''Hey Rub-a-Dub-Dub: A Book of the Mystery and Wonder and Terror of Life'' is a collection of twenty essays by
Theodore Dreiser.
Contents
*"Hey Rub-a-Dub-Dub"
*"Change"
*"Some Aspects of Our National Character"
*"The Dream"
*"The American Financier"
*"The Toil of the Laborer"
*"Personality"
*"A Counsel to Perfection"
*"Neurotic America and the Sex Impulse"
*"Secrecy-Its Value"
*"Ideals, Morals, and the Daily Newspaper"
*"Equation Inevitable"
*"Phantasmagoria"
*"Ashtoreth"
*"The Reformer"
*"Marriage and Divorce"
*"More Democracy or Less? An Inquiry"
*"The Essential Tragedy of Life"
*"Life, Art and America"
*"The Court of Progress"
Literary significance and criticism
Six essays and one play had already been published in newspapers prior to this collection.
[Keith Newlin, ''A Theodore Dreiser Encyclopedia'', Westport, Connecticut: ]Greenwood Press
Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. (GPG), also known as ABC-Clio/Greenwood (stylized ABC-CLIO/Greenwood), is an educational and academic publisher (middle school through university level) which is today part of ABC-Clio. Established in 1967 as Gr ...
, 2003, p. 18
/ref>
Keith Newlin has argued that ''Hey Rub-a-Dub-Dub'' follows in the wake of Dreiser's attempts at philosophy, which he had started in his 1916 book called '' Plays of the Natural and Supernatural'' and ended with '' Notes on Life'', published posthumously in 1974.Chicago News
Chicago News is the Illinois district Barbershop quartet that won the 1981 SPEBSQSA
The Barbershop Harmony Society, legally and historically named the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America, In ...
'' and ''The New Republic
''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...
'', though Dreiser held it in high regard.H.L. Mencken
Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians, ...
lampooned it.
The book draws upon Jacques Loeb's ''The Mechanistic Conception of Life'' (1912).[Jeremy Loving, ''The Last Titan: A Life of Theodore Dreiser'', ]Berkeley, California
Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...
: University of California Press
The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...
, 2005, p. 28
/ref>
References
External links
*
1920 books
Books by Theodore Dreiser
Philosophy books
Boni & Liveright books
American essay collections
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