We will read and discuss five novels and a number of short stories written by American authors in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Students will be expected to do the assigned reading and attend class regularly. Written work will consist entirely of a series of in-class essays written in response to study questions handed out in advance.

The texts:

Milton Crane, ed., FIFTY GREAT AMERICAN SHORT STORIES; Nathaniel Hawthorne, THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES; John Steinbeck, EAST OF EDEN; James Baldwin, GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN; Mark Twain, THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN; and Anne Tyler, A PATCHWORK PLANET