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Great American Novel - wikipedia Great American Novel Jump to : navigation , search This article is about the Great American Novel as a concept . For other uses , see Great American Novel ( disambiguation ) . The idea of the Great American Novel is the concept of a novel of high literary merit which shows the culture of the United States at a specific time in the country 's history . The novel is presumably written by an American author who is knowledgeable about the state , culture , and perspective of the common American citizen . The author uses the literary work to identify and exhibit the language used by the American people of the time and to capture the unique American experience , especially as it is perceived for the time . In historical terms , it is sometimes equated as being the American response to the national epic . Contents ( hide ) 1 History 2 Books referred to as a Great American Novel 3 See also 4 References 5 Further reading 6 External links History ( edit ) While fiction was written in colonial America as early as the 17th century , it was not until a distinct American identity developed in the 18th century that works classified as American literature began . America 's identity as a nation was reflected alongside the development of its literature . The term `` Great American Novel '' derives directly from the title of an 1868 essay by American Civil War novelist John William De Forest . In modern usage , the term is often figurative and represents a canonical writing , making it a literary benchmark emblematic of what defines American literature in a given era . Aspiring writers of all ages , but especially students , are often said to be driven to write the Great American Novel . Theoretically , such a work would be the greatest American book on American culture which could ever be written . Thus , `` Great American Novel '' is a metaphor for identity , a Platonic ideal that is not achieved in any specific texts , but whose aim writers strive to mirror in their work . Books referred to as a Great American Novel ( edit ) At one time , the following works have been considered to be a Great American Novel : 19th century 1826 : James Fenimore Cooper 's The Last of the Mohicans 1850 : Nathaniel Hawthorne 's The Scarlet Letter 1851 : Herman Melville 's Moby - Dick 1852 : Harriet Beecher Stowe 's Uncle Tom 's Cabin 1876 : Mark Twain 's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 1884 : Mark Twain 's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 20th century 1925 : F. Scott Fitzgerald 's The Great Gatsby 1925 : Theodore Dreiser 's An American Tragedy 1929 : Ernest Hemingway 's A Farewell to Arms 1932 : William Faulkner 's Light in August 1936 : William Faulkner 's Absalom , Absalom ! 1936 : Margaret Mitchell 's Gone With the Wind 1938 : John Dos Passos 's U.S.A. trilogy 1939 : John Steinbeck 's The Grapes of Wrath 1940 : Richard Wright 's Native Son 1951 : J.D. Salinger 's The Catcher in the Rye 1952 : Ralph Ellison 's Invisible Man 1953 : Saul Bellow 's The Adventures of Augie March 1954 : Harriette Simpson Arnow 's The Dollmaker 1955 : Vladimir Nabokov 's Lolita 1960 : Harper Lee 's To Kill a Mockingbird 1960 : John Updike 's Rabbit , Run and sequels 1973 : Thomas Pynchon 's Gravity 's Rainbow 1975 : William Gaddis 's JR 1985 : Cormac McCarthy 's Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West 1985 : Larry McMurtry 's Lonesome Dove 1987 : Toni Morrison 's Beloved 1996 : David Foster Wallace 's Infinite Jest 1997 : Thomas Pynchon 's Mason & Dixon 1997 : Philip Roth 's American Pastoral 1997 : Don DeLillo 's Underworld 21st century 2000 : Michael Chabon 's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay 2004 : Marilynne Robinson 's Gilead 2010 : Jonathan Franzen 's Freedom See also ( edit ) Novels portal National epic The American Scholar References ( edit ) Jump up ^ DeForest , John ( 9 January 1868 ) , `` The Great American Novel '' , The Nation , New York , retrieved October 11 , 2010 Jump up ^ Italie , Hillel . `` '' Last of the Mohicans '' was first great American novel `` . Retrieved October 14 , 2015 . Jump up ^ Buell , Lawrence . `` The Dream of the Great American Novel '' . Retrieved October 14 , 2015 . `` There are , Buell says , four main types of potential Great American Novels . Nathaniel Hawthorne 's The Scarlet Letter epitomises the first -- a cultural `` master narrative '' , identified as such by the number of reinterpretations and imitations that follow in its wake . '' Jump up ^ Buell , Lawrence . `` The Unkillable Dream of the Great American Novel : Moby - Dick as Test Case '' . American Literary History Volume 20 , Issue 1 - 2 Pp. 132 - 155 . Retrieved October 26 , 2010 . Jump up ^ Fuller , Randall . `` The First Great American Novel '' . Retrieved October 14 , 2015 . Jump up ^ Department of State , United States . `` The Adventures of Tom Sawyer '' . Retrieved October 14 , 2015 . `` Considered one of the great American novels ... '' Jump up ^ Brown , Robert B. ( June -- July 1984 ) . `` One Hundred Years of Huck Finn '' . American Heritage Publishing . Retrieved December 10 , 2011 . It was called the `` great American novel '' as early as 1891 by the English writer Andrew Lang ... '' Jump up ^ The Columbia History of the American Novel By Emory Elliott , Cathy N. Davidson p. 323 `` The Great Gatsby ( 1925 ) , a work still frequently nominated as ' the great American novel . ' '' ^ Jump up to : Buell , Lawrence ( 2014 ) . The Dream of the Great American Novel . Belknap . Jump up ^ C.E. Morgan , ( `` ' Light in August ' is Faulkner 's Great American Novel '' The Daily Beast Aug. 16 , 2012 http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/16/c-e-morgan-light-in-august-is-faulkner-s-great-american-novel.html ) . Retrieved October 5 , 2016 . Jump up ^ Hirsch , Arthur ( November 16 , 1997 ) . `` The real great American Novel : ' Absalom , Absalom ! ' Faulkner : His ninth novel , for its span , its revelation , its American essence , stands above all others in reaching for this literary absolute '' . The Baltimore Sun . Baltimore , MD . Retrieved September 21 , 2010 . Jump up ^ `` Gone with the Wind '' . Powell 's Books . Archived from the original on December 10 , 2013 . Retrieved October 5 , 2016 . Heralded by readers everywhere since its publication in 1936 as The Great American Novel ... Jump up ^ Gone With the Wind , Georgia Public Broadcasting . Retrieved October 5 , 2016 . ( `` Margaret Mitchell 's epic novel of love and war has long been heralded as The Great American Novel . '' ) . Jump up ^ Hammond , Margo ( February 6 , 2004 ) . `` Norman Mailer on the Media and the Message '' . Book Babes . The Poynter Institute . Archived from the original on October 16 , 2010 . Retrieved September 21 , 2010 . Norman Mailer is a Pulitzer Prize winning literary critic , and it is his opinion that : `` The Great American Novel is no longer writable . We ca n't do what John Dos Passos did . His trilogy on America came as close to the Great American Novel as anyone . You ca n't cover all of America now . It 's too detailed . '' Jump up ^ Dana , Gioia . `` The Grapes of Wrath Radio Show - Transcript '' . The Big Read . The National Endowment for the Arts . Retrieved September 22 , 2010 . Richard Rodriguez is a famous American writer . In this interview he referred to the Grapes of Wrath as The Great American Novel : `` There has n't been anything like this novel since it was written . And this is the great American novel that everyone keeps waiting for but it has been written now . '' Jump up ^ Nixon , Rob . `` The Grapes of Wrath '' . This Month Spotlight . Turner Classic Movies . Retrieved September 22 , 2010 . Nixon quotes John Springer , author of The Fondas ( Citadel , 1973 ) , a book about Henry Fonda and his role in film version of The Grapes of Wrath : `` The Great American Novel made one of the few enduring Great American Motion Pictures . '' Jump up ^ Warnes , Andrew . `` A Bigger Vision : Richard Wright 's Native Son and the Great American Novel '' . Retrieved October 14 , 2015 . Jump up ^ McGrath , Charles ( January 28 , 2010 ) , J.D. Salinger , Literary Recluse , Dies at 91 , New York Times Jump up ^ Giles , Patrick ( September 15 , 2002 ) , The Great American Novel , Los Angeles Times Jump up ^ Amis , Martin , Review , The Atlantic Monthly ( quoted by Powell 's Books ) Martin Amis is a well - known British novelist and professor of creative writing at the University of Manchester . It is his opinion that `` The Adventures of Augie March is the Great American Novel . Search no further . All the trails went cold 42 years ago . The quest did what quests very rarely do ; it ended . '' Jump up ^ Miller , Danny . `` Wingless Flights : Appalachian Women in Fiction '' . Retrieved February 28 , 2018 . Jump up ^ Williams , Mary Elizabeth . `` Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov '' . Personal Best . Salon . Retrieved January 26 , 2013 . Mary Elizabeth Williams is Salon 's Table Talk host . She opens her review with these lines : `` Some say the Great American Novel is Huckleberry Finn , some say it 's The Jungle , some say it 's The Great Gatsby . -- Vladimir Nabokov 's Lolita '' . Jump up ^ Jameson , Frederick ( 1996 ) . The Seeds of Time . New York , NY : Columbia University Press . pp. 214 pages . `` These are familiar features of daily life in the super state from which , it should be noted , high modernism in the United States - in theory and in practice alike , fifties aestheticism organized around Pound and Henry James and Wallace Stevens and the New Criticism - was in desperate flight ; of our great modern writers , only Nabokov handled this kind of material , in Lolita , which thereby at once became The Great American Novel , - but of course he was a foreigner to begin with . '' ( Page 146 - 147 ) . Jump up ^ Nabakov is generally regarded as a Russian writer , even when he used the English language : Rampton , David ( 1984 ) . Vladimir Nabokov : a critical study of the novels ( 1 . publ . ed . ) . Cambridge : Cambridge University Press . ISBN 0521257107 . Jump up ^ Puente , Maria ( July 8 , 2010 ) . `` ' To Kill a Mockingbird ' : Endearing , enduring at 50 years '' . USA Today . `` It is Lee 's only book and one of the handful that could earn the title of Great American Novel . '' Jump up ^ Patterson , Troy ( January 27 , 2009 ) . `` Rabbit at Rest '' . Slate . Retrieved June 28 , 2014 . `` To consider the 1,700 - odd pages of his Harry Angstrom saga -- the bounding tetralogy of Rabbit books and their limping postscript -- is to find yourself considering a work with an excellent claim as the Great American Novel '' Jump up ^ Ruch , Alan ( April 1 , 1997 ) . `` Introduction to GR '' . The Modern World . Archived from the original on September 15 , 2010 . Retrieved September 22 , 2010 . `` It is the Great American Novel come at last , a postmodern masterpiece . '' Jump up ^ Weisenburger , Steven ( 2006 ) . A Gravity 's Rainbow Companion . University of Georgia Press . p. 412 . `` Thomas Pynchon 's big book quickly confirmed him as one of the few novelists of unprecedented genius to emerge in the postwar era . Here was the Great American Novel at last . The reviewers ' favorite comparisons were to Moby Dick and Ulysses . '' Jump up ^ `` San Francisco Review of Books '' . Archived from the original on November 29 , 2011 . `` Gaddis has written the long - awaited great American novel ... A beautiful book and a brilliant author . '' Jump up ^ `` Transcript '' . yale.edu . Jump up ^ Habash , Gabe ( March 28 , 2013 ) . `` What Did We Learn from Our Great American Novel Poll ? PWxyz '' . Blogs.publishersweekly.com . Archived from the original on November 2 , 2014 . Retrieved August 11 , 2014 . Jump up ^ https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1356&dat=19850901&id=qQYkAAAAIBAJ&sjid=YgYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7164,285599 Jump up ^ `` What Is the Best Work of American Fiction of the Last 25 Years ? '' . The New York Times . May 21 , 2006 . Jump up ^ Gates , David ( 2014 ) . `` Levity 's Rainbow '' . newsweek.com . Retrieved August 11 , 2014 . Jump up ^ Wallace , David Foster ( 2009 ) . `` Cambridge Book Review '' . smallbytes.net . Retrieved August 11 , 2014 . Jump up ^ Morton , Brian . `` Scotland on Sunday '' . Archived from the original on March 18 , 2012 . `` Pynchon 's finest work yet ... if anyone is still looking for the Great American Novel then this may well be it . '' Jump up ^ Spencer , Matthew ( July 23 , 2012 ) . `` The Great American Novelist tournament : the final 32 '' . The Guardian . London . Jump up ^ `` We Are What We Waste / Don DeLillo 's masterpiece fits a half - century of experience inside a baseball '' . The San Francisco Chronicle . September 21 , 1997 . Jump up ^ Mendelsohn , Daniel ( September 25 , 2000 ) . `` Comics Opera '' . New York Magazine . Retrieved March 1 , 2014 . `` I 'm not sure what the exact definition of a ' great American novel ' is , but I 'm pretty sure that Michael Chabon 's sprawling , idiosyncratic , and wrenching new book is one . '' Jump up ^ Temple , Emily ( March 7 , 2013 ) . `` 10 Great American Novel Contenders From the Past Decade '' . Flavorwire . Retrieved October 22 , 2014 . `` PW nominated an earlier novel , 1980 ′ s Housekeeping , but we 're equally fond of this one , which won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award , the autobiography a dying congregationalist pastor in a flyover state . It 's a beautifully written personal history that doubles as a national one . Bonus : Obama lists the novel as one of his favorites on his official Facebook profile , for whatever that 's worth to you . '' Jump up ^ Cruickshank , Noah ( October 6 , 2014 ) . `` With Lila , Marilynne Robinson crafts one of the unlikeliest trilogies in modern American lit '' . A.V. Club . Retrieved October 22 , 2014 . `` Gilead is one of the great American novels of the early 21st century , and deserved its 2005 Pulitzer Prize . '' Jump up ^ Jones , Jonathan ( August 23 , 2010 ) . `` Jonathan Franzen 's Freedom : the novel of the century '' . The Guardian . Retrieved October 22 , 2014 . `` Jonathan Franzen 's new novel Freedom is a modern classic . '' Jump up ^ Secher , Benjamin ( August 20 , 2010 ) . `` Jonathan Franzen : one of America 's greatest living novelists ? '' . The Telegraph ( UK ) . Retrieved October 22 , 2014 . `` If Freedom does n't qualify as a Great American Novel for our time , then I do n't know what would . '' Jump up ^ Grossman , Lev ( August 12 , 2010 ) . `` Jonathan Franzen : Great American Novelist '' . TIME . Retrieved October 22 , 2014 . `` Freedom feels big in a different way , a way that not much other American fiction does right now . '' Further reading ( edit ) Buell , Lawrence . `` American literature 's holy grail : The hunt for the Great American Novel '' . Salon . Retrieved February 16 , 2014 . Buell , Lawrence . ( 2014 ) . The Dream of the Great American Novel . Cambridge , Massachusetts and London : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press . ISBN 9780674051157 Brown , Herbert R . `` The Great American Novel . '' American Literature 7.1 ( 1935 ) : 1 -- 14 . Knox , George . `` The Great American Novel : Final Chapter . '' American Quarterly 21.4 ( 1969 ) : 667 -- 682 . External links ( edit ) The American Novel at the Wayback Machine ( archived January 12 , 2012 ) . American Masters . PBS . Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Great_American_Novel&oldid=843541954 '' Categories : American literature American novels Hidden categories : CS1 : Julian -- Gregorian uncertainty All articles with dead external links Articles with dead external links from October 2017 Use mdy dates from October 2016 All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from December 2013 Webarchive template wayback links Talk Contents About Wikipedia Deutsch Français Lietuvių Nederlands ਪੰਜਾਬੀ پنجابی Português Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 29 May 2018 , at 20 : 27 . Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply . By using this site , you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy . Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation , Inc. , a non-profit organization . About Wikipedia