Through the Eye of the Needle; A Romance with an Introduction

1907 Howells, William Dean (1837-1920). Through the Eye of the Needle; A Romance with an Introduction. New York: Harper and Bros. Part I had been originally published as the last six (except for part of “Letter IX”) of “Letters of An Altrurian Traveller.” The Cosmopolitan 16 - 17 (April - September 1894): 697-704 with the subtitle “How People live in a Plutocratic City”; 46-58 with the subtitle “Plutocratic Housing”; 221-28 with the subtitle “Dinner, Very Informally”; 352-59 with the subtitle “The Selling and Giving of Dinners”; 495-99 with the subtitle “An Altruistic Plutocrat”; and 610-18 with the subtitle “A Plutocratic Triumph.” The first two letters 16 (November - December 1893): 110-16, 218-32 were first rpt. in Letters of an Altrurian Traveller (1893-94). Ed. Clara M. Kirk and Rudolf Kirk. Gainesville, FL: Scholars’ Fascimiles & Reprints, 1961, which includes all the letters. Letters III, IV, V and part of IX became essays in his Impressions and Experiences. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1896. Critical ed. as The Altrurian Romances. Introduction and Notes to the Text by Clara and Rudolf Kirk. Text Established by Scott Bennett (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1968), 265-442. MoU-St

Sequel to 1894 Howells describing an altruistic Arcadian eutopia. The “Introduction” critiques the picture of the U.S. presented in the first volume by the man from Altruria and suggests that the depiction of Altruria in this volume presents a flawed utopia.