Edith Wharton (1862-1937)
A selective list of online literary criticism for the American novelist, short-story writer, essayist, and autobiographer, Edith Wharton, including signed articles by recognized scholars, peer and editor reviewed articles, and web sites that follow MLA guidelines for web pages.
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introduction & lighter reading
The Edith Wharton Society maintains an up-to-date listing of web sites and news for Edith Wharton.
A Teacher's Guide to Edith Wharton from Heath.
Teaching resources for Edith Wharton from C-Span from their 2001 American Writers series.
Wharton's home in Lenox, Massachusetts, The Mount, which is now a museum.
"Edith Wharton's World," an exhibit of paintings related to Wharton, from the Smithsonian.
literary criticism
Balestra, Gianfranca. "'For the use of the magazine morons': Edith Wharton rewrites the tale of the fantastic." On Wharton's ambivalent feelings about the reading public and the market economy for literary work. Studies in Short Fiction (Winter 1996).
Fitzpatrick, Kathleen. "From The Children to The Marriage Playground and back again: Filmic readings of Edith Wharton," Literature/Film Quarterly (1999).
Foata, Anne. "Edith Wharton and the Faubourg Saint-Germain: the diary of the Abbe Mugnier." On a French curate, Abbe Mugnier, who was a lifelong friend of Wharton, and his diary. Twentieth Century Literature (Winter 1997).
Gerard, Bonnie Lynn. "From tea to chloral: raising the dead Lily Bart- character in woman author Edith Wharton's book 'The House of Mirth'" Twentieth Century Literature (Winter 1998).
Grafton, Kathy. "Degradation and forbidden love in Edith Wharton's 'Summer.' "Grafton contends that Wharton's portrayal of the heroine's sexual awakening in Summer demonstrates an awareness of Freud. Twentieth Century Literature (Winter 1995).
Inness, Sherrie A. "Loyal saints or devious rascals": domestic servants in Edith Wharton's stories "The Lady's Maid's Bell" and "All Souls.'" On the importance of the indoors for Wharton, as illustrated by her attention to domestic servants in her short stories. Studies in Short Fiction (Fall 1999).
Jacobsen, Karen J. "Economic hauntings: wealth and class in Edith Wharton's ghost stories." College Literature (2008)
MacNaughton, William R. "The artist as moralist: Edith Wharton's revisions to the Last Chapter of The Custom of the Country," Papers on Language and Literature (Winter 2001).
Menon, Pat."'Beings of Different Language': Pragmatist meets Idealist in Edith Wharton's The Reef." Menon discusses Wharton's use of her personal experience in The Reef: "One way of understanding The Reef, then, is as the distillation of the personal into the impersonal-by removing the more melodramatic aspects of her own affair while retaining the emotional climate of betrayal, Wharton was able to go beyond the exploration of problems of sexual unfaithfulness to the difficulty of harmonising two contrasted approaches to life, approaches that may be loosely designated the "pragmatic" and the "idealist." The New Compass: A Critical Review 2 (December 2003) Also Emsley, Sarah. "Sexual Purity and Relentless Indecision in Wharton's The Reef: A Reply to Pat Menon." The New Compass: A Critical Review 3 (June 2004).
Pizer, Donald. "The naturalism of Edith Wharton's 'House of Mirth.'" Twentieth Century Literature (Summer 1995).
Preston, Claire. An introduction to Edith Wharton, from the Literary Encyclopedia [subscription service].
Salas, Angela M. "Ghostly presences: Edith Wharton's Sanctuary and the issue of maternal sacrifice." Salas defends Wharton's novella Sanctuary. College Literature (Spring 1998).
Singley, Carol J. "Race, culture, nation: Edith Wharton and Ernest Renan." On the influence of philosopher Ernest Renan on Wharton's skepticism and her thoughts about her expatriation. Twentieth Century Literature (Spring 2003).
Schwarztrauber, Helmut. "A writer is dependent on his milieu: The Romancer Disinherited, Or: The Subversive Muse - E. Wharton's 'Souls Belated' (1899)," EESE (Aug. 2003).
(removed) Totten, Gary.
White, Barbara A. A review of Wharton's New England: Seven Stories and Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton (UP of New England 1995). Reviewed in Studies in Short Fiction (Spring 1996), by Joseph Griffin.
Young, Judy Hale. "The repudiation of sisterhood in Edith Wharton's 'Pomegranate Seed.'" Writes Young: "Edith Wharton's ghost story 'Pomegranate Seed' reflects her view that women authors must not subjugate their writing to male standards." Studies in Short Fiction (Winter 1996).
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