What do you think?
Rate this book
Coast of Bohemia
[...]have form, and that, if I am not very serious, I am sincere, and that somehow I represent a phase of our droll American civilization truly enough. I know you were vexed when some people said I did not go far enough, and insisted that the coast of Bohemia ought to have been the whole kingdom. As if I should have cared to be that! There are shady places inland where I should not have liked my girls to be, and where I think my young men would not have liked to meet them; and I am glad you kept me within the sweet, pure breath of the sea. I think I am all the better book for that, and, if you are fond of me, you have your reasons. I--" "Upon my word," I interrupted at this point, "it seems to me that you [...]
- GenresFiction
340 pages, Library Binding
First published January 1, 1893
About the author
William Dean Howells
1,206 books100 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."
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 29, 2020
Poetry by an author known for prose
Sixty nine pages of poetry by a well known writer of prose. I am not qualified to critique poetry as I only know what I like... and what I don't. For what it's worth, I like Henry Timrod, Kipling, Poe, Coleridge, some William Blake and a few others. I don't like Walt Whitman. In my opinion this volume by Thomas Nelson Page is, for the most part, rather indifferent poetry. What he called "DIALECT POEMS FROM "BEFO' DE WAR" are interesting as a matter of history of the way things and attitudes once were but many would find the dialect difficult to read. Others would, of course, object to the way things and attitudes once were and to reading about them.
Sixty nine pages of poetry by a well known writer of prose. I am not qualified to critique poetry as I only know what I like... and what I don't. For what it's worth, I like Henry Timrod, Kipling, Poe, Coleridge, some William Blake and a few others. I don't like Walt Whitman. In my opinion this volume by Thomas Nelson Page is, for the most part, rather indifferent poetry. What he called "DIALECT POEMS FROM "BEFO' DE WAR" are interesting as a matter of history of the way things and attitudes once were but many would find the dialect difficult to read. Others would, of course, object to the way things and attitudes once were and to reading about them.
January 30, 2024
I am rather surprised that this novel by Howells is not discussed that often in the current canon of American Literature. In it, Howells seems to be taking a pro-feminist approach to his main character. Howells was the primary advocate for the turn in American literature towards Realism and away from the posing of the Novel of Sentiment of the 19th century. The primary faults of the Novel of Sentiment tended to be an overt sentimentality along with a reliance on melodrama. In this tale, the main characters are two young women studying art in New York City, Charmian and Cornelia, and a slightly older and much more successful male artist, Ludlow. The idea / ideals expressed about art easily translate to the art of fiction, so Howells is writing about his own craft. Ludlow had studied the new ideas in impressionistic painting while he was in France. The two young women are too early in their careers to have moved on to such studies. Charmian poses at being “Bohemian” (hence the title of the book, although I assume that the implication is that it takes place in the Bohemia neighborhood of the city). She is acknowledged by the other two as not really destined to create anything meaningful in art, but she has a wealthy background and is able to pursue the studies anyway. She can also spend the time and money to make sure that her surroundings and her fashion reflect the image that she wants to project. She is the very image of the sentimentality of the old image of the artist. Despite her faults, she is kind and a close friend to Cornelia. Charmian convinces her mother to commission Ludlow to paint her portrait. He accepts the commission as long the other young lady, Cordelia, agrees to paint a portrait at the same time. He does so because he believes in her innate capabilities as a natural artist (and he is subconsciously falling in love with her). However, he keeps failing at his portrait while Cornelia, although inexperienced, keeps doing much better. It is apparent that Ludlow, despite his modern training, is still hampered by the internal imagery of the past eras. He cannot catch Charmion as she is because he keeps projecting his thinking about her (his internal imagery) into the painting. He becomes even more aware of how natural Cordelia’s talent is because she can see things “as they are” (to use Howells own expression about the goals of Realism) and therefore is able to avoid projecting romantic notions into her vision.
Of course, this is a love story, so everything works out in the end, but the story’s strength is tied up with the difficulties that women have in becoming recognized as “artists,” while Ludlow, who is talented (although less so than Cornelia), becomes recognized despite his repeated failures in portraying things as they really are. Its sympathetic portrayal of the more difficult career paths of talented women is a strong statement in the vein of Realism, and of Feminism.
Of course, this is a love story, so everything works out in the end, but the story’s strength is tied up with the difficulties that women have in becoming recognized as “artists,” while Ludlow, who is talented (although less so than Cornelia), becomes recognized despite his repeated failures in portraying things as they really are. Its sympathetic portrayal of the more difficult career paths of talented women is a strong statement in the vein of Realism, and of Feminism.
November 21, 2023
William Dean Howells, one of the greats of American writing of the first part of the twentieth century. Biography, literary criticism, art criticism, novels and short essays on miscellaneous subjects all came from his pen, but one of his early novels, “The Coast of Bohemia” is not representative of the quality of the best of his works.
Although it is the story of a talented young woman encouraged by a successful painter to train in art at a New York art school, it quickly fizzles from a promising study of early feminism fighting to hold its own in the cruelly competitive field of art, to a wordy romantic triangle and the collapse of idealism.
Although it is the story of a talented young woman encouraged by a successful painter to train in art at a New York art school, it quickly fizzles from a promising study of early feminism fighting to hold its own in the cruelly competitive field of art, to a wordy romantic triangle and the collapse of idealism.
July 24, 2019
The mating habits of this set are incomprehensible even to those literate in the rom-com ways
September 30, 2020
(My ranking of Howells' best novels: https://azleslie.com/posts/howells-ra...)
The parts of this novel are too thin to come together as an intricate whole and too few to come together as an expansive whole (a little bohemia, a laugh at upper class dabbling in the same, bits of the art career path available to women, a character study of a highly independent yet self-conscious woman, an episode of a man stalking the same).
The parts of this novel are too thin to come together as an intricate whole and too few to come together as an expansive whole (a little bohemia, a laugh at upper class dabbling in the same, bits of the art career path available to women, a character study of a highly independent yet self-conscious woman, an episode of a man stalking the same).
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews