William Dean Howells : Novels 1875-1886: A Foregone Conclusion, A Modern Instance, Indian Summer, The Rise of Silas Lapham (Library of America)

Four novels by America's most influential man of letters at the turn of the century, which explore the conflicts of private life and social institutions with unflinching realismn. Contains "A Foregone Conclusion" and "Indian Summer," dramas of complex romantic entanglements set in Italy, "A Modern Instance," the first full-scale study of infidelity and divorce in American fiction, and "The Rise of Silas Lapham," a brilliantly skeptical portrait of American business and new money.