By Nava Atlas | On April 13, 2018 | Updated October 29, 2026 | Comments (2)
One of Ours by Willa Cather is a 1922 novel telling the story of Claude Wheeler, the son of a Nebraska farmer and a religious mother. He drifts through what seems to be a predictable life, devoid of purpose, until he goes to war in Europe. Though it won the 1923 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel, it received mixed reviews.
Critics panned its idealized view of World War I. Acid-penned literary legend H.L. Mencken, for example, wrote that her depiction of war “drops precipitately to the level of a serial in The Lady’s Home Journal … fought out not in France, but on a Hollywood movie-lot.” Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On March 20, 2018 | Updated September 25, 2026 | Comments (0)
She Came to Stay by Simone de Beauvoir was originally published in France in 1943 as L’Invitee. The autobiographical, philosophical novel was based on de Beauvoir’s open relationship with Jean-Paul Sartre, and takes place just before and during World War II.
The novel’s main character, Françoise, is based on de Beauvoir herself, and Pierre is a thinly veiled Sartre. A younger woman, Xaviere, enters their lives as they form a ménage a trois. Xaviere is a mash-up of sisters Olga and Wanda Kosakiewicz. Read More→
By Taylor Jasmine | On March 19, 2018 | Updated July 4, 2026 | Comments (0)
Comedy, American Style by Jessie Redmon Fauset (1882 – 1961) was the last novel by this influential author, poet, and editor associated with the Harlem Renaissance. Published in 1933, the title is completely ironic; this story is, if anything, more of a tragedy.
In this story, Jessie Fauset explores themes of racial identity, self-hatred, and the concept of “passing” in the deeply biased American culture. The main character, Olivia Cary, is a domineering mother who wants her children to pass as white, which leads to to dire consequences for the family. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On March 15, 2018 | Updated May 9, 2023 | Comments (4)
Quicksand (1928) was the first novel by by Nella Larsen, an author associated with the Harlem Renaissance. A story with autobiographical elements, it was generally well received, though not a big seller.
Helga Crane, the main character, like Nella Larsen, is the mixed-race daughter of a white Danish mother and a black father.
The plot takes her back and forth from Denmark, “Naxos” (a thinly veiled version of the Tuskegee Institute, where Larsen worked briefly), and Harlem. Wherever Helga goes, she fails to find a community in which she can be comfortable with who she is. Read More→
By Mary Ward | On February 16, 2018 | Updated September 25, 2026 | Comments (0)
The following introduction to and analysis of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë is excerpted from Life and Works of the Sisters Brontë (1899) by Mary A. Ward, a 19th-century British novelist and literary critic.
Though much has been written about Jane Eyre, Charlotte’s 1847 classic. The excerpt following, abbreviated from Ward’s 1899 book about the Brontës, is a critical yet insightful analysis of the beloved novel. Ward doesn’t hold back on what she feels are the inconsistencies and even the absurdities of the plot and characters. Seriously — locking a mentally ill wife in an attic? Read More→
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