A Traveler from Altruria

Romance

Downloads: Under 100
Pages: 125

Download

About this book

A Traveler from Altruria is a Romance by William Dean Howells. A narrator confesses that, with all his curiosity to meet an Altrurian, he was in no hospitable mood toward the traveler.

The Altrurian asks whether the narrator's people broke with monarchy and nobility, and ranks and classes, and the narrator answers that their ranks and classes, such as they have, are what he may call voluntary. The narrator replies that he does not suppose those who serve would serve if they could help it, and the Altrurian answers with a look of horror that surely they are not slaves. A lady, asked whether she finds individuality desirable, cries that she perfectly detests it and is never happy except when she has forgotten herself and the whole individual bother. A speaker says that as we look back at the old competitive conditions we do not see how any man could be a gentleman in them, since a gentleman must think first of others and these conditions compelled every man to think first of himself.

About the author

William Dean Howells

William Dean Howells (1837 to 1920) was one of the most influential American men of letters of his era, an editor, critic, and prolific novelist. He championed literary realism, supported writers like Mark Twain, and used his own fiction to examine money, class, and conscience in American society.

More by William Dean Howells

See all 25 books

Discussion

No comments yet. Share a thought, a question or a favourite passage.

Read or download

Public domain book This work is in the public domain and free of copyright. Anyone may read, download and share it.

No download needed. Opens the original PDF pages in our reader.

EPUB 146 KB Best for iPhone, Android, Kobo and tablets
KINDLE Send to Kindle Kindle devices and the Kindle app. Uses the same EPUB file. Send
1. Download the EPUB file to this device.
2. Open Amazon's Send to Kindle page, sign in, and add the file. Open Send to Kindle (opens in a new tab)
On a phone: open the downloaded EPUB and share it to the Kindle app.

You can also email the file to your Kindle address (it ends in @kindle.com) from an email address you approved in your Amazon account.
PDF 816 KB Best for computers, laptops and printing

Downloads start right away. How to open EPUB on your phone

Book facts

Author: William Dean Howells
Pages: 125
Language: English
Genre: Satire
Formats: PDF, EPUB, Read online

Help and policies

Language