"In this sweeping literary encounter with the Western idea of the city, Richard Lehan delves into literature, philosophy, and urban history to untangle the contradictory images and meanings of the urban experience. He traces the relationship between literature and the city from the early novel in England to the apocalyptic cityscapes of Thomas Pynchon. Along the way, Lehan gathers a rich entourage of support that includes Daniel Defoe, Charles Dickens,...

In this wide-ranging study, Lehan demonstrates how and why the "originary vision" of modernism changed radically after it gained prominence. With critical discussions on a wide variety of major modernist writers, intellectuals, and artists and their works--including Virginia Woolf, Gertrude Stein, T.S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, André Gide, Franz Kafka, Zora Neale Hurston, Ian Fleming, and J.K. Rowling--Lehan examines the lareg-scale changes that came...

A critical reading of Fitzgerald's novel and discussions of the work's influence, historical context, and critical reception. Midwest native Nick Carraway arrives in 1922 New York in search of the American dream. Nick, a would-be writer, moves in next-door to millionaire Jay Gatsby and across the bay from his cousin Daisy and her philandering husband, Tom. Thus, Nick becomes drawn into the captivating world of the wealthy and -- as he bears witness...