1925: Making of Americans to Porgy

Chronology of World, British and American Literature.

Gertrude Stein. American. 1925. Novel. The Making of Americans. History of three generations of the author’s family. Ignores the conventional fictional devices of dialogue, plot and action.

John Dos Passos. American. 1925. Novel. Manhattan Transfer. New York City during the 1920s; panoramic impression of the swarming metropolis is frustration, defeat.

Virginia Woolf. British. 1925. Novel. Mrs. Dalloway. One day in the life of…. She and Septimus never meet but they are alike in their emotionally bankrupt lives. He commits suicide. Lives connected by external events: airplane and passing bus. Stream of consciousness.

Dubose Heyward. American. 1925. Novel. Porgy. Charleston, S.C. Crippled beggar becomes involved in a murder.

1925: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes to The Informer

Chronology of World, British and American Literature

Anita Loos. American. 1925. Novel. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. “Illuminating Diary of a Professional Lady.” Useful handbook on how to get rich?

F. Scott Fitzgerald. American. 1925. Novel. The Great Gatsby. Exposes wealthy society in the “Jazz Age”: false glamour, boredom, cultural barrenness and moral emptiness.

T.S. Eliot. American/British. 1925. Poetry. The Hollow Men. Eliot’s view of the spiritual emptiness and doom of the 20the century.

William Carlos Williams. American. 1925. Essays. In the American Grain. Historical figures speak for themselves; history is the outcome of individual confrontations with the continent.

Liam O’Flaherty. Irish. 1925. Novel. The Informer. Last day of an Irish revolutionary who turned his comrade into the police for 20 pounds.

1925: An American Tragedy to Death in Venice

Chronology of World, British and American Literature

Theodore Dreiser. American. 1925. Novel. An American Tragedy. Indicts America’s industrial society for dazzling people like Clyde Griffiths with dreams of unattainable luxury.

Sinclair Lewis. American. 1925. Novel. Arrowsmith. In quest for pure science, Arrowsmith encounters  meanness, corruption and misunderstanding. Medicine.

Feodor Vasilyevich Gladkov. Russian. 1925. Novel. Cement. Reconstruction and industrialization in the Soviet Union after the civil war.

George Kelly. American. 1925. Play. Craig’s Wife. Woman is obsessed by her house. In the end she has lost everything but the house.

Thomas Mann. German. 1925. Novel. Death in Venice. Artist experiences decadence. Succumbs to consuming love for beautiful Polish boy.

1924: We to Parade's End

Chronology of World, British and American Literature.

Yevgeny Azmyatin. Russian. 1924. Novel. We. Describes the regimented totalitarian society in the 26^th century. Ancestor of Brave New World, et.

Maxwell Anderson and Laurence Stallings. American. 1924. Play. What Price Glory? WWI. Profanity and brutality of professional soldiers and the wearying ugliness of war.

Herman Melville. American. 1924 (published). Novel. Billy Budd, Foretopman. Collision of innocence and evil. Captain upholds military law, although Billy is justified in killing the cruel officer.

Ole Rolvaag. Norwegian. 1924/25. Novel. Giants in the Earth: A Saga of the Prairie. Mental and physical hardships of Norwegian family in 1873 Dakota Territory.

Ford Maddox Ford. British. 1924/28. Four Novels. Parade’s End. Social changes brought about by WWI. Gentleman throws off his social standards and traditions.

1924: Tamar.... to The Vortex

Chronology of World, British and American Literature

Robinson Jeffers. American. 1924. Poetry. Tamar and Other Poems. Based on the biblical story of Tamar, daughter of David who seduces her brother. Modern Tamar seduces her brother, father, neighbor and brings destruction on everyone.

Sidney Howard. American. 1924. Play. They Knew What They Wanted. California wine grower misleads his mail-order bride by sending a picture of his handsome hired man. He breaks his legs on his wedding day. She allows herself to be seduced by the hired man and becomes pregnant. He almost kills the hired man but relents.

Robinson Jeffers. American. 1924. Poetry. The Tower Beyond Tragedy. Based on the first two plays of the Oresteia of Aeschylus. Enlarges Cassandra’s role; incestuous desires of Electra and Orestes’ desire to break away from her.

Jose Eustacio Rivera. Colombia. 1924. Novel. The Vortex (La Voragine). Poet ventures into the Colombian jungle and discovers how thin is the veneer of civilization. In the face of the fierce, terrifying life of the Amazon basin, he succumbs to madness. Despair at not having lived to become a poet.

1924: Juno and the Paycock to A Passage to India

Chronology of World, British and American Literature

Sean O’Casey. Irish. 1924. Play. Juno and the Paycock. Juno (reality) vs. the husband, the “paycock,” a vain, funny weakling who hides from reality behind a bottle.

Virginia Woolf. British. 1924. Essay. “Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown.” Attacks naturalistic novels. They disregard moment-by-moment workings of the human mind.

Edith Wharton. American. 1924. Four Novels. Old New York. Each novel deals with a decade from 1840-1880. False Dawn: Buys pictures far in advance of his time and is disinherited by his father. The Old Maid. Illegitimate girl raised without knowing her origin. The Spark. Elderly man comes under the influence of Walt Whitman. New Year’s Day. Wife sacrifices herself to obtain money for her sick husband and is scorned by society.

EM Forster. British. 1924. Novel. A Passage to India. Difficulties of friendship between the races in British-ruled India.

1924: Green Bay Tree to In Our Time

Chronology of World, British and American Literature

Louis Bromfield. American. 1924. Novel. The Green Bay Tree. Lily begins her life in a Midwestern industrial town; goes to Paris to bear her illegitimate child.

Michael Arlen. British. 1924. Novel. The Green Hat. Captures the licentious, disillusioned spirit of the time. Sexual license among the wealthy.

Ring Lardner. American. 1924. Stories. How to Write Short Stories (with Samples). “Art” of writing short stories. Examples are Lardner classics, “Alibi Ike,” etc.

Ernest Hemingway. American. 1924. Stories. In Our Time (Nick Adams). Development of young Nick Adams who bears resemblance to Hemingway.