Complete Project Gutenberg William Dean Howells Works — Inside the Classic

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In Category - Fantasy Juvenile Worlds

Authors: Howells, William Dean, 1837-1920 Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2002 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Literature -- History and criticism; American literature -- 19th century Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 9,300

Reading time 41 min

Text sections 8

This digital edition of Complete Project Gutenberg William Dean Howells Works — Inside the Classic is described by source-level measurements including 9,300 words, 41 min estimated reading time, and 8 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 18.8 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Literature -- History and criticism,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #3400

This compilation of William Dean Howells's works includes novels, travel writing, children's stories, and literary criticism. The excerpts reveal a strong focus on boyhood adventures, small-town life, and the author's editorial voice, with recurring themes of escape, moral lessons, and regional settings.

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Title & short description10 pts
Source metadata20 pts
Text length15 pts
Chapters / structure15 pts
EPUB file integrity20 pts

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DETAILED CONTENTS. I. Venice in Venice II. Arrival and first Days in Venice III. The Winter in Venice IV. Comincia far Caldo V. Opera and Theatres VI. Venetian Dinners and Diners VII. Housekeeping in Venice VIII. The Balcony on the Grand Canal IX. A Day-Break Ramble X. The Mouse XI. Churches and Pictures XII. Some Islands of the Lagoons XIII. The Armenians XIV. The Ghetto and the Jews of Venice XV. Some Memorable Places XVI. Commerce XVII. Venetian Holidays XVIII. Christmas Holidays XIX. Love-making and Marrying; Baptisms and Burials XX. Venetian Traits and Characters XXI. Society XXII. Our Last Year in Venice Index

LONDON FILMS BY W. D. HOWELLS

List of Illustrations

Fleet Street and St. Dunstan's Church

The Carriages Drawn up Beside the Sacred Close

Sunday Afternoon, Hyde Park

A Block in the Strand.

St. Paul's Cathedral.

The Horse Guards, Whitehall

Westminster Bridge and Clock Tower.

A House-boat Ox the Thames at Henley.

The Crowd of Sight-seers at Henley

St. Olave's, Tooley Street.

The Ancient Church of St. Magnus.

The East India House of Charles Lamb's Time.

Church of the Dutch Refugees.

Bow-bells (st. Mary-le-bow, Cheapside).

Ancient Church of St. Martins-in-the-fields.

Hyde Park in October.

SUBURBAN SKETCHES By William Dean Howells Author Of “Venetian Life,” “Italian Journeys” Etc.

DOORSTEP ACQUAINTANCE

BY HORSE-CAR TO BOSTON

A ROMANCE OF REAL LIFE

SOME LESSONS FROM THE SCHOOL OF MORALS.

“But I Suppose This Wine is Not Made of Grapes, Signor?”

“Looking About, I Saw Two Women.”

“The Young Lady in Black, Who Alighted at a Most Ordinary Little Street.”

“That Sweet Young Blonde, Who Arrives by Most Trains.”

“Frank and Lucy Stalked Ahead, With Shawls Dragging From Their Arms.”

“They Skirmish About Him With Every Sort of Query.”

“A Gaunt Figure of Forlorn and Curious Smartness.”

“The Spectacle As We Beheld It.”

“Vacant and Ceremonious Zeal.”

SEVEN ENGLISH CITIES By W. D. Howells

A MODEST LIKING FOR LIVERPOOL

SOME MERITS OF MANCHESTER

IN SMOKIEST SHEFFIELD

NINE DAYS’ WONDER IN YORK

A DAY AT DONCASTER AND AN HOUR OUT OF DURHAM

THE MOTHER OF THE AMERICAN ATHENS

ABERYSTWYTH, A WELSH WATERING-PLACE

LLANDUDNO, ANOTHER WELSH WATERING-PLACE

GLIMPSES OF ENGLISH CHARACTER

THE LEATHERWOOD GOD By William Dean Howells

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

List of Illustrations

Nancy Stood Staring at Her, With Words Beyond Saying In Her Heart—words That Rose in Her Throat and Choked Her

“You Believe, Maybe, That You Would Be Struck Dead if You Said the Things That I Do; But Why Ain't I Struck Dead?”

“It's my Cloth! I Spun It, I Wove It, Every Thread! It's All We've Got for Our Clothes This Winter!”

“Now You Can See How It Feels to Have Your Own Husband Slap You.”

She Had Begun to Wash his Wound, Very Gently, Though She Spoke So Roughly, While he Murmured With the Pain and With The Comfort Of The Pain

They Swarmed Forward to the Altar-place and Flung Themselves on the Ground, and Heaped The Pulpit-steps With Their Bodies

“And he Went Down Ag'in, and when He Come up Ag'in, His Face Was All Soakin' Wet, Like He'd Been Crying Under the Water”

THE ALBANY DEPOT A FARCE

By W. D. Howells (THE ACTION PASSES IN BOSTON)

I. MR. AND MRS. EDWARD ROBERTS; THE CHOREWOMAN

II. ROBERTS AND WILLIS CAMPBELL

III. THE McILHENYS, ROBERTS, AND CAMPBELL

IV. ROBERTS AND CAMPBELL

V. MRS. ROBERTS, MRS. CAMPBELL, ROBERTS, AND CAMPBELL; THEN THE COOK AND McILHENY

THE MINISTER'S CHARGE OR, THE APPRENTICESHIP OF LEMUEL BARKER

By William Dean Howells

THE MINISTER'S CHARGE;

AND OTHERS By W. D. Howells ILLUSTRATED

ROMAN HOLIDAYS AND OTHERS

I. UP AND DOWN MADEIRA.

II. TWO UP-TOWN BLOCKS INTO SPAIN

IV. NAPLES AND HER JOYFUL NOISE

I. HOTELS, PENSIONS, AND APARTMENTS

II. A PRAISE OF NEW ROME

III. THE COLOSSEUM AND THE FORUM

IV. THE ANGLO-AMERICAN NEIGHBORHOOD OF THE SPANISH STEPS

V. AN EFFORT TO BE HONEST WITH ANTIQUITY

VI. PERSONAL RELATIONS WITH THE PAST

VII. CHANCES IN CHURCHES

IX. DRAMATIC INCIDENTS

X. SEEING ROME AS ROMANS SEE US

XI. IN AND ABOUT THE VATICAN

XII. SUPERFICIAL OBSERVATIONS AND CONJECTURES

XIII. CASUAL IMPRESSIONS

XIV. TIVOLI AND FRASCATI

XV. A FEW REMAINING MOMENTS

VII. A WEEK AT LEGHORN

X. EDEN AFTER THE FALL

01 Glimpse Outside of Modern Rome

03 Boats and Diving Boys, Funchal

04 Gibraltar from the Bay

05 Gibraltar from the Neutral Ground

06 Daughters of Climate Along the Riviera

07 Typical Monument in the Campo Santo

08 Naples and Her Joyful Noise

09 Out-door Life in Old Naples

10 Up-stairs Street in Old Naples

11 Naples and the Castel St. Elmo from The Mole

12 Excavating at Pompeii

13 the Street of Tombs, Pompeii

14 the Capuchin Church, Rome

15 Glimpse Inside of Imperial Rome

16 Interior of Colosseum from the South

17 the Sacred Way Through The Forum

20 Toward the Pincian Hill

21 Sepulchre of Romulus, Forum

22 Trajan's Forum and Column

23 the Rostra in The Forum

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The catalog subjects classify this collection under "Literature -- History and criticism" and "American literature -- 19th century," but the excerpts reveal a far more varied terrain. The table of contents lists novels such as The Kentons and The Rise of Silas Lapham, travel sketches like Venetian Life and Familiar Spanish Travels, and children's tales including Christmas Every Day and The Flight of Pony Baker. The compiler, David Widger, notes that this is a growing compilation, with works inserted as they become available. The presence of multiple genres within a single volume suggests that Howells's output resists easy categorization, blending realism, humor, and didacticism across audiences.

Boyhood and the Escape Motif

The excerpts from The Flight of Pony Baker and Boy Life repeatedly center on a boy's desire to run away. Chapter titles such as "Pony's Mother, and why he had a Right to run off" and "The Right that Pony had to run off, from the way his Father acted" frame escape as a justified response to parental constraints. The illustrations—like the one captioned "Being dressed so well was one of the worst things that was done to him by his mother"—underscore the tension between adult expectations and a child's yearning for freedom. Plans involving a canal-boat, a circus, and a raft all fail, suggesting a pattern of thwarted adventure. Howells presents these episodes with a light, ironic tone, often undercutting the drama with practical obstacles or a friend's cowardice.

The Compiler's Hand and the Volume's Structure

The editorial notes by David Widger are prominent: he includes bookmarks "for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an entire meal of them" and explains that the compilation will be updated as more works are produced. This framing turns the collection into a living archive rather than a fixed edition. The table of contents is extensive, listing over forty titles, some with their own internal chapter lists. The inclusion of a separate Boy Life section, arranged by Percival Chubb for school use, further indicates that Howells's work was adapted for educational purposes. The metadata's "Fantasy & Juvenile Worlds" category is partially supported by the children's stories, but the bulk of the collection—novels, travel, criticism—belongs to realism and social observation.

Regional and Social Settings in the Excerpts

Although the excerpts are mostly paratextual, the titles and chapter headings point to specific locales: Suburban Sketches, Venetian Life, London Films, Southern Lights and Shadows, and Stories of Ohio. The boyhood stories are set in a "Boy's Town" that appears to be a small Midwestern community, with references to a river, a canal, and an Indian reservation. The social range is broad, from the wealthy March family trilogy to the working-class figures in The Minister's Charge. Howells's interest in manners, moral choices, and the clash between urban and rural life is evident even from these fragmentary clues. The travel writings suggest a cosmopolitan curiosity, while the children's tales often carry a gentle moral lesson, as in Christmas Every Day where a wish for perpetual Christmas leads to absurd consequences.

Readers approaching this collection should be aware that it is a compilation, not a single work. The variety of genres—novels, travelogues, children's stories, criticism—means that tone and style shift considerably from one section to the next. The excerpts offer only a glimpse of the contents; the full texts would reveal Howells's characteristic realism, his nuanced characterizations, and his engagement with social issues of the late nineteenth century. The editorial apparatus by David Widger provides useful navigation but also reminds us that this is a curated selection, growing over time.

Reading his boyhood stories and small-town portraits made me wistful for quieter choices. A similar feeling lingered with Whittier’s account of New England divisions, where a person’s integrity was tested by the crowd. It stayed with me like a song heard young. The Conflict with Slavery Part 1 from The Works of John Greenleaf Whittier, Volume VII — A Closer Reading holds that same earnest, unhurried voice.