Edith Wharton in Context

Edith Wharton was one of America's most popular and prolific writers, becoming the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1921. In a publishing career spanning seven decades, Wharton lived and wrote through a period of tremendous social, cultural and historical change. Bringing together a team of international scholars, this volume provides the first substantial text dedicated to the various contexts that frame Wharton's remarkable career. Each essay offers a clearly argued and lucid assessment of Wharton's work as it relates to seven key areas: life and works, critical receptions, book and publishing history, arts and aesthetics, social designs, time and place, and literary milieux. These sections provide a broad and accessible resource for students coming to Wharton for the first time while offering scholars new critical insights.

List of illustrations; Notes on contributors; List of abbreviations; Preface; Part I. Life and Works: 1. Edith Wharton: contextual revisions Laura Rattray; 2. Chronology: Wharton in cultural and historical context Pamela Knights and Laura Rattray; 3. Biography Melanie Dawson; 4. Composition and publication Sharon Kehl Califano; 5. Portraits of Wharton Susan Goodman; Part II. Critical Receptions: 6. Contemporary reviews 1877–1938 Heidi M. Kunz; 7. Obituaries Linda De Roche; 8. 'Justice' to Edith Wharton?: The early critical responses Melissa M. Pennell; 9. Modern critical receptions Jessica Schubert McCarthy; Part III. Book and Publishing History: 10. Wharton and her editors Sharon Shaloo; 11. Selling Wharton Gary Totten; 12. Serialization Elsa Nettels; 13. Short story markets Bonnie Shannon McMullen; Part IV. Arts and Aesthetics: 14. Stage adaptations of Wharton's fiction John Dennis Anderson; 15. Wharton's writings on screen Anne-Marie Evans; 16. Visual arts Emily J. Orlando; 17. Architecture Cecilia Macheski; 18. Interior and garden design Helena Chance; 19. Images of Wharton Katherine Joslin; Part V. Social Designs: 20. The marriage market Pamela Knights; 21. Leisured lives Maureen E. Montgomery; 22. Wharton and gender Linda Wagner-Martin; 23. Race and imperialism Margaret Toth; 24. Social transitions Adam Jabbur; Part VI. Time and Place: 25. Wharton and France William Blazek; 26. Wharton and Italy Robin Peel; 27. Wharton and World War I Julie Olin-Ammentorp; 28. The 1920s Gail D. Sinclair; 29. Wharton and the Great Depression Carol J. Singley; Part VII. Literary Milieux: 30. Literary influences Judith P. Saunders; 31. Wharton and the American romantics Linda Costanzo Cahir; 32. The novel of manners Cecilia Macheski; 33. Naturalism Donna Campbell; 34. Modernism Jennifer Haytock; Further reading; Index.

Author of renowned works including The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton was one of America's most popular and prolific writers. Bringing together a team of international scholars, this text provides the first substantive volume focused on the social, literary, cultural and historical contexts that produced the writer and her career.

Laura Rattray is Senior Lecturer in American Literature at the University of Hull. She is editor of the two-volume The Unpublished Writings of Edith Wharton (2009) and Edith Wharton's The Custom of the Country: A Reassessment (2010). Her recent publications include journal articles on Wharton, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Hollywood, Josephine Johnson and the Hollywood novels of Horace McCoy. She has recently been awarded a Leverhulme Fellowship for her work on Wharton.