Sarah Burns (3) (1946–)

Being an exploration of how nineteenth-century painters, writers, and illustrators dealt with the dark side of American life. The topic is eclectic and lends itself to very sprawling generalizations, of which the author provides plenty. The paintings are reproduced in little end-of-chapter clumps, which necessitates a lot of flipping around, especially annoying because the reproductions are always too small to demonstrate the ultra-minute points she is making (my favorite was when she said to look at the expression on the Indian's face and I couldn't find an Indian). And, as usual, art criticism and literary criticism mix together like nachos and creme brulee.… (més)