A Traveler from Altruria & Through the Eye of the Needle

Uniting A Traveler from Altruria and its sequel Through the Eye of the Needle, this volume presents Howells's most sustained utopian critique of Gilded Age America. Through the courteous but devastating observations of Aristides Homos, a visitor from the egalitarian commonwealth of Altruria, the novels expose the moral contradictions of capitalism, class privilege, gender constraint, and religious complacency. Their style is conversational, ironic, and deliberately didactic, situated among late ...