Synopses & Reviews
Edith Wharton emerges in this book as a novelist of morals (rather than manners). Behind her polished portraits of upper-class New York life is a thoughtful, questioning spirit. This book analyzes Wharton's religion and philosophy in short stories and seven major novels. It considers Wharton in terms of nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century American intellectual and religious life. It also analyzes Wharton in terms of her gender and class, explaining how this aristocratic woman applies and yet transforms both the classical and Christian traditions that she inherits.
Review
"Bringing impressive scholarship to bear, Singley traces the influence, fermentation, and transformation of various philosophical ideas and discourses in Wharton's texts....Without denying the isolation and alienation of Wharton by class and gender insightfully identified by other scholars, Singley returns Wharton to her intellectual and literary origins at home as well as abroad. Whartonians and Americanists will welcome this book." Mary Suzanne Schriber, American Literature
Synopsis
A study of religion and philosophy in the novels and short stories of Edith Wharton.
Synopsis
Carol Singley makes the case for Wharton as a novelist of morals rather than of manners; a novelist who sought answers to profound spiritual and metaphysical questions. By locating Wharton in the library rather than the drawng room, Matters of Mind and Spirit gives this writer her literary and intellectual due, and offers fresh ways of interpreting her life and fiction.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 232-247) and index.
Table of Contents
Introduction; 1. Priestess; 2. Spiritual homelessness; 3. Calvinist 'moral tortures'; 4. Fragile freedoms; 5. Platonic idealism; 6. Catholicism: fulfillment or concession; Works cited; Notes.