Description: The first book in many years to take in the full sweep of national fiction, The Dream of the Great American Novel explains why this supposedly antiquated idea continues to thrive. It shows that four G.A.N. "scripts" are keys to the dynamics of American literature and identity--and to the myth of a nation perpetually under construction.
Brief description: Lawrence Buell is Powell M. Cabot Research Professor of American Literature at Harvard University.
Review Quotes: Magisterial... Buell's magnum opus... Buell can summarize an argument or a plot with eye-opening precision--and make you suddenly see new things in familiar books... The grateful audience for this book will be other scholars and teachers of American literature, who will plunder its pages for decades to come. And plunder it they will because, all cavils aside, Buell proffers brilliant analyses of a dozen or so front-runners in the Great American Novel sweepstakes.--Michael Dirda "Virginia Quarterly Review" (1/1/2014 12:00:00 AM)