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Annie Kilburn
William Dean Howells (1837-1920) was an American realist author and literary critic. He wrote his first novel, Their Wedding Journey, in 1871, but his literary reputation really took off with the realist novel A Modern Instance, published in 1882, which describes 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 in the paint business. His social views were also strongly reflected in the novels Annie Kilburn (1888) and A Hazard of New Fortunes (1890). While known primarily as a novelist, his short story "Editha" (1905) - included in the collection Between the Dark and the Daylight (1907) - appears in many anthologies of American literature. Howells also wrote plays, criticism, and essays about contemporary literary figures such as Ibsen, Zola, Verga, and, especially, Tolstoy, which helped establish their reputations in the United States. He also wrote critically in support of many American writers. It is perhaps in this role that he had his greatest influence.
232 pages, Paperback
First published November 30, 1888
About the author
William Dean Howells
1,279 books101 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 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 30, 2020
(My ranking of Howells' best novels: https://azleslie.com/posts/howells-ra...)
Phenomenal. Annie Kilburn is a novel about the social division of the classes and the question of how to address it in a growing, modernizing world. Annie wants to make a difference, or rather, wants to want to make a difference; yet everything she does is more about herself than the people she's supposed to be helping. Annie increasingly recognizes this fact, spurred on by conversation with a variety of characters: mostly by feeling the inadequacies of their various "practical" approaches, which increasingly seem only to dodge the heart of the issue (American "bootstraps" individualism, aloof abstractifying, naive passive optimism, patronizing philanthropy, disregard altogether). One character however, Rev. Peck, pushes a truly radical agenda: that the only solution is to end class division, to be united in hardship. Yet Annie, a woman of wealth and the world, struggles to see how she could possibly live up to such an ideal - and her attention is divided with Dr. Morrell, who is much less interested in the problem but with whom a possible romance perhaps begins to develop. Perfectly balanced and coming full circle, the novel is executed brilliantly with all of Howells' hallmarks: passing narrative details that imply volumes, subtle disruption of expected plotline conventions, and a knack for entangling the reader, making us feel our complicity in the problems the novel explores and the inadequacies of the answers with which we have grown too comfortable.
Phenomenal. Annie Kilburn is a novel about the social division of the classes and the question of how to address it in a growing, modernizing world. Annie wants to make a difference, or rather, wants to want to make a difference; yet everything she does is more about herself than the people she's supposed to be helping. Annie increasingly recognizes this fact, spurred on by conversation with a variety of characters: mostly by feeling the inadequacies of their various "practical" approaches, which increasingly seem only to dodge the heart of the issue (American "bootstraps" individualism, aloof abstractifying, naive passive optimism, patronizing philanthropy, disregard altogether). One character however, Rev. Peck, pushes a truly radical agenda: that the only solution is to end class division, to be united in hardship. Yet Annie, a woman of wealth and the world, struggles to see how she could possibly live up to such an ideal - and her attention is divided with Dr. Morrell, who is much less interested in the problem but with whom a possible romance perhaps begins to develop. Perfectly balanced and coming full circle, the novel is executed brilliantly with all of Howells' hallmarks: passing narrative details that imply volumes, subtle disruption of expected plotline conventions, and a knack for entangling the reader, making us feel our complicity in the problems the novel explores and the inadequacies of the answers with which we have grown too comfortable.
July 25, 2009
1890ish: not that different from now.
I guess this is the kind of book I read for the scenery, in this case a small New England town a hundred years ago. It is a novel of ideas ("can charity ever create closeness between giver and recipient?") and thus kind of silly.
I guess this is the kind of book I read for the scenery, in this case a small New England town a hundred years ago. It is a novel of ideas ("can charity ever create closeness between giver and recipient?") and thus kind of silly.
September 22, 2016
Thirty-something Annie has been living in Italy for eleven years. She returns to her home town in northeast United States after her father dies. Plunged back into society of the small town and reacquainting herself with old friends, she becomes aware of the distinct social classes in the town. Annie observes that in all the effort the widowed minister takes to help the poor and needy of the town he seems to neglect his own young child for whom she could afford to do, and would like to do, much in the way of clothing, etiquette, education, and affection. Annie is conflicted. Should she be loyal to her childhood friends or follow her heart to do more for the poor? The local doctor recognizes Annie's quandry and becomes her sounding board.
A story of social class. This reader wanted to shout at Annie to wake up and make a choice between the minister or the doctor. I'll add no more so as not to spoil the ending.
A story of social class. This reader wanted to shout at Annie to wake up and make a choice between the minister or the doctor. I'll add no more so as not to spoil the ending.
March 30, 2013
With the exception of _Indian Summer_, this was the novel I most enjoyed by Howells. The "realism" that won him his literary reputation is displayed with full effectiveness for the first time in my experience of the author's work in this novel about a wealthy American woman who returns to her hometown. Howells's portrait of Annie and her misadventures with the ill-fated "Social Union," an attempt by wealthy vacationers to rural Massachusetts to foster good relations between the social "classes," is prefigured in his previous (albeit brief) critique of the upper class in _April Hopes_. I found Howell's more extended critique of philanthropy and the motives of the wealthy seeking to build the Social Union _for_ the working class (instead of _with_ them) very astute. Howells foreshadows similar anti-vanguardist critiques in Western Marxist and socialist circles by many decades. The tone and representation of the interpersonal relationships in the story also rang true for me most of the time. I was particularly pleased with the discomfort apparent in the semi-romantic relationship between Annie and Dr. Morrell. Where Howells in earlier novels might have sacrificed his "realism" for a happy ending, here he leaves Annie her freedom and his novel much more complex and believable by choosing to leave the state of their romance somewhat ambiguous: they are "friendly," love each other's company, but are not "courting." The reader, like the citizens of the town who witness and speculate about this state of "affairs," is required to accept it for what it is: a complex relationship that is not easily resolved by a quick and (seemingly) happy marriage. A very satisfying novel.
April 16, 2016
This late 19th century American novel by Wm. Dean Howells is an intereting read. Mr. Howells' socialistic beliefs and his part in the American literary school of realism are both seen in this work. People like Mark Twain, Stephen Crane, and Wm. Dean Howells paved the way for modern 2oth century novels. This particular novel questions the relationship between the social classes in America. It also questions organized religion's part in dealing with the haves and the have nots. If you allow yourself to read the first few chapters, I think you'll find it easy to adjust to the writing style of the late 19th century. After all, the same era gave us War of the Worlds and Dracula. Many of the questions raised in this book are being discussed now, in the 21st century, because as a country, America still has no moral answer to why we have a society that has so many working poor.
September 8, 2025
Here is Howells presenting a novel that has the earmarks of his work at its best. This is from his period of deepest social criticism, and the impact of capitalism on the lives of the working poor / wage slaves is integrated into the love story of the title character. She returns to her hometown after many years in Rome, and she finds the world a different place. Howells’s work was influenced by his reading of the religious writings of Tolstoy at the time, and one of the primary characters is a church minister who tries to live by these ideals. It does not go well for him. Annie is somewhat taken with him without necessarily falling in love with the man, mainly due to his notable shortcomings. In the end, the mechanized industrial world symbolically (and literally) kills this minister, while Annie turns to the man she actually loves, the local doctor (sorry; some spoilers there). No solution is found to the crushing of the lower cast, but the problem is more clearly seen.
September 20, 2019
One of Howells' lesser novels about a wealthy 30-something woman who returns to her hometown, a small New England factory town, after 11 years in Rome. Worth reading for the interesting take on class differences and the futility of charity.
January 30, 2020
A bit hard to get through, but the characters and underlying themes are very interesting.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews