American Sympathy: Men, Friendship, and Literature in the New Nation (Hardcover)

by Mr Caleb Crain (Author)
Key Phrases: celestial love, silent zeal, pear grove, Billy Budd, Captain Vere, Arthur Mervyn (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
Lingua Franca contributing editor Crain examines the tradition of sympathy and friendship between men in early American life and literature. Interpreting Charles Brockden Brown's novels Wieland and Arthur Mervyn, Emerson's essay "Friendship," and Melville's Billy Budd, Crain shows how a tradition of male discourse and ideas presents itself through personal life, friendships, and artistic creations. Using the writings of Plato, Montaigne, Bacon, and Adam Smith and insights gained from letters and diaries of the period, Crain follows a history of the ideas of friendship and compassion as they change and develop. The romantic aspect of the death of the British spy John Andre, early American diarists in Philadelphia, William Godwin's influence on Brown's thinking, the circle of friends around Margaret Fuller, and Melville's great personal hero, Jack Chase, are all carefully detailed. Written from a lesbian and gay studies perspective, the volume discusses overt sexuality and hidden desires. A fascinating study, this should be highly useful for lesbian and gay studies and literature collections. Gene Shaw, NYPL
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"Crain skillfully combines history, biography and literary criticism to interpret a variety of written effusions between men." -- Clifford Chase, Newsday

"Remarkable and engagingly written, . . . a major contribution to the rethinking of the deeper origins of American prose style and substance." -- Jay Fliegelman, Stanford University

"[An] evocative study…[Crain] detect[s] the nuances of language and behavior that escape a modern eye." -- Graham Robb, New York Times Book Review

"[Crain] breaks through the he-man-writer's wall to expose how literary friendships between men inspired their work." -- Elissa Schappell, Vanity Fair

An evocative study proposing that. . .male friendship and [its] outspoken language. . .are vital. . .to the development of early American literature. -- New York Times Book Review, Notable Nonfiction Books of 2001

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press; First Edition edition (June 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300083327
• ISBN-13: 978-0300083323
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,500,828 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sympathy for the Nation, May 22, 2002

By	Andrew Epstein (Tallahassee, FL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Caleb Crain's lively, provocative study is both a pleasure to read and a very important foray into a subject that has yet to receive much attention: the ambivalence towards friendship at the heart of classic American ideologies of self-reliance and democracy. Crain uncovers fascinating connections between the development of American literary art and evolving ideas about sympathy and intimacy in the early years of the American republic. The book convincingly argues that American literature continually grows out of, reflects, and sometimes masks mixed feelings about intimate friendship, at the same time that it charts the changing "style of relationships between men" in the developing nation. The revealing, groundbreaking chapters on the lives and works of writers like Charles Brockden Brown, Emerson, and Melville are brimming with both insightful analysis and narrative flair: unlike so many literary critics, Crain writes with verve and style, and knows how to tell a good story. Highly recommended for both American literature specialists and general readers.

8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful Criticism, May 24, 2002

By A Customer

I read a lot of literary criticism, particularly of American literature. I found AMERICAN SYMPATHY to be an insightful, provocative, and sensitive study of a small group of American authors: Charles Brockden Brown, Emerson, and Melville. It's one of the best studies of recent years, utilizing the insights of gay and lesbian studies to reveal the depth of male-male love that these writers experienced and, at the same time, that generated some of their most interesting writing. It's a book about romantic feelings, not sex, so don't read it to find about the dark and dirty secrets of Melville or Emerson. Read it for its literary insights...and clear, well-written prose. This is literary criticism doing what it does best.

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yes, Please, May 21, 2002

By A Customer

For us lay readers, books from academic presses can be dangerous: we so crave the erudition and level of scholarship that such a book might offer, but we balk at the sight of jargon (particularly if that jargon encompasses the phrase "policing the meta-text.") Crain's book is beautifully written and heavily researched, but is never given to terminology understandable only to people in his field. His account of the way in which personal life informs literary creation is fascinating--especially in the instances of Charles Brockden Brown using his friends as guinea pigs for his Gothic fictions, and of James Gibson and John Fishbourne Mifflin's love-infused diaries. Great stuff.