Hard-Boiled Sentimentality: The Secret History of American Crime Stories

Cassuto, Leonard

ISBN 10: 0231126913 / ISBN 13: 9780231126915

Published by Columbia University Press, 2008

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 0231126913-4-34994396

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Hard-Boiled Sentimentality: The Secret History of American Crime Stories
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Publication Date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0231126913
• ISBN 13: 9780231126915
• Binding: paperback
• Condition: Fair
• Weight: 16 ounces

About this title

Synopsis

Leonard Cassuto's cultural history links the testosterone-saturated heroes of American crime stories to the sensitive women of the nineteenth-century sentimental novel. From classics like The Big Sleep and The Talented Mr. Ripley to neglected paperback gems, Cassuto chronicles the dialogue--centered on the power of sympathy--between these popular genres and the sweeping social changes of the twentieth century, ending with a surprising connection between today's serial killers and the domestic fictions of long ago.

About the Author

Leonard Cassuto is professor of English at Fordham University and an award-winning journalist whose writing has appeared in academic journals and popular periodicals ranging from the Wall Street Journal to Salon.com. He is the author of The Inhuman Race: The Racial Grotesque in American Literature and Culture and the general editor of the forthcoming Cambridge History of the American Novel.