NB! This page is only a partial listing of the mass of resources currently available to Edith Wharton scholars. Nor is it a complete listing of the materials I have used in my own work. As I have time and energy, I shall try to update this page to include those other sources, but I do not anticipate putting much time into the task. I have moved on to other projects, and am only placing the page here in the hope that it may make someone else’s search a bit easier. As a secondary note, please remember that these notes are my own (including the odd shorthand in places), and therefore reflect my own personal opinion and judgement. Those who draw on these resources must form their own opinions, and those opinions may well conflict with mine.
RJRS
Edith Wharton Resources
Annotated Bibliography
Primary Sources
NB! Publication dates reflect the texts I was using and not necessarily the original publication date.
Bratton, Daniel, ed. Yrs Ever Affly: The Correspondence of Edith Wharton and Louis Bromfield. East Lansing: Michigan State UP, 2000.
While the body of the text is a selection of the correspondence between Edith Wharton and Louis Bromfield, Bratton’s introduction to the text gives the reader a very solid overview of Wharton’s ability to make friends, and contextualizes the friendship with Bromfield in the light of other biographic events.
Lewis, R. W. B., and Nancy Lewis, eds. The Letters of Edith Wharton. New York: Collier Books, 1988.
One of the first collections of Wharton’s letters, and follows hard on Lewis’s bio of Wharton.<
Powers, Lyall H., ed. Henry James and Edith Wharton. Letters: 1900-1915. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1990.
Letters between Wharton and James during the indicated period.
Wharton, Edith. The Age of Innocence. New York: Library of America, 1985.
Wharton, Edith. A Backward Glance: An Autobiography. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998.
Wharton, Edith, ed. Book of the Homeless. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1916.
Wharton, Edith. The Buccaneers. (Completed by Marion Mainwaring.) New York: Pengin Books, 1993.
Wharton, Edith. Bunner Sisters. New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1995.
Wharton, Edith. The Children. New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1997.
Wharton, Edith. The Cruise of the Vanadis. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 2004.
Wharton, Edith. The Custom of the Country. New York: Library of America, 1985.
Wharton, Edith and Ogden Codman, Jr. The Decoration of Houses. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998.
Wharton, Edith. Edith Wharton Abroad: Selected Travel Writings, 1888-1920. Sarah Bird Wright, ed. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1996.
Wharton, Edith. Ethan Frome. New York: Library of America, 1985.
Wharton, Edith. Fighting France: From Dunkerque to Belport. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1915.
Wharton, Edith. French Ways and Their Meaning. Massachusetts: Berkshire Books, 1997.
Wharton, Edith. The Fruit of the Tree. Boston: Northeastern UP, 2000.
Wharton, Edith. Glimpses of the Moon. New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1996.
Wharton, Edith. The Ghost-Feeler: Stories of Terror and the Supernatural. Peter Haining, ed. London: Peter Owen Publishers, 1996.
Wharton, Edith. The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997.
Wharton, Edith. The House of Mirth. New York: Library of America, 1985.
Wharton, Edith. Italian Villas and Their Gardens. New York: Da Capo Press, Inc., 1904 (reprint).
Wharton, Edith. Madame de Treymes. New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1995.
Wharton, Edith. Mother’s Recompense. New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1996.
Wharton, Edith. Old New York. New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1995.
Includes the following four novellas:
False Dawn: The ‘Forties
The Old Maid: The ‘Fifties
The Spark: The ‘Sixties
New Year’s Day: The ‘Seventies
Wharton, Edith. Sanctuary. New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1995.
Wharton, Edith. A Son at the Front. DeKalb: Northern Illinois UP, 1995.
Wharton, Edith. The Touchstone. New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1995.
Wharton, Edith. Twilight Sleep. New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1997.
Wharton, Edith. The Uncollected Critical Writings. Frederick Wegener, ed. New Jersey: Princeton UP, 1996.
The book is loosely organized in a chronological fashion within each category. Wegener notes Wharton’s volatile nature, and even a hint of the curmudgeon in her attitudes toward her peers and younger writers. He also observes that as she spent an increasing amount of time overseas, her attitude toward American writings grew more critical; she seemed more fond of those writings that used a European perspective or backdrop. Wegener also notes that Wharton tended to feel that women in general were badly suited to the task of critical writer, and suggests that opinion is reflected in her own treatment of such female characters in her fiction.
Wharton, Edith. Wharton: Collected Stories 1891-1910. New York: Library of America, 2001.
Wharton, Edith. Wharton: Collected Stories 1911-1937. New York: Library of America, 2001.
Wharton, Edith. The Writing of Fiction. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997.
Secondary Sources
Allen, Brooke. “The accomplishment of Edith Wharton.” New Criterion, Sept 2001 v20 i1 p33.
Allen starts the essay noting that Wharton was regularly compared to James, and then proceeds to argue the comparison. He notes that while they had some basic similarities, they had rather more differences. He suggests that Wharton’s writing is perhaps more “masculine”(para 3) than James’s, and he spends the bulk of the essay discussing her treatment of upper class. He also notes that her stories reflect her the changing morals and times (e.g., divorce).
Ammons, Elizabeth. Edith Wharton’s Argument with America. Athens: U of GA P, 1980.
Ammons considers Wharton’s body of work in a chronological order that she’s thematically organized by the manner in which Wharton deals with the American “woman question.” She pulls in a number of secondary sources and contemporary criticisms, and always contextualizes the issue in terms of Wharton’s life. This is one of the few texts during this period which are actually openly critical—without being either condescending or snide—to whole texts or certain elements in the texts while still handling the author with respect.
Arthos, John. “The Court of the Tuileries: Reflections on Archer’s Retreat in The Age of Innocence.” EWR, Fall 2000, Volume XVI, No. 2. pp. 8–13.
Arthos discusses Newland Archer’s decision not to meet Ellen at the end of the novel. Ultimately, he concludes that Archer has dwelt in the dream for so long that he himself has ceased to exist—that he is no longer able to be fully actual. He also suggests that by refusing to meet Ellen, Archer has preserved the more real of the two (the dream of Ellen and the relationship with her, or the inevitable changed reality a new meeting would require).
Asya, Ferdâ. “Resolutions of Guilt: Cultural Values Reconsidered in Custom of the Country and The Age of Innocence.” EWR, Fall 1997, Volume XV, No. 2. pp. 15–19.
Asya argues that Wharton wrote these two novels during the onset and resolution stages of her own social guilt about her affair with Fullerton and her divorce. Asya suggests that the process of her coming to terms with that guilt, and her recognition that the events and guilt lent themselves to her own development and the development of her writing, is cathartically chronicled in the characters of the texts.
Balestra, Gianfranca. “Edith Wharton in Translation: The Italian ‘Boom’.” EWR, Fall 2000, Volume XVI, No. 2. pp. 1–8.
Balestra discusses the publishing history of Wharton’s texts in Italy, focusing on those which have been translated into Italian. While he does not generally address the success or failure of the translation itself, he notes many of the positive and negative aspects of each text’s publication, and gives the reader an idea of what’s available and what isn’t—and what should be.
Balestra, Gianfranca. “‘For the Use of the Magazine Morons: EW Rewrites the Tale of the Fantastic.” Studies in Short Fiction 33: 13–24.
Balestra considers “Pomegranate Seed” and “All Souls’” in their earlier incarnations as well as final published forms, and discusses the reasons for the changes. He notes that the endings of both were changed in response to the request of magazine publishers, and is unequivocal in his praise of Wharton’s masterly control of this genre. He takes the time to identify the key elements of the ghost story.
Balestra, Gianfranca. “Edith Wharton’s Italian Tale: Language Exercise and Social Discourse.” A Forward Glance: New Essays on Edith Wharton. Clare Colquitt, Susan Goodman, Candace Waid, eds. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1999. pp. 206–220.
Balestra notes the depth of study which has discussed Wharton’s command of French and German, and an apparent lack of the same depth of study in her Italian endeavors and influences. He focuses on Wharton’s relationship with Italian and Italian literature, and her own attempt at writing a short story in that language. Balestra suggests that this unpublished and incomplete short story is probably Wharton’s most successful attempt at portraying a servant, although he does note the hints of Wharton’s own social background in her language.
Barrish, Phillip. American Literary Realism, Critical Theory, and Intellectual Prestige. New York: Cambridge UP, 2001.
Barrish explores a selection of texts with an idea toward identifying how those texts may “articulate within themselves new ways of gaining intellectual prestige or distinction” (1). Chapter 4 discusses the character of Nona in Twilight Sleep. He describes her as a flapper containing all the knowledge of the negative around her and seems to separate her knowledge from that of the reader’s. He spends a lot of time discussing incest, racism, and Wharton’s response to the war.
Batcos, Stephanie. “A ‘Fairy tale every minute’: The Autobiographical Journey and Edith Wharton’s In Morocco.” A Forward Glance: New Essays on Edith Wharton. Clare Colquitt, Susan Goodman, Candace Waid, eds. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1999. pp. 172–187.
Batcos examines Wharton’s In Morocco in terms of an autobiography. She argues that while it adheres to the forms and traditions of the travel writing genre, Wharton makes it uniquely her own by writing herself within the text in the same way one would an autobiography, showing the questioning and redefining of her own identity as she questions and examines what she sees.
Baym, Nina. “Reviving the Legacy of 1970s Feminist Criticism.” In Victoria Brehm (ed), Constance Fenimor Woolson’s Nineteenth Century: Essays. Wayne State UP, 2001.
Baym addresses the shift in attitude toward the feminist literary criticism of the 1970–85 period, first away and then redefining it. She notes the difference unrealistic expectations made, and suggests that rather than try and shove that critical period under the rug, literary criticism should recognize what it gave to academe and scholarship today, consider where it may have gone astray, and continue to learn from it.
Beer, Janet. Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Studies in Short Fiction. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997.
Beer spends the first chapter introducing her subject, but then allocates roughly two chapters per writer in a discussion of their short stories. Each chapter can stand on its own as an independent critical essay . She contextualizes the writers’ works within the culture, but most especially within the writers’ individual lives and their use of short fiction as part of the development of their writing identities. Most especially, each chapter is an exercise in close reading. She includes three of Wharton’s novellas in the discussion.
Beer, Janet. Edith Wharton (Writers and Their Work series). Devon, UK: Northcote House Publishers, Ltd, 2002.
In a grand total of 100 pages, this little book does a great job of providing an overview of Wharton, her life, her work, and her critical reception. It’s not intended to be an in-depth critical study, but rather provide a foundation for students of Wharton. In other words, it assimilates most of the other scholarship into somewhat simplified but definitely comprehensible terms; it’s a starting place. It would make an excellent course text were it not for the price: at 25usd for a monarch-sized paperback of 100 pages, it’s a bit pricey.
Benstock, Shari. No Gifts From Chance (a biography of Edith Wharton). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1994.
Benstock’s biography expands on Lewis’s biography and Wharton’s own autobiography, but it’s far from a restatement of those earlier texts. Benstock pulls in a huge quantity of previously unpublished materials to build the text.
Beppu, Keiko. “The Moral Significance of Living Space: The Library and Kitchen in The House of Mirth.” EWR, Fall 1997, Volume XV, No. 2. pp. 3–7, 20.
Beppu begins the essay with a background discussion of the nature of home ownership (typically male) and social structuring of the concept of “home” for women. Beppu notes the gendering of libraries as typically male spaces, and kitchens as female spaces, but notes that Wharton did not include the kitchen in her Decoration of Houses, and that the kitchen became the center of the American house fairly recently (early 20th century). The essay discusses the points at which Wharton uses the library or kitchen in the novel, and Lily’s unsuccessful search for a home of her own.
Blackall, Jean Frantz. “The Intrusive Voice: Telegrams in The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence.” Women’s Studies 20.2 (1991)
Blackall discusses Wharton’s use of letters and telegrams as a means by which the plot/story/characters of these two novels are interrupted or disrupted, and the way in which some of those instances actually serve as character in their own right.
Bradbury, Malcolm. Dangerous Pilgrimages: Transatlantic Mythologies. New York: Penguin USA; Reprint edition, 1997.
Bradbury discusses the interrelationships and applications of mythologies in the creation of both identity and fictions from both sides of the pond. He takes the earlier work of Said and applies it to the creation and writing of fiction. His basic thesis is that the developing literature of the New World was influenced by—-and then influenced in turn—-the literatures of the rest of the world. He creates an image of multiple layers of colored plastic, each application creating a new color; a new substance. In this case, a new mythology, illusion, fiction, or form of writing. He’s included some very good data about the beginning stages of American writing, but is very much focused on the male writers. The text, however, is an easy read.
Brehm, Victoria (ed). Constance Fenimor Woolson’s Nineteenth Century: Essays. Wayne State UP, 2001.
In addition to the usual forecasting of the upcoming essays, Brehm’s introduction to the text summarizes Woolson’s place in literature, the professional and critical conditions of the period, and how Woolson moves literature toward Wharton’s realism. She includes a discussion of women writers, and women realist writers.
Brooks, Kristina. “New Woman, Fallen Woman: The Crisis of Reputation in the Turn-of-the-Century Novels by Pauline Hopkins and EW.” Legacy 13: 91–112.
This essay seems to work off of the Ammons text (although it’s not referenced), particularly Ammons’s chapter 2 regarding the New Woman. Brooks ties together Pauline Hopkins’s Contending Forces and Wharton’s House of Mirth and suggests that they both “merge in the single body of their respective heroines the Victorian figure of the fallen woman and the modern figure of the New Woman” (91). She also ties in the issues of sexuality as problematic for the New Woman; the moment she was perceived to be sexual, she became the fallen woman, regardless of her inner purity.
Burns, Karin Garlepp. “The Paradox of Objectivity in the Realist Fiction of Edith Wharton and Kate Chopin.” Journal of Narrative Theory 29 (1999): 27–62.
Burns notes the positioning of women writers within the ongoing battle for justification of fiction as an art form. She makes an interesting distinction between the women who were on the inside (so to speak) versus those who were on the outside. The insiders were those who adopted a masculine approach to authorship and writing (including realism), while the outsiders were those “scribbling women” of popular and more sentimental novels. She uses Chopin’s The Awakening and Wharton’s Custom of the Country as examples.
Cahir, Linda Constanza. “Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.” EWR, Spring 2003, Volume XIX, No. 1. pp. 20–23.
Cahir begins her essay by discussing the relationship between Wharton and Conrad, and argues that while much of Conrad’s praise of fellow authors’ works may have been perfunctory, his praise of Wharton’s Summer may well have been in earnest based on his recognition of the similarities between his own novella and Wharton’s. Cahir then moves on to suggest that Wharton may have recognized the similarities most strongly in Ethan Frome, and does a close reading noting the similarities between the two texts. Perhaps the most striking comment in the essay is Cahir’s observation that the reader’s perspective of the character of Ethan Frome is often affiliated with Mattie’s and Zenobia’s perspectives, and therefore often “underestimate his destructive potency.”
Campbell, Donna. Resisting Regionalism.Gender and Naturalism in American Fiction, 1885–1915. Athens: Ohio UP, 1997
Campbell discusses the transition period in American fiction from local color to naturalism, focusing on the works of Wharton, Frederic, Norris, Dreiser, London, and Crane, and placing them in context of the criticism of the time.
Campbell, Donna M. “Rewriting the ‘Rose and Lavender Pages’: Ethan Frome and Women’s Local Color Fiction.” Speaking the Other Self: American Women Writers. Jeanne Campbell Reesman, ed. Athens: U of Georgia P, 1997. pp 263–77.
This essay is an expansion of part of the content of Chapter 6 of the Resisting Regionalism text.
Castillo, Susan Peers. “Edith Wharton: Strategies of Expatriation.” History of European Ideas 20: 607–13.
Castillo suggests that Wharton demonstrates a use of Ausländerfriheit in her texts (particularly The Reef), and suggests that it was reflective of Wharton’s own life; that her expat status gave her the freedom she lacked in New York and the ability to view American society more honestly and critically than had she remained within the society about which she wrote.
Chow, Sung Gay. “Pollution Control in Old New York: Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence.” CEA 60, iii: 37–49.
Chow uses Mary Douglas’s anthropological concepts to do a close reading of The Age of Innocence. In essence, she applies Douglas’s ideas to show that those not included within the socially-acknowledged norms of respectability were deemed “pollution” and negatively “controlled.”
Clubbe, John. “Interiors and the Interior Life in Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth.” Studies in the Novel 28: 43–64.
Clubbe discusses Lily Bart in terms of the rooms and dwellings she visits and inhabits. Specifically, he relates her inability to read those rooms to her inability to read life around her and her own situation in society. He also notes Wharton’s own interest in landscaping, architecture, and interior design and the way she uses those elements in this novel.
Colquitt, Clare. “Succumbing to the ‘Literary Style’: Arrested Desire in The House of Mirth.” Women’s Studies 20.2 (1991).
Colquit introduces a few of her own thoughts about Lily, then examines and responds to a selection of criticism which address the literary features or echoes between House of Mirth and other texts. She spends a lot of time focusing on Showalter’s criticism, and decides that Showalter’s arguments that the character which most relates to Bartleby in “Bartleby the Scrivener” is not Lily’s father, but Lily herself.
Comins, Barbara. “‘Pecking at the Host’: Transgressive Wharton.” EWR, Spring 1997, Volume XIV, No. 1. pp. 18–21.
Comins discusses Wharton’s relationship with religion and the ways in which religious symbol, analogy, and metaphor are presented in Summer. She argues that Wharton’s attitude toward religion was problematic, but also that her time spent in France helped temper it.
Comins, Barbara. “‘Outrageous Trap’: Envy and Jealousy in Wharton’s ‘Roman Fever’ and Fitzgerald’s ‘Bernice Bobs Her Hair’.” EWR, Spring 2001, Volume XVII, No. 1. pp. 9–12.
Comins takes a psychoanalytical look at how Wharton uses jealousy and envy in “Roman Fever,” and considers the similarities in Fitzgerald’s story. She notes that the “victim” in both stories actually finds herself in the better position, and labels the process as a “form of social-sexual Darwinism.”
Condé, Mary. “Payments and Face Values: Edith Wharton’s A Son at the Front.” pp 47-64 in Women’s Fiction and the Great War. Raitt and Tate, eds. Oxford UP, 1997.
Condé writes a relatively convincing essay addressing A Son at the Front, particularly the public response that the book was either too early or too late, and inappropriate on both scores. She does solid analysis of both Campton and George, the roles they play and what they represent, but the heart of the essay is that Wharton’s story was not so much a war novel as it was a story about the people at home—the noncombatants who were observers rather than participants. She argues that the text fails at several points, all of which culminate in the ending, creating a confusion that shouldn’t be there.
Connell, Eileen. “Edith Wharton Joins the Working Classes: The House of Mirth and the NYC Working Girls’ Clubs.” Women’s Studies 26: 557–604.
The essay focuses on Wharton’s use of Nettie Struther and the Working Girls’ Clubs in HoM, provides some excellent background and information about the Clubs and relevant literature, and suggests that Wharton was working against the traditional image of a home, and that “home” could only be created—or acquired—by the acquisition of a husband.
Coulombe, Joseph. “Man or Mannequin?: Lawrence Selden in The House of Mirth.” EWR, Spring 1996, Volume XIII, No. 2. pp. 3–8.
Coulcombe argues that Wharton deliberately designed Selden as a non-traditional male, a character intended to work against the established standard of male identity and role performance. He also suggests that Selden is probably Wharton’s “most positive” male character.
Dean, Sharon. “Edith Wharton’s Early Artist Stories and Constance Fenimore Woolson.” In Victoria Brehm (ed), Constance Fenimor Woolson’s Nineteenth Century: Essays. Wayne State UP, 2001.
Dean notes the similarity between Woolson’s and James’s relationship to Wharton’s story, The Touchstone, as well as the similarities between Woolson and Wharton.
Dodson, Samuel Fisher. “Frozen Hell: Edith Wharton’s Tragic Offering.” EWR, Spring 1999, Volume XV, No. 1. pp. 10–15.
Dodson defines Ethan Frome in terms of modern tragedy. He spends a fair amount of time definining the terminology, then locates those characteristics within the text and explores how Ethan—and his failure to communicate—land the character in the tragic hero role.
Donaldson, Susan. “New Woman and New Stories: Edith Wharton and Pauline Hopkins.” Pp 97-123 in Competing Voices (Competing Voices: The American Novel, 1865-1914 (Twayne’s Critical History of the Novel) by Susan Van D’elden Donaldson ; Twayne Pub; (November 1998).
The Preface has an interesting discussion of the nature of the novel in relationship to the public arena, and a definition of what that public arena is, as well as how that definition fluctuates. It notes the early expectation that the novel—as a participant in the public sphere—play a role in shaping public opinion, discussing politics, the nature of society, etc. That’s a reversal somewhere along the line; today’s novels aren’t viewed that way, and I wonder if it’s because we have both more time to read and more to read. In a day and age when letters were circulated among family, when outlying communities or isolated families read every scrap of material that came through their homes, when the written word may have carried more value simply because there was less of it, perhaps there was a stronger expectation that it actually do something, as opposed to today’s writings that are more often read for entertainment and leisure than for any other reason. Chapter 5—the only one that explicitely deals with Wharton—focuses on Wharton’s The House of Mirth and Hopkins’s Contending Forces, and does an in-depth critical read of both texts.
Dupree, Ellen. “‘Usually the Reward of Tosh’: Edith Wharton’s Business Education.” EWR, Fall 2001, Volume XVII, No. 2. pp. 1–14.
Dupree provides an extensive summary of Wharton’s publishing history and experiences. She details Wharton’s growth from insecure writer making her first submissions to confident writer able to make her own demands about payment and publication. She contextualizes that change within the change of the industry itself, noting how Wharton’s background often worked against her with Scriber’s (a society lady wasn’t expected to care about sales or royalties), and the growth of increasingly progressive (i.e., aggressive) publishing practices.
Dyman, Jenni. Lurking Feminism: The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton. NY: Peter Lang Publishing, 1996.
Dyman examines 11 of Wharton’s ghost stories, with references to other works along the way, in terms of what she sees as Wharton’s feminist critique of society within each story. In Dyman’s words: “What Wharton achieves is a vision of the brutal domination of patriarchal and capitalistic codes in western culture, the debilitating limitations of cultural gender identity, and the blindness and suffering of men and women, both victims of social conventions”(7). She makes a fairly good argument, but the book is repetitive; a single long critical essay could do what she says in an entire text (although it’s not excessively long), and I believe do it better. There are some really good kernels, but her obvious bias for Wharton’s ghost stories puts me off a bit. Likewise, a lot of the text feels like a rehash of others, particularly Lewis’s bio on Wharton.
Eaton, Mark A.”Publicity and Authorship in The Touchstone, or A Portrait of the Artist as a Dead Woman.” EWR, Spring 1997, Volume XIV, No. 1. pp. 4–11.
Eaton picks up the parallels between Wharton and her Margaret Aubyn character in The Touchstone, but he contextualizes the discussion by addressing publication and publicity issues of the period as well as Wharton’s own attitudes toward publicity, authorial identity, and privacy.
Edmonds, Mary K. “‘A Theatre with all the lustres blazing’: Customs, Costumes, and Customers in The Custom of the Country.” American Literary Realism, 1820–1910. 28, iii: 1–18.
Edmonds examines the character of Undine Spragg with an eye to the theatrical interpretations: “Undine . . . embodies the theatricality of the social theater, the theater of consumption, and the stage.” The essay suggests that the act or performance of consumption allows for a participation in the performance of the imitation of the authentic where, presumably, the “authentic” is old money/society. The success of the performance is determined in how convincingly the player manages to perform in the role, and how indistinguishable she is from that which she imitates. Edmonds notes Wharton’s own play preference for tragedy or comedy.
Edwards, Justin D. Exotic Journey: Exploring the Erotics of the U.S. Travel Literature, 1840–1930. Hanover: UP of New England, 2001.
Emsley, Sarah. “A ‘Better English’: Edith Wharton on Language in Fiction.” EWR, Spring 2003, Volume XIX, No. 1. pp. 23–27.
Emsley looks briefly at the way Wharton’s characters use language, noting especially those places where language fails or is insufficient, in sharp contrast to Wharton’s own control of and concern for the language she uses.
Fagan, Cathy E. “The Price of Power in Women’s Literature: Edith Wharton and Dorothy Parker.” Gender in Popular Culture: Images of Men and Women in Literature, Visual Media, and Material Culture. Susan W. Rollins, ed. Cleveland: Ridgemont Press, 1995. pp 227-245.
Focuses primarily on Lily Bart (House of Mirth) and her presentation as commodity. The essay doesn’t break any new ground or go into any real depth.
Fields, Anne M. “‘Years Hence of These Scenes’; Wharton’s The Spark and World War I.” Edith Wharton Review XIX, 2: 1-5.
Fields argues that Wharton’s war writing—most especially The Spark—reflect Wharton’s own inability to express or voice that which was the war. She notes that women of all arts and letters were generally discounted when it came to their art or writing about the war, that regardless of how close they were to the front, they can’t write about that which they haven’t experienced. She argues that Wharton shows a muteness and silence in her work that’s the direct result of her inability to express what she saw and experienced. She also suggests that part of Wharton’s conflict was one of artistry versus “reality.” For instance, Fields notes Wharton’s admiration for Whitman, and picks up on some of Wharton’s wartime characters’ inability to recognize art or aesthetics.
Fisher, Benjamin F. “Transitions from Victorian to Modern: The Supernatural Stories of Mary Wilkins Freeman and Edith Wharton.” American Supernatural Fiction: From Edith Wharton to the Weird Tales Writers. Douglas Robillard, ed. New York: Garland Publishing, 1995.
In essence, Fisher summarizes the progression of these two writers’ ghost stories. There’s some solid critical content, but the essay feels remarkably like he’s positioning (and trying to redeem) Freeman as a precursor to Wharton’s more modern level of sophistication, and give an overview of what the two writers have done. He discusses the stories using two or three paragraphs per story, and clearly indicates which stories he deems best within that collection. He also makes a point of linking Ethan Frome and Marne in with this category, and this is one thing I definitely agree with. Ethan Frome shows more suspense and tension than most of the ghost stories. It’s interesting that he speaks very positively of Wharton’s ghost stories, and he does clarify Poe’s influence on Wharton. I need to re-read the tales, but I still believe that they fall short of their desired goal . . . or perhaps my problem with them is that I think they fall short of their potential.
Funston, Judith E. “An Early Backward Glance: Edith Wharton’s Revision of ‘A Tuscan Shrine’.” EWR, Fall 1999, Volume XV, No. 2. pp. 1–8.
Funston considers Wharton’s early essay about the Italian statuary at San Vivaldo and compares it to the revised version in her later book, Italian Backgrounds. Funston notes the self-consciousness and apologetic tone in the earlier essay versus the increased confidence and stronger prose of the book version.
Gavioli, Davida. “A Reversal of Perspective: The Mother’s Voice in Edith Wharton’s The Mother’s Recompense.” Associazione Italiana di Studi Nord-Americani, 10:1999. March 2003. 25 Sep 03. http://www.aisna.org/rsajournal5/gavioli.html
Gavioli’s essay circles around Kate in Wharton’s The Mother’s Recompense. She spends the first page or two discussing the portrayal of the mother/daughter in literature, identifying the discourse of female relationships as largely defined according to male relationships with women, and that the mother is still a very silent space in literature; even when she is portrayed, she’s often shown via the daughter—she is rarely a speaking, active, empowered individual in her own right and is more often objectified in terms of her role. After this first introduction of the subject, Gavioli moves into examining Wharton’s protagonist in the story. She argues that Kate is one of the few literary mothers who speak for herself, make herself heard, and become real in that otherwise silent space.
Gill, Joanna. “‘The absorbed observation of her own symptoms’: Ethan Frome and Anne Sexton’s ‘The Break’.” EWR, Fall 2001, Volume XVII, No. 2. pp. 14–22.
Gill does a close reading of Sexton’s “The Break,” focusing on the biographical echo within the text (specifically her fall and shattered hip), and Ethan Frome‘s influence upon the text.
Gold, Harriet. “Marriage in The Glimpses of the Moon.” EWR, Spring 2000, Volume XVI, No. 1. pp. 13–17.
Gold argues that other scholarship about this novel is off base, and that the critics have misunderstood the text. She posits the argument that Nick Lansing is a statement of Wharton’s belief in love and marriage, and is her first “positive hero” (17). Gold argues that the focus is on Nick and his change—his recognition of the importance of love, family, and marriage—rather than on Susy, her change, and the emphasis of motherhood as a feminine role.
Goldman-Price, Irene. “The Perfect Jew and The House of Mirth: A Study in Point of View.” EWR, Spring 2000, Volume XVI, No. 1. pp. 1–9.
Goldman-Price examines Wharton’s character of Rosenberg in The House of Mirth. She explores the historical conditions and attitudes of Hebrews and Jews in New York society at the time the text was written. She argues that Wharton created Rosenberg out of her own social circle’s understanding or stereotyping of “Jew,” and used the character both to illustrate that type as well as a means to speak the unspeakable (literally, those things which polite society did not discuss, such as money). Goldman-Price suggests that critics must stop “unconsciously sharing literary stereotypes or glossing over them with labels such as ‘anti-Semitic” (8). While she does not overtly say so, she is also arguing that critics should limit their use of the term “Jew” to those characters for whom evidence of the corresponding religious belief is present, rather than as a general term for an ethnic identity.
Goodman, Susan. “Edith Wharton’s Composed Lives.” A Forward Glance: New Essays on Edith Wharton. Clare Colquitt, Susan Goodman, Candace Waid, eds. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1999. pp. 22-24.
Goodman offers a discussion of the nature of biography (and autobiography to a small extent), then considers the five primary biographies of Wharton (Lubbock, Lewis, Wolff, Benstock, and Dwight).
Goodwyn, Janet Beer. Edith Wharton: Traveller in the Land of Letters. NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1995.
Goodwyn takes an autobiographical and “development of the writer in her craft” (and incidentally as a person) approach to analyzing the texts she works with in this book. She covers a large chunk of Wharton’s writings, but she also does a really nice job of addressing earlier Wharton criticism. She works through the most notable of Wharton’s writings—and a few of the more obscure—in terms of Wharton’s own developing identity as a writer, and her claim to “the land of letters” as her new home. As part of that discussion, Chapter 4 expands beyond Wharton and includes the nature or role of women in society at the time in order to explain Wharton’s need to find a home of her own, so to speak, and some of the extreme sarcasm in her writing as well as the writer’s development.
Gschwend, Kate. “The Significance of the Sawmill: Technological Determinism in Ethan Frome.” EWR, Spring 2000, Volume XVI, No. 1. pp. 9–13.
Gschwend argues that Wharton uses the sawmill in Ethan Frome to forecast the decline of both the characters and the village. She notes the links in imagery between Mattie, Ethan, and the mill. She argues that Wharton herself believed in “technological determinism,” and that the story (and Summer) reflect her belief that communities which are excluded from the opportunities afforded by technological advances will inevitably stagnate or die.
Haytock, Jennifer. “Marriage and modernism in Edith Wharton’s Twilight Sleep.” Legacy June 2003 v19 i2 p216(14).
Haytock argues that Wharton—and other writers—use divorce as a modernist tool. While she focuses on Twilight Sleep, she does bring in other novels, most notably Woolf’s To the Lighthouse. She suggests that divorce is the key to the novel’s chaos and a modernistic approach to addressing questions of identity, self, and society, and explores the social sense of the permanence of marriage, and the expectation that the wife is responsible for the marriage’s upkeep—”for the ‘housekeeping’ aspects of the relationship” (222)—and where things go when they cannot succeed alone. The essay is, by and large, a discussion of the treatment of relationships in the primary text.
Herman, David. “Economies of Essence in The House of Mirth.” EWR, Spring 1999, Volume XV, No. 1. pp. 6–10.
Herman argues that Rosedale in The House of Mirth is both portrayed as the stereotype of Jewish identity, but also that his identity assumes that essence. He also suggests that Rosedale is far from the antithesis of the other characters; rather, he is the same as them (they all scheme, plot, wage business), although he is clearly clad in the trappings of the Other. The question then becomes whether Rosedale is author of his own identity, or whether he is built by the behavior and identities of those around him.
Hoeller, Hildegard. “Tourism and War: Edith Wharton’s Explication of French Ways and Their Meaning.” EWR, Spring 1999, Volume XV, No. 1. pp. 1–6.
Hoeller argues that Wharton’s French Ways fails dismally as a war-time text intended to demystify the French environment for American soldiers. She suggests that by losing the travel narrative structure Wharton had used in Motor Flight Through France, Wharton places herself in the awkward position of trying to explain a culture of which she is not truly a part. Instead of being explanatory and informative, Hoeller argues that the text becomes “self-referential” and confused, and positions herself as “foreign observer” or Other.
Honey, Maureen. “Erotic Visual Tropes in the Fiction of Edith Wharton.” A Forward Glance: New Essays on Edith Wharton. Clare Colquitt, Susan Goodman, Candace Waid, eds. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1999. pp. 76–99.
Honey considers The House of Mirth, The Custom of the Country, and The Age of Innocence as a trilogy, and examines the links between protagonists and paintings her readers would have been familiar with (Undines, Aphrodites, Ophelias, Andromedas, etc.). She argues that the female characters assumed an artistic representation of themselves which also highlighted their erotic appeal and vulnerability, but which male characters failed to read through in order to see the women beneath the artistic echo.
Innis, Sherrie. “Nature, Culture, and Sexual Economics in Edith Wharton’s The Reef.” American Literary Realism 26, No. 1, pp 76-87.
Innis’s focus is entirely on The Reef. She examines the characters of Anna Leath and Sophy Viner, and complicates earlier character criticism by arguing that they are representative of a division between Nature and Culture. Explores the use of setting or space as a means for character identity or labeling.
Joslin, Katherine. “Architectonic or Episodic? Gender and The Fruit of the Tree.” A Forward Glance: New Essays on Edith Wharton. Clare Colquitt, Susan Goodman, Candace Waid, eds. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1999. pp. 62–75.
Joslin suggests that Wharton was struggling to find a place in her writing between the gentleman’s tradition of abstract thinking and woman’s episodic tradition. She focuses on that odd juxtaposition as it appears in The Fruit of the Tree.
Kinman, Alice Herritage. “Edith Wharton and the Future of Fiction.” EWR, Fall 2002, Volume XVIII, No. 2. pp. 3–12.
Kinman examines Wharton’s early story, “Mrs. Manstey’s View,” as an informed attempt to present herself as a participant in the current debate between the different fictional approaches of the time (realism, idealism, naturalism, etc.) Kinman argues that while realism may have been suffering a critical backlash for neglecting the full range of experience, and idealism was unsatisfactory for its lack of reality, Wharton blends elements of both approaches in her story, then adds a political discussion (tenements), and may well be suggesting that there should be a middle line which implements elements of both.
Klimasmith, Betsy. “The ‘Hotel Spirit’: Modernity and the Urban Home in Edith Wharton’s The Custom of the Country and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Short Fiction.” EWR, Fall 2002, Volume XVIII, No. 2. pp. 25–35.
Klimasmith addresses the question of space and “home,” and places the discussion within the context of the changing American urban landscape. She compares the use of those concepts in Gilman’s and Wharton’s work. Gilman, Klimasmith argues, suggests that by taking control of their physical environment, women can empower themselves and gain greater authority over their own lives. On the other hand, Klimasmith believes that Wharton’s work demonstrates a concern for the increasing mobility and lack of “roots” and history of the American culture in general.
Kornetta, Reiner. “Edith Wharton’s ‘The Angel at the Grave’ and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of Seven Gables.” EWR, Fall 1997, Volume XV, No. 2. pp. 21–24.
Kornetta draws a correlation between the two stories and suggests that Wharton used The House of Seven Gables as creative source/reference material for her own story. Kornetta also argues that Wharton evidences a turn away from—and therefore a distrust or skepticism of—transcendental philosophy in favor of science.
Levine, Jessica. “Discretion and Self Censorship in Wharton’s Fiction: ‘The Old Maid’ and the Politics of Publishing.” EWR, Fall 1996, Volume XIII, No. 1. pp. 4–13.
Levine notes the difficulty Wharton originally had publishing “The Old Maid” because of it’s “advanced” subject (an unmarried woman has a baby, and the later cover-up of the illegitimate child), and the feedback she received from the journals. She discusses the nature of publishing at the time, the censorship of the period, and suggests that Wharton wrote toward a specified group of magazines in order to have her work published at all, even as she railed against the limitations and American “prudishness.”
Lewis, R. W. B. Edith Wharton: A Biography. New York: Fromm International Publishing Corporation, 1985.
Lewis’s bio of Wharton is still marked as the milestone bio, and all those that have come after have built upon it. One exception is Shari Benstock’s No Gifts From Chance, which uses a massive proportion of unpublished material—particularly correspondence—to which Lewis either may not have had access or which may not yet have been uncovered at the time of his writing. Lewis’s bio is, quite frankly, overwhelming. There is literally a ton of information in the text, and it is the most comprehensive bio of Wharton up to that point in time. The problem is that while it’s largely chronologically organized, it’s horrible to have to use as any sort of manageable reference text. It desperately needs several good indexes—one for individuals named, one for Wharton’s works, and one general that encompasses everything els—in order to make it manageable. Unfortunately, the current index is far from comprehensive, which makes it nearly impossible to find specific items without re-reading the entire text.
Loving, Jerome. “The Death of Romande: The Portrait of a Lady in the Age of Lily Bart.” A Forward Glance: New Essays on Edith Wharton. Clare Colquitt, Susan Goodman, Candace Waid, eds. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1999. pp. 100–115.
Loving discussed James’s Portrait of a Lady in relationship with Wharton’s House of Mirth. Specifically, he notes that the usual argument of James’s writing influencing Wharton’s reverses itself in this case, and that James’s first publications of Portrait (1880-81) were revised for the 1908 publication as a result of House of Mirth‘s influence in 1905.
MacMaster, Anne. “Wharton, Race, and The Age of Innocence: Three Historical Contexts.” A Forward Glance: New Essays on Edith Wharton. Clare Colquitt, Susan Goodman, Candace Waid, eds. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1999. pp. 188-205.
MacMaster uses Toni Morrison’s Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination to springboard into a discussion about the use of race and color in The Age of Innocence. She contextualizes Wharton’s awareness of race relations on an international level (France vs U.S.), and follows the treatment of color—and the ways in which Wharton uses those characters—in the novel.
MacNaughton, William R. “The Artist as Moralist: Edith Wharton’s Revisions to the Last Chapter of The Custom of the Country.” Papers on Language & Literature, Wntr 2001 v37 i1 p51.
An interesting close reading of the revision work Wharton did on the last chapter of The Custom of the Country, specifically as it related to the character of Paul. MacNaughton’s thesis is that Wharton not only believed a novel should have a purpose—-a moral, even—-but that she worked hard in her own revision process to make it so.
Manzulli, Mia. “‘Garden Talks’: The Correspondence of Edith Wharton and Beatrix Farrand.” A Forward Glance: New Essays on Edith Wharton. Clare Colquitt, Susan Goodman, Candace Waid, eds. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1999. pp. 35-48.
Manzulli discusses the nature of the relationship between Wharton and her niece, Farrand, in context of their shared interest in gardening, and how that shared interest creates a collaborative work among peers in both gardens and letter-writing.
Marchand, Mary V. “Death to Lady Bountiful: Women and Reform in Edith Wharton’s The Fruit of the Tree.” Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers, Jan 2001 v18 i1 p65
Marchand argues that Fruit is not so much a badly composed novel—she’s addressing the criticism that the work is not as tightly constructed as it perhaps should be—as it is an example of the subgenre of “industrial novels” in women’s fiction. She marks that the reviewers of the time recognized the piece in a way that critics today seem to be unable to accomplish, simply because they (today’s critics) lack that same common ground and existing familiarity with the development of the rhetoric in the genre. She argues that not only is Fruit a member of the subgenre, but that Wharton was using it to point out the weaknesses and limitations of the rhetoric. She suggests that Wharton was, instead, pushing the idea of woman as thinking, reasoning, rational individual—an intellectual—rather than simply a feeling and emotional being; the first allows her to operate as a professional, while the second limits her to a realm of domesticity. But Marchand notes that Wharton recognizes the problems inherent in that proposal; society was not comfortable with the idea of an intellectual woman in the public sphere and was more willing to return to the domestic reformer.
Marshall, Scott. “Edith Wharton on Film and Television: A History and Filmography.” EWR, Spring 1996, Volume XIII, No. 2. pp. 15–26.
Marshall discusses Wharton’s attitude toward film (antagonistic), her positive attitude toward theater, and the adaptations of those of Wharton’s works which were translated to either film or theater. Marshall also notes Wharton’s involvement in those productions which were moved to the stage.
Macnaughton, William. “Edith Wharton’s ‘The Blond Beast’ and Friedrich Nietsche.” EWR, Fall 1999, Volume XV, No. 2. pp. 13–19.
Macnaughton contends that critics have considered Wharton’s study of Nietsche only in terms of her affair with Fullerton (i.e., that she used Nietsche’s discussion in part to justify the affair), but that they have overlooked Wharton’s use of Nietsche in her fiction. He then takes up a discussion of just that question, focusing primarily on the Nietschean figures of Millner and Spence Wharton’s short story, “The Blond Beast.”
Maine, Barry. “Reading ‘The Portrait’: Edith Wharton and John Singer Sargent.” EWR, Spring 2002, Volume XVIII, No. 1. pp. 7–14.
Maine suggests that Wharton’s early story, “The Portrait,” has been overlooked or underexamined, and that the key to understanding the story may be to consider the link between Wharton and Sargent. Specifically, Maine looks at the similarities between Lillo (the artist in the story) and Sargent, provides background context regarding Sargent and Wharton’s relationship with him, and suggests that Wharton’s writing does much the same thing as Sargent’s painting: it presents a portrait while exposing the inner character of the subject.
Mayné, Gilles. “About the Displacement of Certain Words in The Age of Innocence: A Bataillian Reading.” EWR, Fall 1997, Volume XV, No. 2. pp. 8–14.
Mayné does a close reading of The Age of Innocence, focusing on places where the language can be interpreted in more than one way, specifically as it concerns the characters of Ellen and Newland. He suggests that Ellen, because of the double entendre nature of the language, is unable to find her place in the social environment she wishes to enter because she cannot interpret the governing language.
Mindrup, Emilie F. “The Mnemonic Impulse: Reading Edith Wharton’s Summer as Propaganda.” EWR, Spring 2002, Volume XVIII, No. 1. pp. 14–22.
Mindrup does a close reading of Summer, using selected images, language, or mnemonic links between the novella and Wharton’s own experience to identify the text as war propaganda. Mindrup suggests that Wharton’s frustration with America’s isolationist attitude was exacerbated by the loss of cultural works she prized (libraries, museums, works of art and architecture, etc.) as those works were destroyed by the German army. She also suggests that previous critics—specifically male critics—of Wharton’s war writing have undervalued the works because they “usurped” territory historically designated as male: politics, war, and the wartime experience. Mindrup suggests that they were unable to access the language and “symbolic systems” typically used by female writing.
Moore, Kathleen. “Edith Wharton’s Lily Bart and the Subject of Agency.” EWR, Spring 2003, Volume XIX, No. 1. pp. 8–15.
Moore offers an interesting discussion about Lily’s “fragmented” self (of The House of Mirth), and the nature the gaze. She notes that Lily acquires her strongest sense of self when she is the object of own gaze, but that her sense of self seems to fragment most dramatically when she loses the gaze of the other. Moore suggests that Wharton is implying that our sense of reality and search for self is determined by the social gaze within which we live.
Nowlin, Michael. “‘Before the Country’s Awakening’: Aesthetic Misjudgment and National Growth in The Spark.” EWR, Fall 2003, Volume XIX, No. 2. pp. 10–15.
Nowlin argues that Wharton uses Whitman in The Spark as a sort of literary touchstone, designed to raise the question—or confirm it—of the country’s changing attitude toward national identity.
Olin-Ammentorp, Julie. “Edith Wharton’s War Elegies.” EWR, Spring 2004, Volume XX, No. 1. pp. 6–12.
Olin-Ammentorp takes a close look at several of Wharton’s war writings—specifically, her prose and poetry eulogies to friends, family, and even unknowns killed in World War I. She notes that Wharton may have begun her writing about the fallen a bit callously, but the switch to poetry—a form Wharton in which published only rarely—seems to echo her later need for a more emotional expression.
Olin-Ammentorp, Julie and Ann Ryan. “Undine Spragg and the Transcendental I.” EWR, Spring 2001, Volume XVII, No. 1. pp. 1–8.
Olin-Ammentorp and Ryan evaluate Emerson’s influence in Custom of the Country, focusing on the character of Undine Spragg. They link Ralph Marvel with Emerson, and note that the flaw in Emerson’s philosophy is that beauty may reinvigorate the soul, not all beauty is worthy of consideration or inspiration—as evidenced by Undine Spragg.
Orr, Elaine Neil. Subject to Negotiation: Reading Feminist Criticism and American Women’s Fictions. Charlottesville: UP of Virginia, 1997.
Orr’s focus is on “negotiation.” Literally, she places herself as “insider/outsider” in feminst criticism; she stands on the borders or crossing points and suggests that feminist criticism has neglected that vantage point. Instead of considering texts and theory in strict terms of rebellion or subversion, she argues that there is a stopping place in the inbetween that offers a world of new interpretation of text, theory, and identity. There are 6 chapters. Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 deal with one text each from Wharton, Hurston, Welty, Morrison, and Pierce, respectively.
Patterson, Martha Helen. “Survival of the Best Fitted: The Trope of the New Woman in Margaret Murray Washington, Pauline Hopkins, Sui Sin Far, Edith Wharton and Mary Johnston.” Dissertation Abstracts International, 57:5 (1996 Nov), 2041A (U of Iowa, AAT9629704)
Patterson argues that the ambivalent presentation of the trope of the “new woman” (New Woman) via the Gibson Girl model in the texts of Margaret Murray Washington, Pauline Hopkins, Edith Wharton, Sui Sin Far, and Mary Johnston is demonstrative of their awareness of their own socio-political and economic positioning, and the roles they—and their “new” rhetoric—play within those respective communities. The characters they draw in their writings are range from reinforcement of the underlying Gibson Girl (or Gibson Man) ideology to critical contradiction.
Peucker, Brigitte. “Rival Arts? Filming The Age of Innocence.” EWR, Fall 1996, Volume XIII, No. 1. pp. 19–22.
Peucker discusses the deliberate overlapping and referencing of film, art (painting and sculpture), and literature. She uses The Age of Innocence as the focal point of the essay, but includes mention of the directors, cameramen, and techniques relevant to the discussion. Peucker argues that film creates its space by bringing the other forms into the camera’s view.
Pifer, Ellen. “The Children: Wharton’s Creative Ambivalence to Self, Society, and the ‘New World’.” A Forward Glance: New Essays on Edith Wharton. Clare Colquitt, Susan Goodman, Candace Waid, eds. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1999. pp. 221–232.
Pifer does a close reading of Wharton’s The Children, focusing on Wharton’s use of Martin Boyne as a recasting of Wharton in order to view Rose and Judith (the primary female characters), and as a means by which she could examine her own life as well as the upcoming generation.
Porter, David H. “O all you beauties I shall never see: An Unpublished Edith Wharton Letter.” EWR, Fall 2000, Volume XVI, No. 2. pp. 13–17.
Porter discusses an unpublished letter from Wharton to Le Roy King, written after the death of her sister-in-law, Minnie in 1935. In addition to the letter, Porter discusses Wharton’s growing sense of her own mortality (she died in 1937), and how the spate of deaths which seemed to surround her during this period affected her. He also noted her similar grief over the destruction and loss of her flowers and plants in her gardens, and the metaphor represented in their “death.”
Price, Alan. The End of the Age of Innocence: Edith Wharton and the First World War. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996.
Price chronicles Wharton’s day-to-day life between 1914 and 1920 largely through her correspondence and with a lot of quotes. Wharton’s charity work during the war was incredible, and she was in a constant cycle of frenzied activity that pushed her to exhaustion and then doctor-ordered rest breaks to recover. Price raises a few questions about her relationships and desires that I haven’t seen mentioned in other places, such as her intimate friendship with Berenson, and the question of whether Wharton would have liked more were Berenson not already married. Price also raises the image of the younger Ronald Simmons who died of pneumonia in 1912 during his intelligence posting in Marseilles. The last few pages of the conclusion discuss Wharton’s war-time writings, and their scholarly reception today as well as their reception at the time of printing.
Raitt, Suzanne, and Trudi Tate, eds. Women’s Fiction and the Great War. Oxford UP, 1997.
The introduction to the book is interesting in that it discusses the notion of gender and war—specifically how women became a part of the war rhetoric, how they became their own rhetoric during a time of war, and both the divergence and conflation of gender terminology. I admit that I read it a bit skeptically, even though I found a number of things worth noting. But it disturbed me that they labeled Wharton a “middle-class” writer, and suggest that Wharton (and Gertrude Stein) “side-stepped the issue of the relevance of art to war by undertaking their own projects of relief and assistance” (9). Since Wharton was most certainly not a middle-class writer—she was one of the few privileged upper class writers—I’m inclined to take much of their combined introductory material with a large grain of salt. The question of whether Wharton dealt with art in its relationship to war is a grey one, but given all that she wrote and the manner in which she presented the war in her own art, I find that statement simplistic in the extreme. While much of her writing was indeed dedicated to raising funds, she did much that was not, and which was published later, such as A Son at the Front, and her Fighting France essays. Likewise, she produced the Book of the Homeless, a coffee-table book of art, photos, writings, poetry, etc. put together as a fund raiser. Can one say that an artist isn’t relating war to her art if she uses her art to portray that war?
Ramsden, George. Edith Wharton’s Library: A Catalogue. Settrington: Stone Trough Books, 1999.
Wharton’s will decreed that her library should be divided in half; the “literature” portion should go to friend Sir Kenneth Clark in trust for his son and her godson, Colin, while the other portion should go toWilliam and Elisina (her executrix) Tyler. Ramsden was able to acquire Colin’s portion in roughly 1985, mostly intact but for a few losses to an earlier fire. The Tyler portion, however–some 1600 books–was stored with a number of the Tylers’ other belongings in London during 1940 while the Tylers were in the United States. The entire storage was destroyed–presumably during a bombing raid–in November of 1940, during World War II. The Tylers received less than £900 for their loss, a sum which certainly could not compensate for the history, artefacts, and heirlooms included in that portion of the library. Ramsden’s book is a professional catalogue of the Clark portion of the library and those books he was able to search out later. He has included not only publication information about each volume, but also origin if available, current location, and a notation about any notes, comments, or inscriptions. The book was published in limited quantity, but is valuable for the insight it gives into the depth and breadth of Wharton’s reading and interests.
Rich, Catherine. “Edith Wharton and the Politics of Colonialism: The Good Public Relations of In Morocco.” EWR, Fall 1999, Volume XV, No. 2. pp. 8–13.
Rich examines the use of colonial or imperial language in In Morocco and suggests that Wharton may have been swayed by the preferential treatment she was given during her visit and her bias toward France and the French government—and potentially her own prejudices—to present a more positive image of the colonial French government in Morocco than existed in reality.
Rohrbach, Augusta. “Sexing the Lily: Shadows and Darkness in Terence Davies’ House of Mirth.” EWR, Spring 2004, Volume XX, No. 1. pp. 19–25.
Rohrback does a close comparison of Davies’s film production of The House of Mirth, noting where Davies changes the text, and the means he employs to put Wharton’s text on screen. She notes the use of shadow and darkness as limiter, the elusiveness of Lily’s face until the end of the text, the use of smoking and cigarettes to signify moments of sensual or sexual risk. She also notes Davies’s decision to change the Rosedale character into a more politically correct figure, thus losing a large portion of Wharton’s intended purpose for the character.
Saltz, Laura. “From Image to Text: Modernist Transformations in Edith Wharton’s ‘The Muse’s Tragedy’.” EWR, Fall 2003, Volume XIX, No. 2. pp. 15–23.
Saltz suggests that previous criticism which has viewed Mary in Wharton’s “The Muse’s Tragedy” as either “visual object or textual subject” may have missed the mark. Instead, she argues, the key should be the transition or “connection” between object and subject. Saltz suggests that Mary took control over her own textual subjectivity in response to her earlier position as object.
Saunders, Judith P. “Wharton’s Borrowing from Crane’s Maggie in The Age of Innocence.” EWR, Spring 2003, Volume XIX, No. 1. pp. 1–8.
Saunders does a close reading of the museum scene in the two stories, and argues that Wharton crafts her scene with a deliberate allusion to the Crane text.
Schriber, Mary Suzanne. “Fighting France: Travel Writing in the Grotesque.” A Forward Glance: New Essays on Edith Wharton. Clare Colquitt, Susan Goodman, Candace Waid, eds. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1999. pp. 139–148.
Schriber discusses Wharton’s use of the travel writing genre in Fighting France. She argues that the text is designed to be read with the usual travel writing expectations, but that Wharton inverts the sights, sounds, and insights in such a way—even as she adheres to the form and parallels Motor Flight with Fighting France—that the reader experiences a travel of the grotesque. Schriber notes that it is Wharton’s hope that the resulting conflict between expectation and realization will prompt the American reader to action.
Segalla, Spencer D. “Re-Inventing Colonialism: Race and Gender in Edith Wharton’s In Morocco.” EWR, Fall 2001, Volume XVII, No. 2. pp. 22–30.
Segalla considers In Morocco in light of Wharton’s French Ways, arguing that Wharton’s understanding of French and American identities inform her interpretation—and therefore presentation—of Morocco. He suggests that while Wharton supported Lyautey, she did not support the French colonial approach in Morocco, and that while her text uses the discourse of colonialism, it does so in an attempt to subvert it. Segalla argues that Wharton’s opinions are also heavily influenced by her own attitudes toward race and gender and operate in contrast to the French portrayals of the country and its people (e.g., she presents Arab women asexually, but black women sensually).
Sensibar, Judith L.”Edith Wharton as Propagandist and Novelist: Competing Visions of ‘The Great War’.” A Forward Glance: New Essays on Edith Wharton. Clare Colquitt, Susan Goodman, Candace Waid, eds. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1999. pp. 149–171.
Sensibar discusses sections from Wharton’s In Morocco, A Son at the Front, and letters in light of Wharton’s Orientalism or colonializing gaze. She notes the homosocial/homosexual/homoerotic perspective of Wharton’s traveling companions, and Wharton’s tendency to not see her own—or her hosts’—collusion or participation in that orientalism.
Simons, Judy. Diaries and Journals of Literary Women from Fanny Burney to Virginia Woolf. Iowa City: U of Iowa P, 1990.
In Chapter 7, “The Life Apart: The Diaries of Edith Wharton,” Simons considers Wharton’s diary activity, particularly the diaries kept during the period of Wharton’s affair with Fullerton. She notes the obvious contradiction between Wharton’s autobiography (which claims that Wharton never kept any form of diary until she was 55 (144) ) and the presence of the various diaries themselves. The essay, however, focuses on the diary which was written during the Fullerton affair, because it—more so than any other—demonstrates the diarist as a feeling and emotional being, but also as a writer aware of her craft. Simons notes R.W.B. Lewis’s more negative perspective of the diary, but makes a keen observation that literary criticism must take into account the nature/purpose/etc. of the writing itself, rather than arbitrarily apply generic—or currently academically fashionable—standards of literary evaluative criteria with the figurative broad brush.
Singley, Carol J. “Calvinist Tortures in Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome.” The Calvinist Roots of the Modern Era. Eds. Aliki Barnstone, Michael Tomasek Manson, Carol J. Singley. Hanover: UP of New England, 1997. 163–180.
Singley argues that Ethan Frome reflects a struggle with Calvinist values and expression as part of Wharton’s own development as a modernist writer, but perhaps especially because of the emotional and spiritual conflict created by her affair with Fullerton. The introduction to the book is helpful for placing Calvinism in historical context, particularly in terms of Puritanism and the country’s development on a number of fronts.
Shaffer-Koros, Carole M. “Edgar Allan Poe and Edith Wharton: The Case of Mrs. Mowatt.” EWR, Spring 2001, Volume XVII, No. 1. pp. 12–16.
Shaffer-Koros provides a brief discussion of Poe’s standing in the literary community as backdrop for Wharton’s appreciation of the poet and critic. She suggests that Wharton had studied and was influenced by all of Poe’s works, and establishes a link between Anna Mowatt (praised by Poe), Wharton, and Wharton’s character Elmer Moffatt of Custom of the Country. Shaffer-Koros also suggests that Wharton intended Custom of the Country “as a comic novel” rather than a tragedy.
Stark, Jared. “Wharton’s Suicides.” EWR, Fall 2002, Volume XVIII, No. 2. 12–25.
Stark first offers a discussion of American society’s attitude toward suicide during the time of Wharton’s writing. He then examines several cases of suicide—failed and successful—in Wharton’s work, and suggests that Wharton uses suicide in her texts to question other social fictions, that her work “neither redeems an authenticity debased in the modern world nor testifies to the immanence of external determinations. Rather, Wharton’s suicides expose the limits of such fictions, that is, the place where they silence, distort, or appropriate the indeterminate acts that produce or elicit them” (22).
Sweeney, Susan Elizabeth. “Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Gazing into Edith Wharton’s ‘Looking Glass’.” Narrative 3: 139-60. (also in Speaking the Other Self: American Women Writers. Jeanne Campbell Reesman, ed. Athens: U of Georgia P, 1997. pp 54–75)
Sweeney focuses on the “Looking-Glass” ghost story, and does a very close reading of the gaze, not limiting herself to the characters within the story, but extending her discussion to the author and the reader.
Thompson, Terry W. “‘All Souls’‘: Edith Wharton’s Homage to ‘The Jolly Corner’.” EWR, Spring 2003, Volume XIX, No. 1. pp. 15–20.
Thompson again recreates the Wharton-James link by doing a close reading of Wharton’s ghost story, “All Souls’,” and comparing it to James’s “The Jolly Corner,” suggesting that Wharton deliberately crafted her story with the intention of echoing James’s story.
Tintner, Adeline R. “The Glimpses of the Moon and Tiepolo’s Fresco, The Transportation of the Holy House.” EWR, Spring 1997, Volume XIV, No. 1. pp. 22–27.
Tintner argues that the closing scene in The Glimpses of the Moon is deliberately cast to resemble Tiepolo’s The Transportation of the Holy House, a fresco which was destroyed by an Austrian bomb in 1915, seven years before the book’s publication. Tintner questions Wharton’s lack of explanation of the fresco, even though Wharton clearly references it at an earlier point in the text, and describes it in her Italian Backgrounds. Tintner suggests that because the fresco is not widely known, and few pictures are published of it, most critics have overlooked the significance of the novel’s ending—a blessing of home and family. Her argument contrasts the usual explanation that Wharton provided a happy ending to the novel purely on the basis of her publisher’s request for one.
Tintner, Adeline. “Louis Auchincloss’s Four ‘Edith’ Tales: Some Rearrangements and Reinventions of Her Life.” EWR, Spring 1996, Volume XIII, No. 2. pp. 9–14.
Tintner focuses on four of Auchincloss’s stories in which he writes Edith Wharton as a character. She notes that the first three use pseudonyms for the character, while the last story uses Wharton’s real name. She also discusses—although not in detail—ways in which the Auchincloss “Ediths” are fictionalized and manipulated characters.
Vita-Finzi, Penelope. “Italian Background: Edith Wharton’s Debt to Vernon Lee.” EWR, Fall 1996, Volume XIII, No. 1. pp. 14–18.
Vita-Finzi explores Wharton’s relationship with Vernon Lee, and Lee’s influence in Wharton’s own Italian studies and explorations. She chronicles their friendship, shared writings and feedback, and Wharton’s ignorance of (or acceptance of on the grounds of intellectual ability) Lee’s sexuality.
Wagner-Martin, Linda. The Age of Innocence: A Novel of Ironic Nostalgia. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1996.
The book is a solid critical study of The Age of Innocence and would make a handy supplement for a course that uses TAoI as a text. It’s slightly dated, but general enough, and pushes the unique enough, to still be appropriate. Most helpful are the first three and last three chapters for contextualizing the text.
Waid, Candace. Edith Wharton’s Letters from the Underworld. (Fictions of Women and Writing). Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1991.
A collection of essays which approach Wharton’s texts from the idea of the Persephone myth.
Warren, Joyce W., and Margaret Dickie. Challenging Boundaries: Gender and Periodization. Athens: U of GA Press, 2000.
The text argues for a reconstruction of defined literary periods in order to include those writers who’ve been left out because they don’t fit into the existing categories.
Weckerle, Lisa. “Taming the Transgressive: A Feminist Analysis of the Film Adaptation of ‘The Old Maid.” EWR, Spring 2004, Volume XX, No. 1. pp. 12–19.
Weckerle argues that the film version of Wharton’s “The Old Maid” considerably softens Wharton’s criticism of women’s limited or socially acceptable roles in society at the time of the text, and that in order to stay true to Wharton’s intended purpose, the visual media needs to include more of the text’s rhetoric. For Weckerle, the language itself is the subversive element in the text, and omitting it from the film also eliminates the works’s strength.
Wegener, Frederick. “Form, “Selection,” and Ideology in Edith Wharton’s Antimodernist Aesthetic.” A Forward Glance: New Essays on Edith Wharton. Clare Colquitt, Susan Goodman, Candace Waid, eds. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1999. pp. 116–138.
Wegener considers Wharton’s antimodernist commentary in her critical writings, as well as her responses to the newer forms of fiction and younger generation of writers—and possible reasons for her antipathy toward both. He notes her own inconsistent pedagogies (what holds true for her doesn’t necessarily hod true for someone else), and suggests that much of the difficulty is that Wharton felt her work and herself (and by extension the segment of the social population from which she hails) shelved and dismissed or forgotten.
Wegener, Frederick. “Rabid Imperialist”: Edith Wharton and the Obligations of Empire in Modern American Fiction. American Literature 72:4 (December 2000), 783-812.
In essence, Wegener discusses Wharton’s use of imperial language—the discourse of appropriation and colonialization—within her writings, perhaps most noticeably within her travel writings. He argues that she wasn’t alone in the use of the language, but that she also encouraged participation in the discourse by other American writers.
Werlock, Abby. “The Custom of the Country: George Sand’s Indiana and Edith Wharton’s Indiana/Undine.” EWR, Spring 2002, Volume XVIII, No. 1. pp. 1–7.
Werlock notes the similarities between Sand’s and Wharton’s lives, Wharton’s admiration for Sand, and then focuses on the similarities between Wharton’s Custom of the Country and Sand’s Indiana. She also suggests, however, that while Wharton’s text was heavily influenced by Sand’s, that Wharton used irony to undercut or subvert the similarities.
Werlock, Abby H. P. “Whitman, Wharton, and the Sexuality in Summer.” Pp 266-62 (?) in Speaking the Other Self.
Werlock discusses Wharton’s poetry—particularly, her affinity for and appreciation of Whitman. She links Whitman’s Leaves of Grass with Wharton’s Summer as a feminist subtext, and does a series of close readings comparing the two works.
Wilson-Jordan, Jacqueline S. “Telling the Story That Can’t Be Told: Hartley’s Role as Dis-eased Narrator in ‘The Lady’s Maid’s Bell’.” EWR, Spring 1997, Volume XIV, No. 1. pp. 12–17.
Wilson-Jordan argues that Hartley (the protagonist in “The Lady’s Maid’s Bell”) is not merely diseased narrator and therefore potentially unreliable, but that the condition also provides Hartley the opportunity for the necessary insights and understandings of the situation in which she finds herself. Wilson-Jordan notes the influence Wharton’s own childhood illness has on the text, and draws in feminist critical theory about women’s writings and “saying the unsayable.”
Witherow, Jean. “A dialectic of deception: Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence.” Mosaic (Winnipeg), Sept 2003 v36 i3 p165(16)
Witherow examines the use of language—specifically that of Ellen and Newland and May—in Lacanian terms via Zizek. S/He argues that Newland dwells in the “imaginative” rather than the “real”—and keeps Ellen in the symbolic—while Ellen dwells in the “real.” As a result, there is no solid communication between the two; their communicative existences mismatch. Interestingly, by labeling Newland as such, and noting that he was loathe to rock the boat or be conspicuous, she creates an analogue between social convention and fantasy rather than reality.
Witzig, Denise. “The Writer’s Wardrobe: Wharton Cross-Dressed.” A Forward Glance: New Essays on Edith Wharton. Clare Colquitt, Susan Goodman, Candace Waid, eds. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1999. pp. 49-61.
Witzig discusses the tendency to associate a writer’s life too closely with a writer’s works, and suggests that that leaning is no less present in feminist criticism of female author’s writings than any other genre—perhaps more so. She doesn’t argue that the nature of the writer should be discarded in the critical evaluation, but rather that it should be complicated by considering how “textuality—the ways in which writing and reading engage and perform female subjectivity” (51)—functions as masquerade within the text.
Wolff, Cynthia Griffin. “Edith Wharton and the Ladies’ Matinee.” EWR, Fall 1996, Volume XIII, No. 1. pp. 1, 38–40.
Discusses Wharton’s writing—and life—in terms of breaking the pattern established by rhetoric demonstrated in the Ladies’ Matinees. Argues that Wharton discusses “the woman problem” as symptomatic of a “more general social malady.”
Woods, Susan L. “The Solace of Separation: Feminist Theory, Autobiography, Edith Wharton, and Me.” Creating Safe Space: Violence and Women’s Writing. Ed. Tomoko Kuribayashi and Julie Tharp. New York: State U of New York P, 1998. pp. 27-46.
Woods’s essay is a discussion of the nature of incest and sexual abuse as it is reflected in autobiographical writings. She frames the discussion with Bahktinian discourse, and considers the ways in which Wharton’s A Mother’s Recompense may also reflect some of the language of the survivor of abuse.
Wright, Sarah Bird. Edith Wharton A to Z: An Essential Guide to the Life and Work. NY: Facts on File, 1998.
This is such a cool book! The text is, in essence, an encyclopedia of Edith Wharton. It’s divided into alphabetic groupings just as would be a dictionary or encyclopedia. For instance, under “A” you’ll find entries for Age of Innocence as well as Matthew Arnold, Algeria, the French Academy, and Argonne. The text includes a number of photos, paintings, maps, and other illustrations, and has a half dozen useful appendices (e.g., family trees; a chronology of Wharton’s work; a timeline), an very tidy bibliography, and a very solid index. With a nine-point Times New Roman (or equivalent) font, Wright has crammed a lot of information into her 230+ pages in perhaps the best organized summary of Wharton I’ve seen.
Wright, Sarah Bird, ed. Edith Wharton Abroad: Selected Travel Writings, 1888-1920. Preface by Shari Benstock. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1996.
Wright has compiled a selection of excerpts from Wharton’s travel writings, as well as French Ways and the Italian Villas texts which, while not travel writings, are strong studies of their respective cultures. She spends a fair amount of time focusing on the Wharton’s travels, and the role travel played in her life, but most especially that travel was both a primary source of education and inspiration for Wharton.
Wright, Sarah Bird. “Refracting the Odyssey: Edith Wharton’s Travel Writing as the Cultural Capital of Her Fiction.” EWR, Fall 1996, Volume XIII, No. 1. pp. 23–30.
Wright discusses the influence Wharton’s travels had upon her personal and professional growth and development, and the resulting influence her travel writing—the recording of sights, impressions, and knowledge as well as the fictionalizing of it—had upon her other writing.