A Modern Instance

A Modern Instance

infobox Book |
name = A Modern Instance
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = William Dean Howells
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Novel
publisher = J. R. Osgood & Co.
pub_date = 1882
english_pub_date =
media_type = Print (Hardcover)
pages = 514 pp
isbn = NA
preceded_by =
followed_by =

A Modern Instance, is a novel written by William Dean Howells.

ummary

The novel explores the deterioration of what could have been an otherwise healthy marriage through industrial enterprise and capitalistic greed. The story chronicles the rise and fall of the romance between Bartley Hubbard and Marcia Gaylord, who migrate from Equity, Maine to Boston, Massachusetts following their marriage. The reader believes at the beginning of the story that their love for each other is unbreakable, but as the plot advances, more and more troubles arise, alienating the couple. Soon their entire marriage collapses, inundated with problems from a wide array of areas. Marcia Hubbard, lost and desolate in the gloom of her husband's abandoning her, is offered solace in the comforting touch of her friend Ben Halleck, who secretly is attracted to her. However, he worries that she may reject him, unable to move on from her previous partner. The story concludes in a meaningless vortex of isolation representing modern society. Marcia Hubbard, still attached to Bartley, confines herself to her father's home in Equity, Maine, from which she never leaves. Bartley, on the other hand, has died. Ben Halleck stands hesitantly, unable to determine whether or not he should seize the chance and propose to her.

ignificance

"A Modern Instance" is regarded as one of the most pivotal works in the career of William Dean Howells; it solidified his reputation as a champion of realism in America. Part of that realism is the groundbreaking unapologetic portrait of Bartley Hubbard as an agnostic and which could be modeled on Howells' friend Mark Twain [Myrtle M. Duffy. Twain in Howells' "A Modern Instance." American Quarterly, Vol. 16, No. 4, A Mark Twain Issue (Winter, 1964), pp. 612-614] .

References


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Modern Hebrew grammar — is the grammar of the Modern Hebrew language. It is partly analytical, expressing such forms as dative, ablative, and accusative using prepositional particles rather than morphological cases. However, inflection plays a decisive role in the… …   Wikipedia

  • Modern conveniences — or Mod cons are labor saving devices that make a task easier to perform than a traditional method. Because of the historical use of the term, and the differences in lifestyles around the world, the term is a relative term based upon the… …   Wikipedia

  • Modern Times (Bob Dylan album) — Modern Times Studio album by Bob Dylan Released August 29, 2006 …   Wikipedia

  • Modern Times (film) — Modern Times Directed by Charlie Chaplin Produced by Charlie Chaplin …   Wikipedia

  • Modern Celts — are those peoples who are speakers of Celtic languages, or who consider themselves, or have been considered by others, to participate in a Celtic culture deriving from communities that have formerly been Celtic speaking.The term is generally used …   Wikipedia

  • Modern Hindu law — refers to one of the personal law systems of India along with similar systems for Muslims, Sikhs, Parsis, and Christians. This Hindu personal law or modern Hindu law is an extension of the Anglo Hindu Law developed during the British colonial… …   Wikipedia

  • Modern language — Living language redirects here. For the American publisher, see Living Language (publisher). A modern language is any human language that is currently in use. The term is used in language education to distinguish between languages which are used… …   Wikipedia

  • Modern searches for Lorentz violation — Important motivations for modern searches for Lorentz violation are deviations from Lorentz invariance (and thus special relativity) predicted by some variations of quantum gravity, string theory, and some alternatives to general relativity.… …   Wikipedia

  • instance — noun ADJECTIVE ▪ countless, innumerable, many, multiple, numerous, several ▪ few, occasional, rare ▪ …   Collocations dictionary

  • Instance-based learning — In machine learning, instance based learning or memory based learning is a family of learning algorithms that, instead of performing explicit generalization, compare new problem instances with instances seen in training, which have been stored in …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”