Download or read book Hard-Boiled Sentimentality written by Leonard Cassuto and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2008-11-05 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leonard Cassuto's cultural history links the testosterone-saturated heroes of American crime stories to the sensitive women of the nineteenth-century sentimental novel. From classics like The Big Sleep and The Talented Mr. Ripley to neglected paperback gems, Cassuto chronicles the dialogue--centered on the power of sympathy--between these popular genres and the sweeping social changes of the twentieth century, ending with a surprising connection between today's serial killers and the domestic fictions of long ago.