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A Sleep and a Forgetting (The Art of the Novella) by Howells, William Dean (2009) Paperback
A major figure in nineteenth-century letters, Howells influenced a generation of American writers. In this tale, a young doctor abroad is asked to heal a beautiful woman who has mysteriously lost her memory. He must explore the boundaries between memory, sleep, and knowing-and finally, he must explore his own heart.
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First published January 1, 1907
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About the author
William Dean Howells
1,117 books98 followersWillam Dean Howells (1837-1920) was a novelist, short story writer, magazine editor, and mentor who wrote for various magazines, including the Atlantic Monthly and Harper's Magazine.
In January 1866 James Fields offered him the assistant editor role at the Atlantic Monthly. Howells accepted after successfully negotiating for a higher salary, but was frustrated by Fields's close supervision. Howells was made editor in 1871, remaining in the position until 1881.
In 1869 he first met Mark Twain, which began a longtime friendship. Even more important for the development of his literary style — his advocacy of Realism — was his relationship with the journalist Jonathan Baxter Harrison, who during the 1870s wrote a series of articles for the Atlantic Monthly on the lives of ordinary Americans.
He wrote his first novel, Their Wedding Journey, in 1872, but his literary reputation took off with the realist novel A Modern Instance, published in 1882, which described the decay of a marriage. His 1885 novel The Rise of Silas Lapham is perhaps his best known, describing the rise and fall of an American entrepreneur of the paint business. His social views were also strongly represented in the novels Annie Kilburn (1888), A Hazard of New Fortunes (1890), and An Imperative Duty (1892). He was particularly outraged by the trials resulting from the Haymarket Riot.
His poems were collected during 1873 and 1886, and a volume under the title Stops of Various Quills was published during 1895. He was the initiator of the school of American realists who derived, through the Russians, from Balzac and had little sympathy with any other type of fiction, although he frequently encouraged new writers in whom he discovered new ideas.
Howells also wrote plays, criticism, and essays about contemporary literary figures such as Henrik Ibsen, Émile Zola, Giovanni Verga, Benito Pérez Galdós, and, especially, Leo Tolstoy, which helped establish their reputations in the United States. He also wrote critically in support of American writers Hamlin Garland, Stephen Crane, Emily Dickinson, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Sarah Orne Jewett, Charles W. Chesnutt, Abraham Cahan, Madison Cawein,and Frank Norris. It is perhaps in this role that he had his greatest influence. In his "Editor's Study" column at the Atlantic Monthly and, later, at Harper's, he formulated and disseminated his theories of "realism" in literature.
In 1904 he was one of the first seven people chosen for membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters, of which he became president.
Howells died in Manhattan on May 11, 1920. He was buried in Cambridge Cemetery in Massachusetts.
Noting the "documentary" and truthful value of Howells' work, Henry James wrote: "Stroke by stroke and book by book your work was to become, for this exquisite notation of our whole democratic light and shade and give and take, in the highest degree documentary."
In January 1866 James Fields offered him the assistant editor role at the Atlantic Monthly. Howells accepted after successfully negotiating for a higher salary, but was frustrated by Fields's close supervision. Howells was made editor in 1871, remaining in the position until 1881.
In 1869 he first met Mark Twain, which began a longtime friendship. Even more important for the development of his literary style — his advocacy of Realism — was his relationship with the journalist Jonathan Baxter Harrison, who during the 1870s wrote a series of articles for the Atlantic Monthly on the lives of ordinary Americans.
He wrote his first novel, Their Wedding Journey, in 1872, but his literary reputation took off with the realist novel A Modern Instance, published in 1882, which described the decay of a marriage. His 1885 novel The Rise of Silas Lapham is perhaps his best known, describing the rise and fall of an American entrepreneur of the paint business. His social views were also strongly represented in the novels Annie Kilburn (1888), A Hazard of New Fortunes (1890), and An Imperative Duty (1892). He was particularly outraged by the trials resulting from the Haymarket Riot.
His poems were collected during 1873 and 1886, and a volume under the title Stops of Various Quills was published during 1895. He was the initiator of the school of American realists who derived, through the Russians, from Balzac and had little sympathy with any other type of fiction, although he frequently encouraged new writers in whom he discovered new ideas.
Howells also wrote plays, criticism, and essays about contemporary literary figures such as Henrik Ibsen, Émile Zola, Giovanni Verga, Benito Pérez Galdós, and, especially, Leo Tolstoy, which helped establish their reputations in the United States. He also wrote critically in support of American writers Hamlin Garland, Stephen Crane, Emily Dickinson, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Sarah Orne Jewett, Charles W. Chesnutt, Abraham Cahan, Madison Cawein,and Frank Norris. It is perhaps in this role that he had his greatest influence. In his "Editor's Study" column at the Atlantic Monthly and, later, at Harper's, he formulated and disseminated his theories of "realism" in literature.
In 1904 he was one of the first seven people chosen for membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters, of which he became president.
Howells died in Manhattan on May 11, 1920. He was buried in Cambridge Cemetery in Massachusetts.
Noting the "documentary" and truthful value of Howells' work, Henry James wrote: "Stroke by stroke and book by book your work was to become, for this exquisite notation of our whole democratic light and shade and give and take, in the highest degree documentary."
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
October 4, 2016
SIX WORD REVIEW: Trauma will rejog your memory sometimes.
December 4, 2020
This is a novella that I was excited to read. I had never read any Howells before, and his biography was very interesting to me from his life to his championing Edith Wharton, Mark Twain, etc. "A Sleep and a Forgetting" is written in a way that places it on the threshold of something. It kin of languishes with not much resolution - which I think sets a ton very much ahead of its time (1907). There are crushingly beautiful passages of melancholic writing on ruins and landscapes that really reflect this liminal kind of space of both the alienist character and the woman. It seems kind of experimental, subdued even with this sensational premise. It's a strange and potent novella.
July 23, 2024
It is a nice quick little easy read. But they story can be abit confusing and it's very jammbled together
June 3, 2017
A Sleep and A Forgetting is a pleasant novella. We are allowed to watch as a romantic drama is played to its conclusion. The reader is never made to suffer through the personal struggles attending the implied questions.
William Dean Howells, would according to the bio on the back flap begin as political ally to the soon to be President Lincoln and continue on to be an editor of The Atlantic Monthly and Harper's. Both noted for there literary influence. Howells would champion realism and promote of the important writers of the late 19the Century. In the end he would be an important writer in the school of Realism give his name to Howellsian school of realism (thank you Google ).
Howellsian realism is well demonstrated in this selection, A Sleep and A Forgetting. Three Americans find themselves together in fairly simple circumstances. Young Dr. Matthew Lanfefar has an interest in the then new field of psychotherapy. Mr. Gerald and his daughter are in San Remo "between Nice and Genoa" intentionally placing them maybe in Italy and maybe in France. The Father and daughter are in San Remo because father is hoping to cure his daughter of hysterical amnesia. Sometime before the story begins, she had witnessed the terrible accident that had killed her mother. Mr. Gerald appeals to the decency of the young doctor to take his daughter as his only patient and perhaps guide her out of her amnesia.
What is unspoken between the doctor and the father is the never explicitly stated central problem of the novella. The young patient lives in an almost childlike state, unconscious of the pain of her loss but also unable to fully function as an adult. To restore her memory is to force her to suffer bereavement and mourning. Leaving her in her self-imposed condition prevents her from forming the normal attachments of an otherwise marriageable woman and otherwise functioning as a full person. The doctor has additional issues as it is not certain that he should promote a resolution, or should he trust the woman to cure herself. Meantime,can he maintain his professional detachment even has he falls in love with his patient?
None of these issues are directly considered. All are acted out within the narrative. We are aware that both the doctor and parent are working through moral issues, but nowhere are we made to read about the implied moralizing.
Once again the Series: the Art of the Novella has given me the chance to sample a writer without having to commit to a full novel. The 80 pages of this story pass with a certain stately pacing but can be read in a single sitting. It is a period piece but it crosses time quite well.
William Dean Howells, would according to the bio on the back flap begin as political ally to the soon to be President Lincoln and continue on to be an editor of The Atlantic Monthly and Harper's. Both noted for there literary influence. Howells would champion realism and promote of the important writers of the late 19the Century. In the end he would be an important writer in the school of Realism give his name to Howellsian school of realism (thank you Google ).
Howellsian realism is well demonstrated in this selection, A Sleep and A Forgetting. Three Americans find themselves together in fairly simple circumstances. Young Dr. Matthew Lanfefar has an interest in the then new field of psychotherapy. Mr. Gerald and his daughter are in San Remo "between Nice and Genoa" intentionally placing them maybe in Italy and maybe in France. The Father and daughter are in San Remo because father is hoping to cure his daughter of hysterical amnesia. Sometime before the story begins, she had witnessed the terrible accident that had killed her mother. Mr. Gerald appeals to the decency of the young doctor to take his daughter as his only patient and perhaps guide her out of her amnesia.
What is unspoken between the doctor and the father is the never explicitly stated central problem of the novella. The young patient lives in an almost childlike state, unconscious of the pain of her loss but also unable to fully function as an adult. To restore her memory is to force her to suffer bereavement and mourning. Leaving her in her self-imposed condition prevents her from forming the normal attachments of an otherwise marriageable woman and otherwise functioning as a full person. The doctor has additional issues as it is not certain that he should promote a resolution, or should he trust the woman to cure herself. Meantime,can he maintain his professional detachment even has he falls in love with his patient?
None of these issues are directly considered. All are acted out within the narrative. We are aware that both the doctor and parent are working through moral issues, but nowhere are we made to read about the implied moralizing.
Once again the Series: the Art of the Novella has given me the chance to sample a writer without having to commit to a full novel. The 80 pages of this story pass with a certain stately pacing but can be read in a single sitting. It is a period piece but it crosses time quite well.
June 18, 2014
I didn't find anything necessarily spectacular about this book, but it was good. A fine middle of the road book, a short worthwhile read. It was an interesting topic. It revolved around a young lady who witnessed the death of her mother and since that event she cannot remember anything. Or rather she can remember skills and certain emotions, but she will not remember names or events, unless she is currently experiencing them. Such as she will know a person while she sees them, but as soon as they walk away she forgets the encounter entirely. And so the book follows Dr. Lanfear as he becomes friends with her and attempts to understand her situation and bring her to recovery. The book will not stir much in the emotions, as it does evolve into a love story between Dr. Lanfear and the girl, but you can tell this facet was not William Howells focus and objective in righting A Sleep and a Forgetting as the romantic details are fleeting and cursory at best. It goes not much deeper than Lanfear realizing she is a beautiful young lady and that is about as romantic sounding he gets. However, the mental problem that the girl has, the objective of Howells' book, is intriguing and I can excuse the cursory side story of a romance.
June 13, 2017
Have to agree with some of the other reviews.
Not a spectacular read, but great for a short while.
The ending is abrupt, wish it was drawn out a bit more.
Not a spectacular read, but great for a short while.
The ending is abrupt, wish it was drawn out a bit more.
May 16, 2018
‘He had always said to himself that there could be no persistence of personality, of character, of identity, of consciousness, except through memory; yet here, to the last implication of temperament, they all persisted. The souls that was passing in it’s integrity through time without the helps, the crutches, of remembrance by which his own personality supported itself, why should not it pass so through eternity without that loss of identity which was equivalent to annihilation.’
‘Life is tolerable enough while it passes, but when it is past, what remains seems mostly to hurt and humiliate.’
‘Life is tolerable enough while it passes, but when it is past, what remains seems mostly to hurt and humiliate.’
December 5, 2022
I picked this up at a used bookstore because I needed a book without art on the cover (for a workplace reading bingo). This was a mild and predictable story, but quick to read and enjoyable for the most part.
February 12, 2019
A nice quick read, not earth shattering but clever and enjoyable.
December 31, 2020
Howells's mediocre writing and lack of imagination turn an interesting concept into tedious melodrama. Waste of time.
November 1, 2022
very dull 2d characters didn’t make for very interesting reading :I
March 4, 2010
I won this book in a giveaway hosted by John Self. I have been following his blog since a long time now and find his reviews insightful. He is one of those readers who doesn’t stop at just ‘I liked it’ or ‘I hated it’, but goes on to tell us what the book is actually about so that we can decide for ourselves whether to read the book or not.
Melville Hose Publishing has come out with a series ‘The Art of the Novella’ in which they aim to publish short fiction or novella – too short to be a novel, too long to be a short story. All the books in the series have the same plain yet attractive cover. These are small, weightless books which can fit into your bag or purse and can keep you engrossed for an hour.
This novella is about a woman who witnesses her mother’s death and is so shocked at the incident that she stays unconscious for a few days and when she wakes up from it, she doesn’t remember the incident. The shock damages her memory and she forgets people, names, faces and incidents. A doctor starts treating her at her father’s request. The rest of the book is about the doctor’s interactions with the patient and this is the best part of the book. I found myself thinking about the exchanges between the doctor and the woman about dreams, reality, memory, character, identity and so on. One particular passage that I found really interesting:
He had always said to himself that there could be no persistence of personality, of character, of identity, of consciousness, except through memory; yet here, to the last implication of temperament, they all persisted. The soul that was passing in its integrity through time without the helps, the crutches, of remembrance by which his own personality supported itself, why should not it pass so through eternity without that loss of identity which was equivalent to annihilation?
The passage might not seem relevant here, but works really well in the book.
I have to sincerely thank John for two things. One, for hosting the giveaway and two, for introducing me to W.D.Howells. If not for the giveaway, I would have never discovered this author. The book was like a treat – short and sweet. It was entertaining as well as thought provoking. If only I could get hold of more books from this series – don’t know how many more gems it holds.
PS: This novella is available online.
Melville Hose Publishing has come out with a series ‘The Art of the Novella’ in which they aim to publish short fiction or novella – too short to be a novel, too long to be a short story. All the books in the series have the same plain yet attractive cover. These are small, weightless books which can fit into your bag or purse and can keep you engrossed for an hour.
This novella is about a woman who witnesses her mother’s death and is so shocked at the incident that she stays unconscious for a few days and when she wakes up from it, she doesn’t remember the incident. The shock damages her memory and she forgets people, names, faces and incidents. A doctor starts treating her at her father’s request. The rest of the book is about the doctor’s interactions with the patient and this is the best part of the book. I found myself thinking about the exchanges between the doctor and the woman about dreams, reality, memory, character, identity and so on. One particular passage that I found really interesting:
He had always said to himself that there could be no persistence of personality, of character, of identity, of consciousness, except through memory; yet here, to the last implication of temperament, they all persisted. The soul that was passing in its integrity through time without the helps, the crutches, of remembrance by which his own personality supported itself, why should not it pass so through eternity without that loss of identity which was equivalent to annihilation?
The passage might not seem relevant here, but works really well in the book.
I have to sincerely thank John for two things. One, for hosting the giveaway and two, for introducing me to W.D.Howells. If not for the giveaway, I would have never discovered this author. The book was like a treat – short and sweet. It was entertaining as well as thought provoking. If only I could get hold of more books from this series – don’t know how many more gems it holds.
PS: This novella is available online.
April 15, 2011
This book started out pretty good. The Italian coast! A pretty young woman suffering from memory problems! The kind-hearted alienist who assents to treat her out of a sense of duty, but inevitably falls in love with her! Their discussions on the nature of memory and human perception!
Then there's about twenty pages in there (a considerable amount, considering that it's an eighty-page novella) that gets all "and then they trod the dewy pasture lane" or whatever and it gets just so... sentimental. Blah. I found myself slogging through that part (But! There is a good section in there involving people getting crushed to death by rubble during an earthquake.). The happy ending was actually pretty plausible and I really liked how things got wrapped up. There is nothing worse, after all, than an implausible happy ending.
Also. Correct me if I'm wrong, but is there not some pretty overt resurrection symbolism (i.e. the father dying that the daughter might live.)? I read somewhere, I think, that Howells was a pretty staunch Christian. I felt at the end that there was a switcheroo and the supposedly innocuous novella turned out to be, in reality, a religious parable.
Whatevs. Mainly I was unaffected by this book one way or the other. Totally underwhelmed.
Book 3/5 in this, the Week of the Novella!
Then there's about twenty pages in there (a considerable amount, considering that it's an eighty-page novella) that gets all "and then they trod the dewy pasture lane" or whatever and it gets just so... sentimental. Blah. I found myself slogging through that part (But! There is a good section in there involving people getting crushed to death by rubble during an earthquake.). The happy ending was actually pretty plausible and I really liked how things got wrapped up. There is nothing worse, after all, than an implausible happy ending.
Also. Correct me if I'm wrong, but is there not some pretty overt resurrection symbolism (i.e. the father dying that the daughter might live.)? I read somewhere, I think, that Howells was a pretty staunch Christian. I felt at the end that there was a switcheroo and the supposedly innocuous novella turned out to be, in reality, a religious parable.
Whatevs. Mainly I was unaffected by this book one way or the other. Totally underwhelmed.
Book 3/5 in this, the Week of the Novella!
September 17, 2009
An excellent example of a writer with ambition and ideas without the imagination and skill to match. Howells unsuccessfully blends strict realism with proto-psychoanalysis, creating a mushy blend of obvious description and dull revelations. He loves to tell you exactly what people are thinking and feeling, often presaging his unrealistic dialogue with two or three unnecessary adjectives telling you what the characters will experience before, during and after their speeches. The expected twist never materializes, and in the end, the plot resembles an overwrought romance novel more than a literary tale. A few times you glance some original ideas about the mind - I'm sure most of this was cutting edge in 1907 - but there's not much of use to take away from this story.
I have no idea why Melville House bothered publishing it.
I have no idea why Melville House bothered publishing it.
August 1, 2012
I love William Dean Howells. Even the much maligned Hazard of New Fortunes. Even his plays.
So I sat down with great anticipation to read A Sleep and a Forgetting. While there is some sly wit, this short novella was a slog. The book is of historical interest since it explores ideas in clinical psychology from a turn-of-the-century perspective. But the characters and their experiences are ideas. Without flesh-and-blood characters undergoing credible experiences the whole thing becomes an anemic academic excercise.
It is Howells so there is some sly wit and the historical interest is considerable. But as literature....no.
So I sat down with great anticipation to read A Sleep and a Forgetting. While there is some sly wit, this short novella was a slog. The book is of historical interest since it explores ideas in clinical psychology from a turn-of-the-century perspective. But the characters and their experiences are ideas. Without flesh-and-blood characters undergoing credible experiences the whole thing becomes an anemic academic excercise.
It is Howells so there is some sly wit and the historical interest is considerable. But as literature....no.
December 16, 2015
A fantastic writer tackling early psychiatry (alienism, as it is referred to) seems like a great idea, and for the first three quarters of the story it is. But something, be it a lack of familiarity with the subject or simply boredom with it, leads Howells to stagnate and produce an ultimately mediocre finale that seems to be more in the tradition of Romantic literature than the realism he strives for.
Still a fabulous example of how to craft sentences and play with words, as well as how to pace a story - everything but the end runs incredibly smoothly.
Still a fabulous example of how to craft sentences and play with words, as well as how to pace a story - everything but the end runs incredibly smoothly.
September 26, 2014
Wonderful novella. Reading it right after a Phil Dick book was a strange experience as well. Not necessarily proto-Dickian, but Howells makes a wonderful stab at the hazy line between what we perceive to be real and the horrific inability to every confirm that perception as the actual state of reality.
May 21, 2011
This book starts off so well, but fizzles midway through.
I would give it three and a half stars.
I would give it three and a half stars.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews