The architectural imagination of Edith Wharton
Subtitle: gender, class, and power in the progressive era
By: Annette Benert
Publisher: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press
Published: 2007
Place of publication: Madison [N.J.]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 261
ISBN-13: 9780838641064
Subjects: Wharton, Edith, -- 1862-1937 -- Criticism and interpretation; Architecture in literature; Space (Architecture) in literature; Public spaces in literature; Architecture, Domestic, in literature; Dwellings in literature; Upper class in literature; Social status in literature
Description: "Recent movies, books, even news pieces have returned Edith Wharton to prominence as a major American novelist. However, few readers have taken her architectural work as seriously as she herself did, or noticed its profound effect on her career. The purpose of this book is to track Wharton's architectural and literary achievements in tandem so as to reveal their complex relationship. Like her writing career, the book begins and ends in her fierce attachment to traditional values, moves from her early delight in Italy to her midlife despair for France, and centers in the brilliantly crafted structures and spaces of the early New York novels."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 242-254) and index
Table of contents: title: Renaissance woman; title: The Italian spectacle; title: Prisons of privilege; title: Maintaining the margins; title: The romance of nature; title: The French war; title: Losing Atlantis