An original approach to four mainstream texts for the study of American literature and the novel in general. It examines the strangely equivocal nature of the vision with which each of them ends, with the central protagonists illogically clinging to their own transcendent image of selfhood.
Acknowledgments; Introduction; 1. Nathaniel Hawthorne: 'My Kinsman, Major Molineux': the several voices of independence; 2. Bleak dreams: restriction and aspiration in The Scarlet Letter; 3. Mark Twain's great evasion: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; 4. Strether unbounded: the selective vision of Henry James's Ambassador; 5. Closing the circle: The Great Gatsby; Conclusion: Moby-Dick and our problem with history; Notes; Index.
