Edith Wharton's Evolutionary Conception: Darwinian Allegory in the Major Novels

Edith Wharton's Evolutionary Conception: Darwinian Allegory in the Major Novels

by Paul J. Ohler
Edith Wharton's Evolutionary Conception: Darwinian Allegory in the Major Novels

Edith Wharton's Evolutionary Conception: Darwinian Allegory in the Major Novels

by Paul J. Ohler

Paperback

$14.95 
  • SHIP THIS ITEM
    Qualifies for Free Shipping
    Usually ships within 1 week
  • PICK UP IN STORE
    Check Availability at Nearby Stores

Related collections and offers


Overview

Edith Wharton's "Evolutionary Conception" investigates Edith Wharton's engagement with evolutionary theory in The House of Mirth, The Custom of the Country, and The Age of Innocence. The book also examines The Descent of Man, The Fruit of the Tree, Twilight Sleep, and The Children to show that Wharton's interest in biology and sociology was central to the thematic and formal elements of her fiction. Ohler argues that Wharton depicts the complex interrelations of New York's gentry and socioeconomic elite from a perspective informed by the main concerns of evolutionary thought. Concentrating on her use of ideas she encountered in works by Darwin, Herbert Spencer, and T.H. Huxley, his readings of Wharton's major novels demonstrate the literary configuration of scientific ideas she drew on and, in some cases, disputed. R.W.B. Lewis writes that Wharton 'was passionately addicted to scientific study': this book explores the ramifications of this fact for her fictional sociobiology.
The book explores the ways in which Edith Wharton's scientific interests shaped her analysis of class, affected the formal properties of her fiction, and resulted in her negative valuation of social Darwinism.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780415880060
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Publication date: 01/26/2010
Series: Studies in Major Literary Authors
Pages: 232
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Metaphors of “Instinct and Tradition”; Chapter 2 “Blind Inherited Scruples”: Lily Bart's Evolutionary Ethics; Chapter 3 The Incoherence of “Progress” in The Custom of the Country; Chapter 4 Newland Archer's “Hieroglyphic World”; ConclusionThe Limits of Wharton's “Objective Faculty”;
From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews