¸ê®Æ·J¾ã   /   §@®a  /  Edith  Wharton  ¨Ì¸¦µ·¡EµØ¹y
Edith  Wharton
¨Ì¸¦µ·¡EµØ¹y
¹Ï¤ù¨Ó·½¡Gwharton.thefreelibrary.com/
¥D­n¤åÃþ¡GNovel
¸ê®Æ´£¨ÑªÌ¡GEvelyn; Kate Liu
ÃöÁä¦rµü¡GAmerican novelist, poet, short-story writer

Edith ( Newbold Jones) Wharton

¨Ì¸¦µ·¡EµØ¹y

Evelyn Sung/§º©É½o


¡@

®a®x­I´º

¤@¤K¤»¤G¦~¤@¤ë¤G¤Q¥|¤é¡]¤@»¡¬°¤@¤K¤»¤@¦~¡^¡A¨Ì¸¦µ·¡EµØ¹y½Ï¥Í©ó¯Ã¬ù¥«ªº¤@­Ó«O¦u¦Ó´I¦³ªº®a®x¡CµØ¹y©ó¤T­Ó¤p«Ä¤¤±Æ¦æ³Ì ¤p¡A¬O®a¸Ìªº¿W¥Í¤k¡C¨ä¤÷³ìªv¦ò¼w·ç§J¡Eã´µªº®a±ÚÅã»®¡A¸gÀç°Ó²î¶R½æ¡A¨ä¥ÀÅS§J²ú¶®¡E¥v¸¦ªâ¬üÄR®É»ì¡A®a¥@²W·½·¹¤Îªi¤h¹y¯ù¸­ÄÒªº°Ñ»PªÌ¡CµØ¹y¦Û¤p©ó®a ¤¤±µ¨ü®a®x±Ð®vªº¨p¤H±Ð¨|¡A¥B±`¦³¹C¾ú¼Ú¬wªº¾÷·|¡C¤£®È¦æªº®É­Ô¡A¦o±`§â®É¶¡ªá¦b¤÷¿Ëªº¹Ï®Ñ«Ç¸Ì¡A°£«D¤÷¥À°í«ù¡A§_«hÂA¤Ö°Ñ¥[ªÀ¥æ³õ¦X¡CµØ¹y¦Û«C¤Ö¦~®É´Á ¶}©l¼g¸Ö¥y©Mµu½g¤p»¡¡A¦ý¨ä¤÷¥À¦]¨ü²üÄõ§ï­²±Ð¬£©M·s±Ð¸t¤½·|«H¥õªº¼vÅT¡A¹ïÃÀ³N¨Ã¤£¤©¤§¯S§Oªº­«µø¡A¥L­Ì¤£¦ý¤£½àÃѵعyªº¼g§@¤Ñ¥÷¡A«á¨Ó¤]ÂA¤Ö´£¤ÎµØ¹y ¦b¤å¾Âªº¦¨¥\¡C

TOP

±B«Ã¥Í¬¡

¤@¤K¤­¤­¦~¡A¦~¤è¤G¤Q¤Tªº¨Ì¸¦µ·¡A¶ùµ¹¤Fªø¦o¤Q¤@·³ªºªi¤h¹y»È¦æ®a·R¼wµØ¡EµØ¹y¡C¨Ì¸¦µ·¬O¦b¥À¿ËªºªÀ¥æ°é¤¤»{ÃÑ·R¼wµØªº¡A ¾ÚºÙ¦o¦b³o¤§«e¡A«K·R¤W¤FµØ¯S¡E¨©·ç¡C¨©·ç¬O¤Ö¼Æª¾¾å¦o¦Û«C¤Ö¦~®É´Á§Y¹ï¼g§@®i¶}¹Á¸Õªº¤H¤§¤@¡A¨Ã¨ó§U¦oºë¶i¨ä¼g§@¡C¨©·ç«á¨Ó¦¨¬°µØ¹y²×¥Íªºª¾¤v¡A¦bª¾ÃÑ ªº°l¨D¤W¬Û¤¬§ß«ù¡C

 

¥Ñ©ó·R¼wµØ²`¨üºë¯«¯e¯f¤§­W¡A¦AªÌ¨Ì¸¦µ·¤£³ßªÀ¥æ¥Í¬¡¤¤ªºÁcº¾»P¤H»ÚÀ³¹ï¡A±B«áªº¨Ì¸¦µ·¨Ã¤£§Ö¼Ö¡C±B«á¼Æ¦~¡A¨Ì¸¦µ·§Yºë¯« ±Y¼ì¡CÂå¥Í¹ªÀy¦o¼g§@¥H§ïµ½ºë¯«ª¬ªp¡CµØ¹y¤Ò°ü¦b¿³½ì©M¥@¬ÉÆ[¤W¡A¨ÃµL«Ü¤jªº¦@»ï¡A¦]¦¹¡A¨Ì¸¦µ·©ó³Ð§@ Ethan Frome ®É¡A»P®È©~¤Ú¾¤ªº¬ü°ê°OªÌ¼¯µn¡EºÖù¹y¼Y¤J±¡ºô¡C¨Ì¸¦µ·¬°¥´¯}±B«Ã¯«¸tªº»}¨¥¦Ó²`·P¦Û³d¡CµØ¹y¤Ò°ü³Ì²×©ó¤@¤E¤@¤G¦~Â÷ ±B¡]¤@»¡¬°¤@¤E¤@¤T¦~¡^¡A¤§«á¨Ì¸¦µ·¹C¾ú¸q¤j§Q¡B¼w°ê¡A©w©~©óªk°ê¤Ú¾¤¡A¨Ãµ²¥æ¤F³\¦h®È©~ªk°êªº§@®a»PÃÀ³N®a¡C

 TOP

¾Ô®É¥Í¬¡

¤@¤E¤@¥|¦~²Ä¤@¦¸¥@¬É¤j¾ÔÃzµo¡AµØ¹y­P¤O©ó·Oµ½¤u§@¡A¬°¦¨¦ç¤k¤u²Õ´¤u§@«Ç¡A¬°µ²®Ö¯f±wªÌ¦¨¥ßÀø¾i°|¡A¦P®É¬°¤ñ§Q®ÉÃø¥Á±i ù­¹±J¡C¨äµ½¦æ«á¨Ó¯É¯ÉÀò¹{ªk°ê»P¤ñ§Q®ÉªººaÅA¾±³¹¡C¦o¤]±N¾Ô®Éªº©Ò¨£©Ò»D¼g¶i¦Û¤vªº³Ð§@¤§¤¤¡A¦p Fighting France (1915), The Book of the Homeless (1915), The Marne (1918), French Ways and Their Meanings (1919) ©M A Son at the Front (1923).

 

µM¦Ó¡AµØ¹y¼g¾Ô®É¸gÅ窺µÛ§@¡A¨Ã¤£³Qµø¬°¦o³Ì³Ç¥Xªº§@«~¡C¸ô©ö¤h¡E¶ø¶Ô§J³Ò´µµû½×¡G¡uµØ¹y¹ï¾Ôª§ªºÆ[ÂI¡A¬O²³æ¦Ó¤@ ­Pªº¡Ðªk°ê¦b³o³õ¤å©ú»PÅv¤Oªº¾Ôª§¤¤©t­x¾Ä°«¡Aªk°ê­x¤H¬°³oºØºë¯«¦Ó¾Ô¡A¦ýµØ¹y«o¥¼±N¦¹ºØ©t­x¾Ä°«ªººë¯«¼g¤J¤p»¡ ¡K ¬G¤µ¤é¾\Ū The Marne ©M A Son at the Front ¡A¦n¦ü¦b¾\Ū¹Ð«Ê©ó»Õ ¼Ó³\¤[ªº¶Ò§L®ü³ø¤@¯ë ¡K ¦]¬°¤£¥F©ó¾Ô®É±´µøÂå°|¡A¬Æ¦Ü«e½u¾Ô³õªº¸gÅç¡AµØ¹y²M·¡¤F¸Ñ¾Ôª§ªº¥i©È¡AµM¦Ó¤£ºÞ¦h»ò­P¤O©ó«á¶ÔÂåÀø¤ä´©ªº¤u§@¡A¦o²¦³º«D¤W¾Ô³õ»P¼Ä¤H¥æ¾Wªº¤h§L¡A¨ä²¤Åã ®¶¾Äªºµ§½Õ¡A¹ï¾Ô«á­Æ¦sªº¤H¦Ó¨¥¡A¤´Åã¦y¾U¡C¡v

TOP

±ß¦~

¤@¤E¤G¤T¦~¡AµØ¹yµu¼È¦aªð¦^¬ü°ê¡A©ó­C¾|¤j¾ÇÀò¹{ºaÅA³Õ¤h¾Ç¦ì¡A¦¨¬°­º¦ìÀò¹{¦¹¼úªº¤k©Ê¡C¸â©i´µ¡E³³¦«¹y«ü¥X¡A¤E¤T¦~µØ¹y ©Òªð¦^ªº¯Ã¬ù¥«¡A¤w«D¥L¤G¤Q¦~«e®ÉÂ÷¶}ªº¯Ã¬ù¥«¡C³\¦hªB¤Í¤£¬O¹L¥@¤F¡A´N¬O¤£»{±o¤F¡C©õ¤é¤÷¥À®É¥Nªº¯Ã¬ù¥«¡A¤]´«¤F¤@µf­±»ª¡C¦]¬°³o­Ó­ì¦]¡AµØ¹y©ó¤@¤E¤G ¥|¦~¥Xª©ªº Old New York ¡A¨ä¤¤´y­z¦o°O¾Ð¤¤ªº¯Ã¬ù¡A¨Ã¨S¦³¨ü¨ì«Ü¤jªº°jÅT¡C·R¼w»X¡E«Âº¸ ´Ëªí¥Ü¡G¡uµØ¹y¦b Old New York ¤¤ªº´y­z¦³¤í©¾¹ê¡AµLªk¥Î§@ªÀ·|¬ã¨sªºÃD§÷ ¡K ¥B¦]±i¤O¤£°÷¡A¤£¨¬¥H¦¨¬°¥O¤H³ß·Rªºµu½g¤p»¡¡C ¡v

 

¤@¤E¤G¤C¦~¬OµØ¹y¥Í©R¤¤Ãø¼õªº¤@¦~¡C¦o²¦¥Íªºª¾¤v¨©·ç¡]¦³¤@»¡¬O·R¤H¡^©ó·í¦~³u¥@¡CµØ¹y¤]©ó·í¦~³Q´£¦W¿Õ¨©º¸¼ú¡A¦ý¨Ã¥¼Àò ¼ú¡C¤@¤E¤T¤C¦~¡AµØ¹y¦º©ó¤ßŦ¯f¡A¨É¦~¤C¤Q¤­·³¡A»P¨©·ç¦P¸®©óªk°ê¤Zº¸ÁÉ¡C

  TOP

§@«~­·®æ

A.¦ë§Q¡E¸â©i´µªº¼vÅT

µØ¹y¥H The House of Mirth (1905), Ethan Frome (1911), ©M The Age of Innocence (1920 ¡A¤¤Ä¶¯Â¯u¦~¥N¡^»D¦W¡A¨Ã¥Xª©¸Ö¶°¡Bµû½×¡B®È¹C¥¾°O¡Bµu½g¤p»¡¶°µ¥¡C¦³¤@¬q®É¶¡¡A¨äµÛ§@¦]­·®æ»Å¦ü¸â©i´µ¦Ó¨ü¨ì©¿µø¡CµØ¹y©ó¹C¾úªk°ê®É»{ÃѸâ©i´µ¡A¸â©i´µ «á¨Ó¦¨¬°¦oªº¨}®v¯q¤Í¡CµØ¹y´¿©ó The Writing of Fiction (1925) ¤@®Ñ¤¤´£¨ì¡A¡u¦o©M¸â©i´µ¬Ò³ß±´°QªÀ·|³W½d¹ï­Ó¤H¦Û¥Ñªº¨î¬ù¡C¦¹ºØ¨î¬ù¤£¤ÀªÀ·|¼h¯Å¡A¥B¥H´I¦³ªº¬ü°ê¤H©M®È¥~ªº¬ü°ê¤H¬°³Ì¡C¡v¥L­Ìµ§¤Uªº¨¤¦â¡A©¹©¹µLªk¤F ¸Ñ§O¤Hªº·Qªk¡A©Î¬O°kÂ÷¤£¤FÀô¹Òªº´d¼@¡C

 

µM¦Ó¡AµØ¹yªº­·®æ¤´¦³¨ä­~²§©ó¸â©i´µ¤§³B¡C¶ø¶Ô§J³Ò´µ¦b Edith Wharton ¤@ ®Ñ¤¤¼g¨ì¡A¡u¦b¶ì³y¨¤¦â©Ê®æ¤è­±¡A¸â©i´µ¾Õ©ó¹B¥Î²Ó·Lªº²Ö¿n»PÁßÆC¡AµØ¹y«h¾Õ©óÂǹï©PÃä¤H¨Æª«ªº¥Í°Ê´y­z¡A±a»âŪªÌ¸g¾ú¤@³s¦êªº½ÄÀ»¡CÂǥѦo¨ºÃø¥H®»ºN¦Ó ¦³¤Oªºµ§Ä²¡AÀþ¶¡´¦¥Ü¨¤¦âªº¤º¦b¡A©Î²`«×±¡·P¤¤ªºÁô·N¡C¡v¦¹ºØÀþ¶¡·Ç½T´¦¥Ü¨¤¦â¤º¦bªº¤Ñ¥÷¡AÅýµØ¹y«O¦³¨ä¿W¯S©ó¸â©i´µªº­·®æ¡C

 

B.³Ð§@¥DÃD

1.ªÀ·|³W½d

¤G¤Q¥@¬öªì¡A¬ü°ê§@®a¹ï¤k­^¶¯¦¨¥\Â\²æÂÂ¥]µöªº«_ÀI¬G¨ÆÁͤ§­Yõ­¡AµØ¹y«o»P¦h¼Æ§@®a­I¹D¦Ó¹£¡A¦oªº§@«~¶É¦V©ó§e²{¨ü®À¡B²z ·Q¤Û·Àªº¤k­^¶¯¡C¦oªºµÛ§@¡A¦h¥H§¢©VªºÃ¹°Ò¥v¡B¹ïÅw¼Öªº°l¨D»P°g¥¢¡B©ê­t»P¯à¤O¶¡ªº¸¨®t¡B¤H»P³d¥ô¦p¦ó¦@¦sµ¥¬°³Ð§@¥DÃD¡CµØ¹y¦b The Writing of Fiction (1925) ªí¥Ü¡A¡u­Ó¤H¼¤±æ»PªÀ·|³W½d¤§¶¡ªº½Ä¬ð¡A¬O¦o³Ð§@ªº¥D­nµÛ²´ÂI¡C¡v²{¹ê¥Í¬¡¤¤ªºµØ¹y¡A¤]¬°ªÀ·|³W½d©M¦oªºªÀ·|¦a¦ì©ÒÅù²Ì¡C²×¨ä¤@¥Í¡A¦o¤£Â_¦b¾Ç²ß¦p¦ó¦b¼¤ ±æ»P¦Û¤p§Y¤º¤Æ©ó¤ß¤¤ªº¹D¼w³W½d¤§¶¡¡A´M¨D¤@­Ó¥­¿ÅÂI¡C

 

2.¶W¦ÛµM¤O¶q

µØ¹y¦Û¤p«K»{¬°¦Û¤v³Q¬Yª«©Ò¸òÀH¡A¥B²`²`¬°³o­Ó·Qªk¦Ó·P¨ì®`©È¡C¤é«á¡A

¦o³vº¥µÛ°g©ó¶W¦ÛµMªº¤O¶q¡A¨Ã§Æ¾¬¯à¦bªÀ¥æ¥Í¬¡¤¤´M¨D¦w¥þ·P¡C¨S®Æ¤W¼hªÀ·|ªºªÀ¥æ¥Í¬¡±aµ¹¦oªº¡A¬O¥þµMªº²¨Â÷»P©t¥ß¡C¦¹ºØ ²¨Â÷·P«á¨Ó¦¨¬°¦o³Ð§@°­¬G¨ÆªºÆF·P¡CµØ¹y¬ù²ö³Ð§@¤F¤Q¤»­ÓÃö©ó¶W¦ÛµM¤O¶qªº¬G¨Æ¡A¨ä¤¤ Ghosts (1937) ¤¤¦¬¿ý¤F¤@¨Ç³Ì³Ç¥Xªº³Ð§@¡C

 

©µÄò¥ý«e²¨Â÷·P¿Eµoªº³Ð§@¡AµØ¹y¤§«áÂà¦Ó¹Á¸Õ®Ñ¼gÃö©ó¦º¤`©M¨Ó¥Íªº°­¬G¨Æ¡Cª½¦Ü¦o©w©~¤Ú¾¤¡AµØ¹y¤è¯à¥H¸û«ÈÆ[ªººA«×­±¹ï¤º ¤ß¹ï°­ªº®£Äß¡A¦Ó±o¥H¶ì³y¥X¤@¨t¦Cµo®i§¹¥þ¡B¥©§®¨è¹ºªº°­¬G¨Æ¡C·§Æ[¨¥¤§¡AµØ¹yªº¶W¦ÛµM¤p»¡¤Ï¬M¥X¤H©Ê¤¤®£Äß¡B¸o´c¡B³ß®®¡B¼¤±æµ¥±¡·P¡C¦b³o¤§«á¡A¦o¤S¸Õ ¹Ï±N§Å³N¿Ä¤J¦oªº³Ð§@¡A¦p "Bewitched"¡]Pictorial Review , 1925) ©M "All Souls'"¡]­º«×¥Z¸ü©ó Ghosts¡^¡A¬G¨Æªºª^³ò¶ì³yªº¤Q¤À¦¨¥\¡A¥i±¤±¡¸`¤í¯Ê»¡ªA ¤O¡CµM¦Ó¡AµØ¹y¾Õ©ó¨è¹º¤º¤ß±¡·Pªº¤Ñ¥÷¡A¬O¤£¥i§_»{ªº¡C

 

C.³Ð§@¤Oªº°I°h

µØ¹yªº³Ð§@¤@¯ë¦Ó¨¥¤À¬°¨â­Ó¶¥¬q¡C¦h¼Æµû½×®a»{¬°¦o³Ì³Ç¥Xªº§@«~¼g©ó¤@¤E¤@¥|¦~¥H«e¡A¤@¥|¦~¤§«áªº§@«~¡AÃø§K¸¨¤J«U®M¡A¥­ ªO¦ÓµL·s·N¡C¹ï¦¹»¡ªk¡A¦³¤T­Ó¸ÑÄÀ¥i¨Ñ°Ñ¦Ò¡G

¿Ëªñ¦oªºªB¤Í«ü¥X¡AµØ¹yºÉ¥þ¤O¼g¥XÁȽZ¶Oªº°Ó·~§@«~¡A¦p¦¹¦o¤~¯àÀò±o¤ä«ù¾Ô®É·Oµ½¤u§@ªº¸gÀÙ¨Ó·½¡C¦ý·R¼w»X¡E«Âº¸´Ëªí¥Ü¡G¡u¬Y¨Ç§@®aÂÇ¥ÑÄþ³d»P©áÀ»·í¥Nªº ªÀ·|²{¶H¡A¨ÓÄÀ©ñ¦Û¨­±¡·P¤WªºÀ£¤O¡CµØ¹y´N¬O³Ì¨Îªº¼g·Ó¡C·í¦Û¨­±¡·PªºÀ£¤O³Q¸Ñ°£¡A·Å°û»PÃh«K¨ú¥N¤F¥H©¹ªº¨¯»¶»PµR§Q¡C¡v¦oªº¶Ç°O§@ªÌ¡A³Õ¦è¡E¾|Ä_§J«h «ù¥t¤@»¡ªk¡C¥L»{¬°¡G¡uµØ¯S¡E¨©·çÄYµÂ¡B¯U¹i¡B°ª¶Æªº©Ê®æ¡AÀ£¨î¤FµØ¹yªº·Q¹³¤O¡A¨Ï¦o¨B¦V³Ð³y¤O¬\ºÜªº©R¹B¡C¡v

TOP

¡@

Edith ( Newbold Jones) Wharton

1862-1937

American novelist, poet, short-story writer

Evelyn Sung/§º©É½o

 Family Background

 Marriage

 Life in Wartime

 Later Life

 Writing Style

 Motifs

 Decline


Family Background

Edith Wharton was born to a wealthy and conservative family, on January 24, 1862 (some sources say 1861), in New York City, She was the youngest of three children and the only daughter of George Frederic Jones, a descendent of a notable family of merchant-ship owners, and Lucretia Stevens (Rhinelander) Jones, a beautiful, fashionable woman descended from a Boston tea party participant, Young Edith was educated privately by tutors and governesses, and traveled about Europe throughout her childhood, When she was not traveling, she spent most of her time in her father's library, and only entered the social milieu when her parents insisted, In her teens, she started to write some verse and short stories; however, because of the influence of Dutch Reformed and Episcopalian beliefs, her parents did not have a high regard for art, They did not appreciate her talent, and later seldom mentioned her literary success.

TOP

Marriage

In 1855, Edith, at the age of 23, married Edward Wharton, a Boston banker from her mother's social circle, who was 11 years older, It is said that before she knew Edward Wharton, she had already fallen in love with Walter Berry, a friend of the family, who was one of the few that knew her early attempts at writing fiction, and helped her to make the necessary improvements, Berry later became her life-long confidant, sharing with her the intellectual pursuits that few were able to share.    

 

Edith was not happy in her marriage life half because Edward suffered from mental illness, and half because she disliked playing the role of society matron and hostess, A few years into her marriage, in 1894, she had a nervous breakdown, She was advised by her doctor to write to improve her conditions, She and her husband had never had much in common, either in terms of interests or worldview, While working on Ethan Frome (1911), she fell in love with an American journalist living in Paris, Morton Fullerton, She felt terribly guilty for breaking her marriage vows, which she took seriously, The affair between Wharton and Fullerton was intense and brief, but one of the happiest times of her life, She and her husband divorced in 1912 (some sources say 1913), She traveled in Italy and Germany, and then moved to France, settling down near Paris, where she consorted with American expatriate writers as well as English and French artists.

  TOP

Life in Wartime

When the World War I broke out in 1914, she devoted herself into charity works, organizing a workroom for female garment workers, and a sanatorium for women and children with tuberculosis, and finding food and lodging for Belgium refugees, France recognized her charitable deeds by awarding her the Cross of the Legion of Honor; she also was made Chevalier of the Order of Leopold in Belgium, Also, she retold her wartime experiences in Fighting France (1915), The Book of the Homeless (1915), The Marne (1918), French Ways and Their Meanings (1919) and A Son at the Front (1923).

  

However, books informed by her wartime experiences were not considered her best. The critic, Louis Auchincloss explained that she saw the war "from a simple but consistent point of view: France, virtually singlehanded , was fighting the battle of civilization against the powers of darkness, It was the spirit that made men fight and die, but it has never, unfortunately, been the spirit of fiction, Reading The Marne ... and A Son at the Front ... today gives one the feeling of taking an old enlistment poster out of an attic trunk.... Mrs. Wharton knew that the war was terrible; she had visited hospitals and even the front itself, But the exhilaration of the noncombatant, no matter how dedicated and useful her services, has a shrill sound to postwar ears."

TOP

Later Life

Wharton briefly returned to United States in 1923¡Xthe first time since she became a resident of France¡Xto receive an honorary doctorate from Yale University, It was the first such degree at Yale given to woman, James W. Tuttleton pointed out that the New York City Wharton went back in 1923, was no longer the pre-war city she left almost two decades ago, Many of her friends were long dead and unrecognizable, Her parents' world, old New York, was gone without a trace, Old New York, a work comprised of four short novels set in the New York that Wharton remembered, was not celebrated when it appeared in 1924, Edmund Wilson commented in New Republic that the stories "do not . . . follow life quite faithfully enough to be impressive as social studies and . . . are not quite dramatically enough developed to be satisfactory as conventional short stories."

    

The year of 1927 was a difficult period in her life, Her companion (some say lover), Walter Berry, died and it was at the same year that she was nominated for a Nobel Prize, but she did not receive it, Wharton died in 1937 of a heart attack at the age of seventy-five, and was buried next to her beloved Walter Berry in Versailles, France.

TOP

Writing Style

Jamesian influence

Best known for her novels The House of Mirth (1905), Ethan Frome (1911), and The Age of Innocence (1920), she also published poetry, criticism, nonfiction about the First World War, travel writing, and several collections of short stories, Her books suffered a period of critical neglect because of their similarity to the works of James, Wharton met James in her travel to France, where James became her friend and her mentor, The Writing of Fiction (1925) explained that "their similarities lie in the common interest in social conventions, which encroach upon the freedom of individuals from every social stratum, in particular the wealthy and the American abroad." Most of the characters in their stories had problem getting into others' minds, coming to a full understand to others, and escaping from the environment.

However, Wharton's works were still significantly different form the works of James, In Edith Wharton, Auchincloss observed, "in contrast to the gradual accumulation of subtle effects for which James is known, Wharton's vivid depictions of people and objects led readers through a series of impacts, It is those half-elusive but exquisitely effective strokes that reveal in an instant a whole mental attitude or the hidden meaning of a profound emotion." The ability to affect impacts upon characters' inner psyches in a moment is Wharton's talent, which makes her distinct from James.

TOP

Motifs

1. social convention

In the turn of the 20 th century, while American writers wrote adventure story in which the heroine rebelled successfully against the past, Wharton tended to portray her heroines in defeat and disillusion, Her works centered on the motifs such as an ill-starred romance, the evils of divorce, the aftermaths of deception, the individual versus society, the need and the danger of joy, the gulf between ambition and ability, and the importance of living with a sense of duty to others, As Wharton indicated in her book, The Writing of Fiction (1925), her major focus was "the conflict between the desire of the individual and the authority of social convention." Wharton was a woman trapped by convention, and her own social status; she had to learn, throughout her life, how to balance her own desires and interests with the morals she internalized as a child.

¡@

2. supernatural

Since her childhood, Wharton had terrified herself with the feeling that she was being followed by something, She later became entranced by the idea of the supernatural and tried to seek safety in the society, However, instead of warmth and a sense of security, she sought alienation and isolation from the high society, It is this sense of alienation and foreboding that enabled Wharton to create some of the best ghost stories of her age, She wrote some 16 or so stories of the supernatural, the best being collected in her omnibus volume, Ghosts (1937), Later she moved her genre into macabre, exploring the idea of death and afterlife, It was not until she moved to France that Wharton could view her life and her inner fears more objectively so as to produce a series of rounded, cleverly observed supernatural stories, In all her supernatural stories, Wharton was able to use the supernatural to project aspects of the human psyche ranging from fear and guilt to joy and longing, Once she tried to write stories of witchcraft or black magic, as in "Bewitched" ( Pictorial Review , 1925) and "All Souls'" (first published in Ghosts ), where the atmosphere is strong but the plot lacks conviction, In short, Wharton was always at her best when dealing with the projection of human and spiritual emotions.

TOP

Decline

Wharton's writings generally fall into two periods, Most critics have agreed that her best work was done during the years before 1914 and that her later work is but an echo of it, namely, rather static and without new things to tell, Three explanations have been offered for this decline.

Those close to Wharton say that she did her best to produce "potboilers", by which she was able to make a large sum of money to support the charity works during the wartime, However, Edmund Wilson has suggested that she was "a brilliant example of the writer who relieves an emotional strain by denouncing his generation, When such a strain had been relieved, her writing was no longer a personal necessity and thus blandness and nostalgia replaced the acerbity of her earlier social criticism."As for her biographer, Percy Lubbock, believed that Walter Berry, "a man of 'dry and narrow and supercilious temper', had the effect of shutting Mrs. Wharton's mind 'in a box' and contributed to the 'doom of an imagination that alights on sterile ground.'"

TOP


References

  Contemporary Authors Online , Gale, 2004.

"Edith Wharton." Authors and Artists for Young Adults. Vol. 25. Gale Research, 1998.

"Edith Wharton." American Decades CD-ROM. Gale Research, 1998.

"Edith Wharton." Encyclopedia of World Biography , 2nd ed. 17 Vols. Gale Research,1998.

"Edith Wharton." St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. 5 vols. St. James Press, 2000.

"Edith ( Newbold ) Wharton." St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost & Gothic Writers. St. James Press, 1998.

"Edith Wharton." Twentieth-Century Romance & Historical Writers , 3rd ed. St. James Press, 1994.

"Edith Newbold Jones Wharton." Dictionary of American Biography, Supplements 1-2: To 1940. American Council of Learned Societies, 1944-1958.

Copyright ©2009 °ê¬ì·|¤H¤å¾Ç¤¤¤ß All Rights Reserved.