The reminiscences of a New York lawyer, Jim Burden, about his boyhood in Nebraska, particularly a young Bohemian girl named Antonia Shimerda, are set against the backdrop of the American assimilation immigrants. "Willa Cather's My Ántonia is considered one of the most significant American novels of the twentieth century. Set during the great migration west to settle the plains of the North American continent, the narrative follows Antonia Shimerda,...

Includes a brief biography of Arthur Miller, thematic and structural analysis of the work, critical views, and an index of themes and ideas.

Looks at the life of John Steinbeck and offers a critical analysis of his works.

Analyzes the plot, setting, characters, themes, and symbolism in Hawthorne's novel, and discusses the purpose of its "Custom-house" portion.

Tracing the social and political developments leading to the Dust Bowl, Owens clearly explains how the novel represents Steinbeck's indictment of the Promised Land myth.

A collection of seven critical essays on Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" arranged in chronological order of publication.

Provides biographical information about nineteenth-century American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, and features a series of essays that discuss the structure and style, characters, and major themes of his novel, "The Scarlet Letter."

Blood Meridian (1985), Cormac McCarthy's epic tale of an otherwise nameless "kid" who in his teens joins a gang of licensed scalp hunters whose marauding adventures take place across Texas, Chihuahua, Sonora, Arizona, and California during 1849 and 1850, is widely considered to be one of the finest novels of the Old West, as well as McCarthy's greatest work. The New York Times Book Review ranked it third in a 2006 survey of the "best work of American...