In Hawthorne's Shadow: American Romance from Melville to Mailer

In this well-argued study, Coale explores the themes and images in the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne in relation to contemporary writers and discovers a distinctive and continuing American tradition in fiction. Springing from the radical dualism of Hawthrone's vision, this tradition finds expression in the works of writers such as Herman Melville, Harold Frederic, William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor and Carson McCullers and of contemporary masters such as John Cheever, Norman Mailer, Joan Didion, John Gardner, Joyce Carol Oates, William Styron, and John Updike. Coale links the American romantic tradition in fiction to America's Puritan past, to American outlook, and to the almost schizophrenic dynamics of American culture. The author's long interviews and conversations with writers such as Cheever, Gardner and Styron provide insights and perspectives that make this book valuable to students of contemporary American literature. ISBN 0-8131-1545-0: $24.00.