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In this engaging novel from'Dean of American Letters'William Dean Howells, a sheltered young woman from the Midwest makes her way to New York to pursue a career as an artist. Once there, she experiences a vertiginous degree of culture shock as she falls in with a crowd of counterculture intellectuals.

This collection brings together two of William Dean Howells'earliest full-length dramas. A Counterfeit Presentment recounts an out-of-the-ordinary encounter that takes place in a hotel lobby. In The Parlour Car, Howells blends his trademark brand of social realism with a more traditional comedy of manners.

William Dean Howells, one of the foremost practitioners of literary realism in nineteenth-century American fiction, takes on issues of class, morality and family values in this sprawling novel that follows multiple generations of the genteel Mavering family of New England.

In this humorous sketch from William Dean Howells, a refined gentleman attempts to navigate the rough-and-tumble vagaries of the marketplace when he sets out to procure the perfect horse. His early efforts go hilariously awry, but he learns some important lessons along the way.

A significant figure in American literature, William Dean Howells was a proponent of social realism, and he grapples with issues of class and cultural clashes in the novel Annie Kilburn. After many years abroad, a family tragedy brings Annie back to her small hometown in New England. She finds that her experiences in Europe have opened her eyes to the harsh truth about poverty in the United States, and she resolves to do something about it.

In this clever, humorous play from the'Dean of American Letters,'William Dean Howells, a German florist finds himself caught up in a series of remarkable coincidences. Readers will appreciate Howells'deft touch with dialogue and keen insight into human nature.

In one of William Dean Howells'humorous farces, the then-cutting-edge technological development of the elevator becomes an inescapable prison when a malfunctioning lift traps a bevy of posh Bostonians between two floors of their upscale apartment building.

For readers seeking an introductory volume via which to delve into the works of William Dean Howells, often called'The Dean of American Letters,'The Daughter of the Storage: And Other Things in Prose and Verse offers up a broad cross-section of his work, including stories, essays, poetry, and more.

Often regarded as a quintessentially American novelist, much of William Dean Howells'early work -- like that of his admirer, Henry James -- explored tensions between American and European culture. In the novella A Fearful Responsibility, expatriate Americans living in Europe grapple with the Civil War in their own unique ways.

As a prominent novelist, critic and editor, William Dean Howells played an essential role in shaping the American literary sensibility of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, particularly the shift toward naturalism and realism. In this, his most widely read series of essays on literature, Howells lays out his view of the superiority of realistic fiction.

William Dean Howells'novel A Foregone Conclusion is set in Venice, where Howells himself served as an American consul for several years. It follows a clash of cultures and mores that arises between an American artist and diplomat and a local priest.

In the short comic play Evening Dress, William Dean Howells'bumbling recurring character Mr. Roberts finds himself in another ridiculous quandary. This time around, a planned evening out on the town is put in jeopardy because Roberts can't locate his formal suit.

Sharing similarities with the fiction of his friend Henry James, a number of William Dean Howells'novels focus on culture clashes between Americans and Europeans. In the novel Indian Summer, a disgruntled journalist gives up the business and tries to recapture the magic of his youthful sojourn in Italy.

Throughout his career, author and editor William Dean Howells made it a point to deal with emerging social issues in his novels, often causing controversy and scandal upon their publication. In Dr. Breen's Practice, he introduces readers to Dr. Grace Breen, a working woman navigating the challenges of a professional career long before such a life path was commonplace.

In this short comic play from William Dean Howells, a widow, Amy Somers, goes through the motions of hosting a tea party and is unexpectedly swept off her feet by the eccentric and charming Willis Campbell. The married pair are featured in a series of farcical plays that Howells would go on to write.

As an influential writer and editor, William Dean Howells played a key role in guiding the direction of American letters in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In this important critical essay, Howells makes a stirring case for literary naturalism as practiced by French novelist and thinker Emile Zola.

In The Garotters, another of William Dean Howells''farces,'or short comic plays, protagonist Mr. Roberts arrives home with a tale of horror, tragedy and ultimate triumph -- his beloved watch was stolen by a despicable thief, but he bravely pursued the criminal and retrieved the stolen loot. However, Roberts soon finds that his act of courage was not quite as courageous as he believed.

Nicknamed'The Dean of American Letters,'author and editor William Dean Howells was staunchly committed to realism in fiction. However, rather than reverting to gritty naturalism, Howells'novels are rich in psychological complexity and keenly observed insights into human behavior and foibles, such as the toxic relationship between budding writer Philip Verrian and his mother that is at the center of the short novel Fennel and Rue.

Despite their divergence from his critically lauded realistic novels, critics and fans alike heap praise on William Dean Howells'entertaining short plays. In A Likely Story, the Campbells prepare for a fete at their cottage in Summering-by-the-Sea.

Fans of Henry James'genteel domestic dramas will love William Dean Howells'The Kentons, a novel which James himself ardently admired. When their daughter Ellen finds herself caught up in a period of malaise, the Kentons embark on a series of exiles in order to help her regain her footing.

After having been orphaned at a young age, Lydia Blood has been shuffled between relatives for much of her life. At the age of 19, she is being sent to live with an aunt who lives in Venice, where Lydia hopes to find success as a singer. But her plans are swayed after a life-changing encounter on the journey to Italy.