Edith+Wharton

Bio: Major works: Critical reception/reputation: Ethan Frome in Film:



Edith Wharton was born January 24, 1862 in New York City. She spent a lot of her early childhood along the coast in Newport, Rhode Island. She moved to Europe at the age of 4 where she was privately tutored in many subjects, such as literature, philosophy, science and art. Her first publications were in 1877 for a short story and a collection of poems. Wharton continued to write many works throughout her life. On August 11, 1937 Edith Wharton died of a stroke and was buried in Versailles, France.

-Joshua

__ Bio: __

Edith (Jones) Wharton was born into wealth and wrote novels which depicted the old New York aristocracy of the 19th and 20th centuries. She was not published until she was forty and she wrote over fifty books. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1921 for "The Age of Innocence".



__ Reception/Criticism :__
Wharton’s characters in Ethan Frome are not of the elite upper class like some of her other works. Some critics have read the novel as a “veiled autobiography” where they have interpreted the likeness between Ethan's situation with his wife in the novel to Wharton's unhappy marriage to her husband, Edward (Teddy) Robbins Wharton.

Jeffrey Lilburn states that some find “the suffering endured by Wharton's characters is excessive and unjustified” and others see the difficult moral questions addressed and say that it “provides insightful commentary on the American economic and cultural realities that produced and allowed such suffering.” Lilburn wrote that Wharton cripples Mattie but lets her live to reflect the cruelty of culture, not the author.

Some critics found Ethan Frome to have no moral content, but Elizabeth Ammons disagreed. Ammons compared the work to fairy tales. She felt that Wharton found a story that is “as moral as the classic fairy tale” and functions as a “realistic social criticism.” Ammons says that Mattie will become as frigid and crippled as Zeena if woman are kept isolated and dependent.

~Gina

__**Major Works:**__ Some of Wharton's major works are:

//The Greater Inclination// (1899) //The Valley of Decision// (1902) //The House of Mirth// (1905) //Ethan Frome// (1911) //The Reef// (1912) //The Custom of the Country// (1913) //Summer// (1917) //The Age of Innocence// (1920, Pulitzer Prize) //The Writing of Fiction// (1925) //Twilight Sleep// (1927) //Hudson River Bracketed// (1929) //The Gods Arrive// (1932) //A Backward Glance// (1934) //The Buccaneers// (1938)

(Henry James) <span style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica;">Wharton's major literary model was Henry James, who later became her close friend. It is said that her best tales were collected in //The Greater Inclination//, however it wasn't until she wrote //The House of Mirth// when Wharton established herself as a leading writer.

<span style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica;">Leanne

<span style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica;">

Wharton was an Pulitzer Prize winning author, designer, and wife. Born in 1862, she had a relatively normal upbrining. She married at 23 to Edward Robbins Wharton. Her husband suffered from depression, which eventually led to their divorce. Her book "The Age of Innocence" won the Pulitzer Prize, making her the first woman ever. In her writing, she used subtle dramatic irony along with humor. As her career progressed she took a sharper, harsher tone in her writing. Wharton died of stroke in 1937. She is buried in Versailles, France.

Edith Wharton was basically a pretty cool lady. In 1902 Edith Wharton created a house called "The Mount" in Lenox, Massachusetts that would allow herself to do all the work she needed. It is said the house is autobiographical and evokes the spirit of the woman who designed it. It is still standing today and is well maintained. There are tours of the house and it is even said to be haunted. I think we should visit this place during our field trip to the east coast :] Here is the link to the page about The Mount. http://www.edithwharton.org/

-Jessica

"Ethan Frome" in film, as reviewed by NY Times movie reviewer, Vincent Canby in 1993:

Canby does not seem to care for the movie adaptation of "Ethan Frome" very much. Liam Neeson plays the role of Ethan, and although he appears to be grotesquely deformed, it is not how Wharton describes the character in the book. The movie consists of the same dual narrator style and is made up of flashbacks. The scenery itself does not depict the desolate, dreary, cold, wintery sameness that the novella depicts, but instead looks as though it is from a "winter wonderland" Christmas card. The character of Mattie appears in the film initially as though she is some strung-out prostitute on her last leg, and slowly the life in which she is adopted as well as her love for Ethan helps her back to health. Zeena's cold, calculating meanness is played down considerably in the movie in order to save favor for her character. The initial narrator himself seems to be far too involved in Ethan's story and as a result seems a lot less genuine than the way Wharton wrote him.

All in all, Canby is not impressed and believes that the film does not do justice for Wharton's original work.



-Amanda Ising

__Wharton's Major Works:__ Novels //The Greater Inclination// (1899) //The Valley of Decision (1902)// //The House of Mirth (1905)// //The Age of Innocence (1920)// //The Writing of Fiction (1925)// //The Buccaneers (1938)//

Poetry //Verses// (1878) //Artemis to Actaeon and Other Verse// (1909) //Twelve Poems// (1926)

Short Stories //The Greater Inclination// (1899) //The Other Two// (1904) //Tales of Men and Ghosts// (1910) //Ghosts// (1937)

Non-fiction //The Declaration of Houses// (1897) //Italian Backgrounds (//1905) //The Writing of Fiction (//1925) //A Backward Glance (//1934)

While not a comprehensive list, this list looks at each of the genre's Wharton wrote in and highlights some of her most popular works. -Meagan

A naturally gifted storyteller, Wharton wrote short fiction and novels notable for their vividness, satire, irony, and wit. Her complex characters and subtly delivered point-of-view make the reading of Wharton's fiction both challenging and rewarding, while her own life illustrates the difficulties that a woman of her era had to surmount to find self-realization.

-Alyssa



Edith Wharton was writing in the early 1900's and she owned a giant creepy estate called The Mount, in Lenox, MA which overlooked the shores of Laurel Lake. This picture of her was taken at her estate. This estate can still be visited today and according to the tourist website it is rumored to be haunted.

-Ryan

Edith Wharton- The Age of Innocence Wharton wrote this novel as a response and apology to her earlier work //The House of Mirth// which was said to be very critical to the upper class of the East coast. In //The Age of Innocence// Wharton held back on most of her criticisms towards the upwardly mobile however, she was still able to question the morals and values of this social class. This novel shows the irony of the time where outward appearance conveyed innocence, while the inner workings of the family were fractured and mechanistic. It was later turned into a film in 1993 starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Daniel Day-Lewis.

-Amber Taylor



Edith Wharton's first published book was "The Decoration of Houses" - a book on interior design. This is an eerie foreshadow to the large estate Wharton would later build: an estate that is now rumored to be haunted.

-Liz


 * Ethan Frome**

The story of //Ethan Frome// had initially begun as a French-language composition that Wharton had to write while studying the language in Paris. Some critics have read the novel as a veiled autobiography where they have interpreted the likeness between Ethan's situation with his wife in the novel to Wharton's unhappy marriage to her husband, Edward (Teddy) Robbins Wharton. She began writing Ethan Frome when she was still married. However Wharton likely based the story on an accident that she had heard about in 1904. Five people total were in the actual accident, four girls and one boy. They crashed into a lamppost while sledding down Courthouse Hill in Lenox, Massachusetts. A girl named Hazel Crosby was killed in the accident. Another girl involved in the accident, Kate Spencer, became friends with Wharton while both worked at the Lenox Library and it was from Spencer that Wharton learned of the accident.



-Fletch <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Wharton’s work was well received by critics during her lifetime. She earned the first Pulitzer Prize ever awarded to a woman for “The Age of Innocence". But she had a problem even during her lifetime of being perceived as too wealthy to write authentically about everyday people. She was also viewed as being not genuine as a writer, since she had no suffering in her life to offer her writing credibility. Recently though, her writing has become increasingly popular. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">-Mark

Warton was a Pulitzer Prize winning novelist, short story writer, and designer. She is most famous for her book "The Age of Innocence" (1920), which won the Pulitzer Prize for literature making her the first woman ever to win. Her writing style is recognized by the use of dramatic irony, humor, and empathy, especially when describing New York upper class. Warton was also a fan of ghost stories, and worked on a good number of short stories involving spirits, and ghosts. --Evan B.



Besides writing fiction, Edith Wharton many authoritative works on gardening and architecture. The Mount is a home she built according to the guidelines in her book //The Decoration of Houses.// The house and estate is an example of the newly dawned American Renaissance. Wharton believed that house design should honor the principles of simplicity, harmony, proportion and sustainability. The Mount is one of just 5 percent of National Historic Landmarks that are dedicated to women.

//-Sara//