Leslie Fiedler's 'Love and Death in the American Novel' Reissued by NYRB

New York Review Books has reissued Leslie Fiedler's seminal 1960 study 'Love and Death in the American Novel.' Fiedler, born in New Jersey in 1917, was a literary critic known for his provocative style, using exclamation marks and a polemical tone. The book argues that American fiction is characterized by a fear of maturity, a pathological prudishness, and a retreat into male homosocial bonds, exemplified by works like 'Moby-Dick' and 'Huckleberry Finn.' Fiedler contends that American literature avoids heterosexual romance and instead features 'pure marriage of males' between white men and men of color. He draws on Freudian and Jungian analysis, reading books for unconscious longings. The study was controversial upon release, with critics like Irving Howe accusing Fiedler of 'putting literature on the couch.' Fiedler taught at the University of Montana from 1941 to 1965 and later at the University of Buffalo until his death in 2003. The reissue includes a blurb on the back cover that Fiedler likely wrote himself. The book remains a touchstone for its audacious thesis and its influence on sociological approaches to literature.