"The Riddle of the Painful Earth": Suffering and Society in W.D. Howells' Major Writings of the Early 1890s

This is a systematic study of the ethical "codes" in W.D. Howells's fiction. Writing in the early 1890s, Howells addressed the mystery of human suffering, which he called "the riddle of the painful earth". His concern was to encourage social change in a complacent reading public.