Down with Love – the upcoming movie from Twentieth Century Fox starring Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor – is a homage to the romantic comedies of the fifties and sixties.
 Barbara Novak is the author of the feminist manifesto Down With Love. As her revolutionary book rockets to the top of the bestseller lists she becomes the target of ladies' man and ace journalist Catcher Block who is determined to debunk her message. Catcher's best friend and boss – the neurotic and lovesick Peter McManus – tries to rein his star writer in while haplessly pursuing the object of his affection, Barbara's feisty editor. Mistaken identities, frantic roundelays, shocking revelations and ever–changing perceptions about love and sex are just a few of the movie/book's surprises.

Down with Love

Literature & Fiction

NOVAK, Barbara

Contemporary

It Books

This brilliant study of American art is again available with a new preface by the author, a few corrections in the text, and a revised and updated bibliography. Widely acclaimed for its perception and scholarship, the book concentrates on a number of leading artists, including Washington Allston, Thomas Cole, Asher B. Durand, Fitz Hugh Lane, William Sidney Mount, Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, and Albert Pinkham Ryder. Examining each artist in an individual essay, Barbara Novak presents key ideas on the nature of American art of the nineteenth century, framing these ideas with reference to the eighteenth and twentieth centuries and relating American art to American and European traditions. She draws provocative and original conclusions about the roles in American art of spiritualism and mathematics, analyzes not only the painting but nineteenth-century aesthetic theory as well, achieving a unique synthesis of art and literature. Brief biographies of forty-eight artists mentioned in the text are appended and furnish a valuable reference source.

American Painting Of The 19th Century: Realism, Idealism, And The American Experience, Second Edition

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

Westview Press

Next to Nature: American Landscape Paintings from the National Academy of Design

Icon (Harpe)

Studies the work of the Hudson River School artists, the Lumiists and other mid-nineteenth century painters of the American landscape, setting the work of these artists into the broadest cultural context.

Nature and Culture: American Landscape and Painting, 1825-1875

Oxford University Press

Nature and Culture: American Landscape and Painting 1825-1875 by Novak, Barbara. 8vo.

Painting

Nature and Culture: American Landscape and Painting, 1825-1875With a New Preface

In this richly illustrated volume, Barbara Novak explains that for fifty extraordinary years, American society bestowed in the idea of Nature its most cherished ideals. Between 1825 and 1875 all kinds of Americans--artists, writers, scientists, as well as everyday citizens--believed that God in Nature could resolve human contradictions, and that nature itself confirmed the American destiny. During these years Nature, God, and Man converged to become a trinity, and it was through the landscape painters, the leaders of this intellectual movement, that the nation was reminded of divine benevolence "by keeping before their eyes the mountains, trees, forests, and lakes." Using diaries and letters of the artists as well as quotes from literary texts, journals, and periodicals, Novak illuminates the range of ideas projected on to the American landscape by painters such as Thomas Cole, Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Edwin Church, Asher B. Durand, Fitz Hugh Lane, and Martin J. Heade, and writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, William Wordsworth, Théodore Rousseau, and Frederich Wilhelm Schelling. Adding a rich new dimension to the discussion of nature's influence in America, Novak explains how religion, philosophy, science, and literature served as the support system for the idea of God in Nature. She shows that the idea of nature as a national vested interest was invaluable to a young expanding nation, but ultimately this essentially monolithic view collapsed from within, undermined by the Civil War, Darwinism, and a burgeoning technological landscape. Taking American landscape painting in its golden era as a product of society, she examines the cultural background of paintings as an index to their intrinsic meaning. She explains, for example, how new discoveries in science were made consonant with Deity, how religion itself permeated nature with the idea of Creation, and how the landscape artists were given the task of providing the images of nature that became the national iconography. Novak goes on to demonstrate how American landscapists, handling rocks, clouds, plants, and other natural elements, paralleled and diverged from scientific developments, and also how the artists who accompanied explorers on their westward expeditions related to their scientific colleagues. Now with a new preface, this incisive volume encompasses a vast cultural panorama. It beautifully demonstrates how the influence of the nature served, not only as a vehicle for artistic creation, but as its ideal form.

In this richly illustrated volume, including a number of stunning color prints, Barbara Novak explains that for fifty extraordinary years, American society bestowed in the idea of Nature its most cherished ideals. Between 1825 and 1875 all kinds of Americans--artists, writers, scientists, as well as everyday citizens--believed that God in Nature could resolve human contradictions, and that nature itself confirmed the American destiny. During these years Nature, God, and Man converged to become a trinity, and it was through the landscape painters, the leaders of this intellectual movement, that the nation was reminded of divine benevolence "by keeping before their eyes the mountains, trees, forests, and lakes." Using diaries and letters of the artists as well as quotes from literary texts, journals, and periodicals, Novak illuminates the range of ideas projected on to the American landscape by painters such as Thomas Cole, Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Edwin Church, Asher B. Durand, Fitz Hugh Lane, and Martin J. Heade, and writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, William Wordsworth, Théodore Rousseau, and Frederich Wilhelm Schelling. Adding a rich new dimension to the discussion of nature's influence on the American mind, Novak explains how religion, philosophy, science, and literatrue served as the support system for the idea of God in Nature. She shows that the idea of nature as a national vested interest was invaluable to a young expanding nation, but ultimately this essentially monolithic view collapsed from within, undermined by the Civil War, Darwinism, and a burgeoning technological landscape. Taking American landscape painting in its golden era as a product of society, she examines the cultural background of paintings as an index to their intrinsic meaning. She explains, for example, how new discoveries in science were made consonant with Deity, how religion itself permeated nature with the idea of Creation, and how the landscape artists were given the task of providing the images of nature that became the national iconography. Novak goes on to demonstrate how American landscapists, handling rocks, clouds, plants, and other natural elements, paralleled and diverged from scientific developments, and also how the landscapists who accompanied explorers on their westward expeditions related to their scientific colleagues. Now with a new introduction, this incisive volume encompasses a vast cultural panorama. It beautifully demonstrates how the influence of the nature served, not only as a vehicle for artistic creation, but as its ideal form.

Nature and Culture: American Landscape and Painting, 1825-1875, With a New Preface

In this richly illustrated volume, featuring more than fifty black-and-white illustrations and a beautiful eight-page color insert, Barbara Novak describes how for fifty extraordinary years, American society drew from the idea of Nature its most cherished ideals. Between 1825 and 1875, all kinds of Americans--artists, writers, scientists, as well as everyday citizens--believed that God in Nature could resolve human contradictions, and that nature itself confirmed the American destiny. Using diaries and letters of the artists as well as quotes from literary texts, journals, and periodicals, Novak illuminates the range of ideas projected onto the American landscape by painters such as Thomas Cole, Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Edwin Church, Asher B. Durand, Fitz H. Lane, and Martin J. Heade, and writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Frederich Wilhelm von Schelling. Now with a new preface, this spectacular volume captures a vast cultural panorama. It beautifully demonstrates how the idea of nature served, not only as a vehicle for artistic creation, but as its ideal form. "An impressive achievement." --Barbara Rose, The New York Times Book Review "An admirable blend of ambition, elan, and hard research. Not just an art book, it bears on some of the deepest fantasies of American culture as a whole." --Robert Hughes, Time Magazine

In this richly illustrated volume, featuring more than fifty black-and-white illustrations and a beautiful eight-page color insert, Barbara Novak describes how for fifty extraordinary years, American society drew from the idea of Nature its most cherished ideals. Between 1825 and 1875, all kinds of Americans--artists, writers, scientists, as well as everyday citizens--believed that God in Nature could resolve human contradictions, and that nature itself confirmed the American destiny. Using diaries and letters of the artists as well as quotes from literary texts, journals, and periodicals, Novak illuminates the range of ideas projected onto the American landscape by painters such as Thomas Cole, Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Edwin Church, Asher B. Durand, Fitz H. Lane, and Martin J. Heade, and writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Frederich Wilhelm von Schelling. Now with a new preface, this spectacular volume captures a vast cultural panorama. It beautifully demonstrates how the idea of nature served, not only as a vehicle for artistic creation, but as its ideal form. "An impressive achievement." --Barbara Rose, The New York Times Book Review "An admirable blend of ambition, elan, and hard research. Not just an art book, it bears on some of the deepest fantasies of American culture as a whole." --Robert Hughes, Time Magazine

Barbara Novak is one of America's premier art historians, the author of the seminal books American Painting of the Nineteenth Century and Nature and Culture, the latter of which was named one of the Ten Best Books of the Year by The New York Times and was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award. Now, with Voyages of the Self, this esteemed critic completes the trilogy begun with the two earlier works, offering once again an exhilarating exploration of American art and culture. In this book, Novak explores several inspired pairings of key writers and painters, drawing insightful parallels between such masters as John Singleton Copley and Jonathan Edwards, Winslow Homer and William James, Frederic Edwin Church and Walt Whitman, and Jackson Pollock and Charles Olson. Through these and other groupings, Novak tracks the varied meanings of the self in America, in which the most salient characteristics of each artist or writer is shown to draw from--and in turn influence--the larger map of American life. Two major threads weaving through the book are the American preoccupation with the "object" and our continuing return to pragmatism. Novak notes for instance how Copley's art mirrors the puritan denial of self found in Jonathan Edwards and how as colonial scientists they share an interest in sensation and observation. She sees Winslow Homer and William James as practitioners of a pragmatic self grounded in an immediate experience that looks for concrete results. Through such fruitful comparisons--whether between Copley and Edwards, or Lane and Emerson, or Ryder and Dickinson--Novak sheds unmatched light on our nation's artistic heritage. Wonderfully illustrated with dozens of black-and-white pictures and sixteen full-color plates, here is a stunning work that yields a wealth of insight into American art and culture--and concludes Novak's landmark trilogy.

Voyages of the Self: Pairs, Parallels, and Patterns in American Art and Literature

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by NOVAK, Barbara. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by NOVAK, Barbara

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by NOVAK, Barbara. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Down with Love

American Painting Of The 19th Century: Realism, Idealism, And The American Experience, Second Edition

Next to Nature: American Landscape Paintings from the National Academy of Design

Nature and Culture: American Landscape and Painting, 1825-1875

Nature and Culture: American Landscape and Painting, 1825-1875

Nature and Culture: American Landscape and Painting, 1825-1875With a New Preface

Nature and Culture: American Landscape and Painting, 1825-1875With a New Preface

Nature and Culture: American Landscape and Painting, 1825-1875, With a New Preface

Nature and Culture: American Landscape and Painting, 1825-1875, With a New Preface

Voyages of the Self: Pairs, Parallels, and Patterns in American Art and Literature