Edith Wharton: Matters of Mind and Spirit (Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture, Series Number 92)

Edith Wharton: Matters of Mind and Spirit, first published in 1995, 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. Focusing on Wharton's treatment of Anglicanism, Calvinism, Transcendentalism, and Catholicism, Carol Singley analyzes the short stories and seven novels in the light of religious and philosophical developments in Wharton's life and fiction. Singley situates Wharton in the context of turn-of-the-century science, historicism, and aestheticism, reading her religious and philosophical outlook as an evolving response to the cultural crisis of belief. She invokes the dynamics of class and gender as central to Wharton's quest, describing how the author accepted and yet transformed both the classical and Christian traditions that she inherited. By locating Wharton in the library rather than the drawing room, Matters of Mind and Spirit gives this writer her literary and intellectual due, and offers fresh ways of interpreting her life and fiction. Frontmatter......Page 1 Contents......Page 9 Preface......Page 11 Edith Wharton......Page 17 Morals and Manners......Page 19 American Roots and Rootlessness......Page 24 The Feminine Reclaimed......Page 30 Transcending Boundaries......Page 35 Aesthetic Salvation......Page 39 Philosophical Idealism......Page 48 Roman Fever......Page 52 Life Wonderer......Page 56 1 - Priestess of Reason......Page 59 The Strain of Looking Up......Page 61 Bohemians and Other Aberrations......Page 63 "Radiant Reasonableness"......Page 68 Awakeners......Page 71 Darwinian Descent and Dissent......Page 75 Limited Naturalism......Page 82 2 - Spiritual Homelessness......Page 85 Prosaic and Ideal in The House of Mirth......Page 88 Railroads and Pilgrims......Page 91 Lilies of Love......Page 95 Salvific Death......Page 99 The Heart of Wisdom......Page 103 3 - Calvinist Tortures......Page 107 Out of Religious Fashion......Page 108 "God-Intoxication"......Page 113 Unavailing Atonement......Page 121 Defeated Lives in Ethan Frome......Page 125 New England Revisited......Page 127 Lost Eden......Page 133 Inscrutable Powers......Page 136 A Usable Past......Page 140 4 - Fragile Freedoms......Page 145 Seeking Sophia in The Reef......Page 146 Delicate Deceptions......Page 152 Perilously Aground......Page 155 Charting New Courses......Page 160 Whitman's Song in Summer......Page 165 Returning Home for "Good"......Page 173 5 - Platonic Idealism......Page 181 Puritan Hellenism in The Age of Innocence......Page 182 Higher Reality......Page 186 Truth or Taste?......Page 191 Arrested Ascent......Page 195 6 - Catholicism: Fulfillment or Concession?......Page 202 More Than an Observer......Page 203 Reservations......Page 207 Augustinian Allusion in Hudson River Bracketed and The Gods Arrive......Page 213 Halo's Light......Page 219 Becoming a Man; Remaining a Woman......Page 223 Coda......Page 227 Notes......Page 231 Works Cited......Page 250 Index......Page 267 CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE......Page 281 Edith Wharton: Matters of Mind and Spirit considers Wharton as a novelist of morals rather than manners, a novelist who in the exercise of writing sought answers to profound spiritual and metaphysical questions. Carol Singley analyzes the short stories and seven novels in light of Wharton's religious and philosophical development and her attitudes toward Anglicanism, Calvinism, Transcendentalism, and Catholicism. Singley situates Wharton in the context of turn-of-the-century science, historicism, and aestheticism, reading her religious and philosophical outlook as an evolving response to the cultural crisis of belief. She further invokes the dynamics of class and gender as central to Wharton's quest, describing the ways in which the author accepted and yet transformed both the classical and Christian traditions that she inherited. 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. DISCOVERIES in science, which played key roles in the late Victorian struggle with faith, are crucial to understanding Edith Wharton's religious choices.

A study of religion and philosophy in the novels and short stories of Edith Wharton.