In the pear grove : the romance of Leander, Lorenzo, and Castalio -- The decomposition of Charles Brockden Brown : sympathy in Brown's letters -- The transformation, the self devoted, and the dead recalled : sympathy in Brown's fiction -- The unacknowledged tie : young Emerson and the love of men -- Too good to be believed : Emerson's "Friendship" and the Samaritans -- The heart ruled out : Melville's Palinode
Summary
This title weaves together literary criticism and historical narrative to describe the strong friendships between men that supported and inspired some of America's greatest writing - the Gothic novels of Charles Brockden Brown, the essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the novels of Herman Melville. The book traces the genealogy of these friendships through a series of stories. Throughout, this book demonstrates the many ways in which the struggle to commit feelings to paper informed the shape and texture of American literature
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 271-305) and index
