Great American Novel
Videos
The "Great American Novel" is the term for a canonical novel that generally embodies and examines the essence and character of the United States. The term was coined by John William De Forest in an 18
Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe is commonly cited as the Great American Novel—John William De Forest saw it as the closest possible novel.
De Forest
James
Philip Roth satirized the term with his 1973 novel The Great American Novel.
The Grapes of Wrath
Videos
The Grapes of Wrath is an American realist novel written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939. The book won the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and it was cited prominently when
Great American Novel
…Lawrence Buell's "romance of the divide". 1936 Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell Described by Lawrence Buell as another "romance of the divide". 1939 The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck Jay Parini identified it as "a great American novel" due to its focus on United States during a crisis and the eclectic depiction of…
First edition cover