"The Riddle of the Painful Earth": Suffering and Society in W.D. Howells' Major Writings of the Early 1890s

action actual aesthetic Altrurian Altrurian romances Altrurian Traveller American Annie Kilburn Ansel Denton Aristides Homos artist atonement Basil March Beaton behavior Bloomingdale Cady characters complicity Conrad Dryfoos cooperative commonwealth culture David Hughes death defalcation Eben Hilary economic Edward Bellamy ells ethical Fate feel fiction Fortunes Fulkerson Gronlund Hawthorne Hazard Hermia hope Howells as Critic human Imperative Duty impulse Isabel Jacob Dryfoos justice Kane later Laurence Gronlund Letters Lindau lives Matt ment Meredith metafiction moral evolution mystery nation nature Nevil Northwick novel novella offers Olney painful earth Peace plutocracy plutocratic political principle problem psychological Puritanism Putney Quality of Mercy quixotism race racial Ray's reader realist reform reveals Rhoda Rhoda Aldgate seems selfish sense Shadow Shaker social Social Gospel socialist society solidarity suffering suggests Suzette symbolic thought tion Traveller from Altruria Twelvemough Univ utopia vision W. D. Howells William Dean Howells World of Chance writing York