-----Original Message-----
From: Coffin, Donald [mailto:dcoffin@iun.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2005 6:11 PM
>One of my colleagues (in English) teaches a course with the title "Images of Business in
>American Literature." His reading list is about as you'd suspect--Frank Norris (The Octopus),
>Theodore Dreiser, Upton Sinclair, Mark Twain...
>
>My question is this: Do you have nominees for such a reading list in which well-regarded novels >present a positive depiction of business? I'd like some to suggest to him.
Although not exactly positive, and not exactly depictions of business, two possibilities come to mind:
In Anton Chekhov's _The Cherry Orchard_, the wealthy Lopakhin hatches the only scheme which could have enabled the family to hold onto their property -- developing villas on the estate. In the end he buys the estate, but not out of mean-spiritedness, indeed he is probably the character who most "deserves" to own the estate.
The idle rich are also criticized in F. Scott Fitzgerald's _The Great Gatsby_, while the self-made millionaire Gatsby, while not exactly a hero, is a tragic figure.
--MKT
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