the "Iron Madonna," who "strangles in her fond embrace the American novelist" and destroys his chances for greatness.
Later critics, like H. L. Mencken and Sinclair Lewis, turned on How- ells and labeled his new brand of social realism-evident in The Undis- covered Country (1879) and The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885)-not only "commonplace" and "prudish" but inimical to literary esthetics. How- ells, in fact, did believe that wealthy Americans read little and...