Edith Wharton and the Art of Fiction

vii, 172 pp. 'Edith Wharton was a travel and architectural writer as well as a novelist. Her belief in the classical principles of order and harmony is revealed in her non-fiction works and this led her to a conviction of the need for a coherent theory of fiction. However, her attempt to formulate such a theory was undermined by her romantic idea of inspiration and imagination, and this tension between classical and romantic principles is clearly revealed by comparisons between her works of non-fiction and fiction. Penelope Vita-Finzi explores Edith Wharton's concept of the artist and shows how her views about the education and environment necessary for the writer were rigid and consciously rooted in 19th century thought rather than being influenced by contemporary literary and intellectual debates. She thus attempts a readjustment of the current view of Edith Wharton which tries to fit into the mould of 'woman writer'.'