19 TH CENTURY & REALISM

19TH CENTURY & REALISM English & U.S. History Paper 11th Grade 2011

LOUISA MAY ALCOTT LITTLE WOMEN • “Louisa May Alcott's 19th-century classic is the story of the March sisters-Meg, Jo, Amy, and Beth-who live with their beloved Marmee, while their father is away serving as a chaplain during the Civil War.” • Historical Connections: Civil War, women in the 19th Century

BLACK ELKBLACK ELK SPEAKS • “Black Elk Speaks is widely hailed as a religious classic, one of the best spiritual books of the modern era and the bestselling book of all time by an American Indian. This inspirational and unfailingly powerful story reveals the life and visions of the Lakota healer Nicholas Black Elk (1863-1950) and the tragic history of his Sioux people during the epic closing decades of the Old West.” • Historical Connections: Native Americans

GEORGE WASHINGTON CABLEOLD CREOLE DAYS • “One of the greatest and most celebrated Southern writers of his day…helped lead the Local Color movement of the late 1800s with his pioneering use of dialect and his skill with the short-story form. A Southern reformist, Cable faithfully depicted the Creole way of life during the transitional post-Civil War period. After serving in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, he began to write for the New Orleans Picayune. Cable has been called the most important Southern artist working in the late nineteenth century, as well as the first modern Southern writer.” • Historical Connections: American society

FRANCES E.W. HARPERIOLA LEROY, OR, SHADOWS UPLIFTED • “A striking portrait of black life during the Civil War and Reconstruction, this 1892 work was among the first novels published by an African-American woman. It explores issues of race, politics, and class in the tale of a mixed-race woman who rejects a life of "passing" and devotes herself to the improvement of black society.” • Historical Connections: Slavery, Mixed-race, Reconstruction era

JOEL CHANDLER HARRISTHE COMPLETE TALES OF UNCLE REMUS • “Uncle Remus is a collection of animal stories, songs, and oral folklore, collected from Southern United States blacks. Uncle Remus is a kindly old slave who serves as a storytelling device, passing on the folktales to children gathered around him. • The stories are told in Harris's version of a Deep South slave dialect. The genre of stories is the trickster tale. At the time of Harris' publication, his work was praised for its ability to capture plantation negro dialect.” • Historical Connections: Realism

BRET HARTETHE OUTCASTS OF POKER FLAT • “A tale about four undesirables expelled from a mining camp and their losing battle against a blizzard.” • Historical Connections: Western life

WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLSTHE RISE OF SILAS LAPHAM • “Howells's 1884 novel pits new money against old, as commoner Lapham attempts to infiltrate Boston's upper crust after making his fortune.” • Historical Connections: Father of American realism

HENRY JAMESDAISY MILLER • “The book's title character is a young American woman traveling in Europe with her mother. There she is courted by Frederick Forsyth Winterbourne, an American living abroad. In her innocence, Daisy is compromised by her friendship with an Italian man.” • Historical Connections: Old Europe and young America

A Country Doctor • by Sarah Orne Jewett • “Though not as well-known as the writers she influenced, Sarah Orne Jewett nevertheless remains one of the most important American novelists of the late nineteenth century. Published in 1884, Jewett’s first novel,A Country Doctor,is a luminous portrayal of rural Maine and a semiautobiographical look at her world.” • Historical Connections: 19th century women

Balcony Stories • by Grace Elizabeth King • “An American author of Louisiana stories, history, and biography, and a leader in historical and literary activities. ” • Historical Connections: Privilege & oppression in the South Available Online: http://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/kingbalc/menu.html

How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among theTenements of New York by Jacob A. Riis • “This famous journalistic record of the filth and degradation of New York's slums at the turn of the century is a classic in social thought and of early American photography.” • Historical Connections: Poverty, Tenement life

Life on the Mississippi • by Mark Twain • “Mark Twain's autobiographical account of river life.” • Historical Connections: Human nature, Slavery, River life

19 TH CENTURY & REALISM