Professor Beer's study provides an introduction to the whole range of Edith Wharton's work in the novel, short story, novella, travel writing, criticism and autobiography. The opening chapter provides an overview of recent scholarship in Wharton studies including an appraisal of biographical texts, and subsequent chapters treat recurrent themes and ideas in her fiction and non-fiction, and the American and European context of her work. The major novels, as well as those less well-known, are discussed as are: contemporary reception of her work, American responses to her expatriation, her...

Edith Wharton's dark view of society, the sombre economics of marriage, and the powerlessness of the unwedded woman in the 1870s emerge dramatically in The House of Mirth. One of America's finest novels of manners, this is a tragic account of the human capacity for cruelty.

Edith Wharton's "The House of Mirth" (1905) is a satirical, and also an analysis of a young, single woman trying to find her place in a materialistic and unforgiving society. Part of the "Routledge Guides to Literature" series, this volume is a guide to the novel, and also a way through the critical material that surrounds Wharton's text.

Although she enjoyed only modest success during her lifetime, Kate Chopin is now recognised as a unique voice in American literature. Her seminal novel, The Awakening, published in 1899, explored new and startling territory, and stunned readers with its frank depiction of the limits of marriage and motherhood. Chopin's aesthetic tastes and cultural influences were drawn from both the European and American traditions, and her manipulation of her 'foreignness' contributed to the composition of a complex voice that was strikingly different to that of her contemporaries. The essays in this...

Part of the "Lives of Victorian Literary Figures" series, this set collects contemporary memoirs, biographies and ephemera relating to Oscar Wilde, Henry James and Edith Wharton. Editorial apparatus includes a general introduction, headnotes, endnotes and a general index.

Part of the "Lives of Victorian Literary Figures" series, this set collects contemporary memoirs, biographies and ephemera relating to Oscar Wilde, Henry James and Edith Wharton. Editorial apparatus includes a general introduction, headnotes, endnotes and a general index.

Part of the "Lives of Victorian Literary Figures" series, this set collects contemporary memoirs, biographies and ephemera relating to Oscar Wilde, Henry James and Edith Wharton. Editorial apparatus includes a general introduction, headnotes, endnotes and a general index.

A wide range of short fiction by Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton and Charlotte Perkins Gilman is the focus for this study, examining both genre and theme. Chopin's short stories, Wharton's novellas, Chopin's frankly erotic writing and the homilies in which Gilman warns of the dangers of the sexually transmitted disease are compared. There are also essays on ethnicity in the work of Chopin, Wharton's New England stories, Gilman's innovative use of genre and 'The Yellow Wallpaper' on film. All three writers are still popular in US classrooms in particular. This paperback edition includes a new...