Reviews for Frantic Panoramas: American Literature and Mass Culture, 1870-1920

The average rating for Frantic Panoramas: American Literature and Mass Culture, 1870-1920 based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-02-01 00:00:00 Rachel Cresswell This book, which draws its title from William Dean Howells's Hazard of New Fortunes and explores the reactions of Howells and other realists to the development of mass meda, is both peculiar and fascinating. Bentley's research doesn't extend too far past the realist texts themselves, which means the book is ultimately of more use to literary historians than scholars of mass media, but her pairings of authors (Henry James) and emerging cultural forms (posters advertising performing women) will certainly help teachers contextualize those texts for students unfamiliar with the era.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-10-21 00:00:00 BRIAN WINCHELL The greatest virtue of this book, which has many, is the breadth of its coverage, both in the topics of its chapters and the material included in those chapters. Nancy Bentley is never content to remain within one or two primary texts; she moves fluidly and convincingly from one source to the next, building cases across multiple authors or multiple texts from the same author that are neither exceedingly restrictive nor, I believe, exceedingly diffuse.