracy, slavery, and patriarchal authority.

The false values of city life found in fashionable New York social circles are contrasted unfavorably with the agrarian utopia of Clarenceville, New York.

A story of Mormonism in the early part of the century.

Short future history novel from John Ames Mitchell (1845–1918). First published in 1889, it is the fictional journal of Persian admiral Khan-Li, who in the year 2951 rediscovers North America by sailing across the Atlantic. (The Public Domain Review)

Fictional stories about the marines.

The Changed Brides is a wonderful period piece set in the 1850's (a contemporary novel when it was written in that period). Alex Lyon, a wealthy landowner in Virginia, is in love with his ward, who is only 16 years old. The book has deceit, passion (controlled of course because of the time the book was written), unrequited love and some heart-thumping moments. A great book!

Sylvia Yule marries one of her brother's two best friends, only to discover she has chosen the wrong man.

"It's really very classical," he said, "like the voyage of Ulysses; I, Ulysses, you the water nymph Calypso, drifting in that golden ship of Romance—""Calypso was a land nymph," she observed, absently, "if accuracy interests you as much as your monologue."Checked and surprised, he began to laugh at his own discomfiture; and she, elbow on the gunwale, small hand cupping her chin, watched him with an expressionless directness that very soon extinguished his amusement and left him awkward in the silence."I've tried my very best to be civil and agreeable," he said after a moment. “Is it really such an effort for you to talk to a man?"“Not if I am interested,” she said quietly.

In a series: The Collected Works of Rex Ellingwood Beach.

Cinderella--The servants of the Hotel Salisbury, which is so called because it is situated on Broadway and conducted on the American plan by a man named Riggs, had agreed upon a date for their annual ball and volunteer concert, and had announced that it would eclipse every other annual ball in the history of the hotel. As the Hotel Salisbury had been only two years in existence, this was not an idle boast, and it had the effect of inducing many people to buy the tickets, which sold at a dollar apiece, and were good for "one gent and a lady," and entitled the bearer to a hat-check without extra charge.

Twelve stories about the poor and wealthy people of the South before, during, and after the Civil War.

A romance set around an area of the Rio Grande in the context of U.S./Mexico conflict. Made into a film in 1918.

2 p. l., 464 p. ; 18 cm

Heroine of Southern Idaho, in the time of the gold rush, rides to seek her lover.