The Kentons — William Dean Howells / W.D. Howells

“You have done nothing more true and complete,” wrote Henry James about William Dean Howells's novel The Kentons. Here, Howells follows a Midwestern family as they travel first to New York and then to Holland -- in order to take the daughter, Ellen, away from an abusive relationship. Along the way they explore the contrasts between their Ohio manners and those of the regions they visit, a familiar theme in Howells's work.