Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. Acknowledgments ix
4. Prologue: The Lords of Life 1
5. 1. Does Nobody Here Know Rip Van Winkle? 17
6. 2. Nathaniel Hawthorne Dissects Betrayal 35
7. 3. Louisa May Alcott Meets Mark Twain over the Young Face of Change 61
8. 4. Henry James and Zora Neale Hurston Answer Defeat 90
9. 5. Edith Wharton’s Anatomy of Breakdown 116
10. Midpoint: The Lords of Life Revisited 135
11. 6. The Immigrant Novel: Fear in America 141
12. 7. William Faulkner and Toni Morrison Plot Racial Difference 157
13. 8. Saul Bellow Observes Old Age 180
14. 9. Don DeLillo and Marilynne Robinson Mourn Loss 201
15. 10. Walt Whitman Finds the Courage to Be 231
16. Bibliography 253
17. Index 273