The Routledge Introduction to the American Novel provides a comprehensive and engaging guide to this cornerstone literary genre, reframing our understanding of the American novel and its evolving traditions.

Introduction

1. The Long, Annoying Shadow of Europe and the Search for Greatness

2. The American Dream: A Myth of Upward Mobility and Middle-Class Happiness

3. Domestic Discontentment: The Marriage Plot Anti-Dream

4. "Not a Story to Pass On": Slavery and the American Novel

5. Class, Race, and the Anti-Dream Narrative

6. Multiethnic America

7. Old (and New) Weird America: Experimentation and Voices from the Margins

8. Our Fragile Earth: Eco-Consciousness and the American Novel

D. Quentin Miller (Ph.D. in English, University of Connecticut) is Professor of English at Suffolk University, where he teaches courses on American literature, African American literature, and fiction writing. He is the author, editor, or co-editor of more than a dozen books, most recently James Baldwin in Context, The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature (13th edition), and African American Literature in Transition, 1980-1990.