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What the American public wants is a tragedy with a happy ending.

— William Dean Howells French Ways and Their Meaning (1919)

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Notes from Wikiquote

What the American public always wants is a tragedy with a happy ending. | As quoted in A Backward Glance (1934) by Edith Wharton, p. 147

More quotes by William Dean Howells

We live, but a world has passed away
With the years that perished to make us men.

The Mulberries (1871)

The life of Christ, it wasn't only in healing the sick and going about to do good; it was suffering for the sins of others.

If we love mankind, pity them, we even wish to suffer for them.

The wrecks of slavery are fast growing a fungus crop of sentiment.

Their Wedding Journey (1872)

That's what is driving a girl like Margaret Vance, who has everything that the world can offer her young beauty, on to the work of a Sister of Charity among the poor and the dying.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: William Dean Howells (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.