Fiction. The ten linked stories in Jason Brown's A FAITHFUL BUT MELANCHOLY ACCOUNT OF SEVERAL BARBARITIES LATELY COMMITTED follow John Howland and his descendants as they struggle with their New England legacy as one of the country's founding families and the decaying trappings of that esteemed past. Set on the Maine coast, where the Howland family has lived for almost 400 years, the grandfather, John Howland, lives in a fantasy that still places him at the center of the world. The next generation resides in the confused ruins of the 1960s rebellion, while many in the third generation feel they have no choice but to scatter in search of a new identity. Brown's touching, humorous portrait of a great family in decline earns him a place among the very best linked-story collections--James Joyce's Dubliners, Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, Alice Munro's Beggar Maid and Denis Johnson's Jesus' Son.

"The ten linked stories in Jason Brown's A Faithful but Melancholy Account of Several Barbarities Lately Committed follow John Howland and his descendants as they struggle with their New England legacy as one of the country's founding families and the decaying trappings of that esteemed past. Set on the Maine coast, where the Howland family has lived for almost 400 years, the grandfather, John Howland, lives in a fantasy that still places him at the center of the world. The next generation resides in the confused ruins of the 1960s rebellion, while many in the third generation feel they have no choice but to scatter in search of a new identity. In laugh-out-loud prose, Brown creates a staggering portrait of inheritance and identity, which earns him a place among the very best linked-story collections-James Joyce's Dubliners, Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, Alice Munro's Beggar Maid and Denis Johnson's Jesus' Son"--

New York Times best-selling author Curtis Sittenfeld selects the twenty best short stories of the year.

This volume contains the three lectures R. W. G. Vail delivered in the fall of 1945, in connection with his A. S. Rosenbach Fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania, supplemented by descriptions of 1300 bibliographical items covering the North American frontier literature over the period 1542 to 1800.