Edith Wharton: A Biography
by R. W. B. Lewis
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A full-scale critical biography of the turn-of-the-century American novelist, detailing the relation between her life and works, assessing her literary dedication and accomplishment, and arguing her place as a writer of the first importance.Tags
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Beginning with Wharton's genealogical background and ending with her funeral R.W.B. Lewis's Edith Wharton: a Biography is at once both extensive and entertaining. Wharton begins her life as Edith "Pussy" Jones, the daughter of a socially well-to-do family. Her life is surrounded by all the things the culture of 1870s cherished - multiple family estates, social gatherings with citizens of good standing and trips abroad to places like Italy and France. With access to letters, diaries and manuscripts Lewis is able to give animated details to Wharton's upbringing and subsequent literary career. It is no wonder he won a Pulitzer for his work. It also is easy to see how Wharton was drawn to a writing career when you consider the wealth of show more influences in that era: Henry James, Theodore Roosevelt, William Vaughn Moody, Charles Dickens, Gustave Flaubert, and George Eliot to name a few. What is amazing is her inability to stay the course of confidence. The slightest criticism could send her career out of commission for months at a time. show less
1388 Edith Wharton: A Biography, by R. W. B. Lewis (read 20 Apr 1976) (Pulitzer Biography prize for 1976) This is a masterful work, which I spent most of the month reading, with the interruptions caused by reading books of hers. I enjoyed this biography very much. It reminded me of Leon Edel'a superlative five-volume biography of Henry James--called by the author of this biography "probably the finest literary biography ever written by an American." Wharton was born Jan 24, 1862 and died Aug 11, 1937. She lived most of her life in France, in real luxury. Before reading this book I had read only Ethan Frome and The Age of Innocence. Nothing I read by her in April was too impressive to me except The Reef. I felt she was a lesser figure show more than Willa Cather, but reading this biography was a joy. show less
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19+ Works 1,664 Members
Chicago native Richard Warrington Baldwin Lewis, the son of Leicester and Beatrix (Baldwin) Lewis, was born on November 1, 1917. Lewis was educated in Switzerland, at Phillips Exeter Academy, at Harvard University, at the University of Chicago, where he received his M.A. in 1941. Lewis spent World War II engaged primarily in intelligence work for show more the British. Following the war, he began a long academic teaching career, focused mainly on American literature and social studies, at Bennington College and Princeton, Rutgers, and Yale universities. Lewis has created such critical and biographical books on authors and 19th-century United States history as The American Adam (1955), Edith Wharton (a 1975 biography that won the Pulitzer Prize, Bancroft, and Critics Circle awards), and The Jameses: A Family Narrative, about author Henry James and his family. (Bowker Author Biography) R. W. B. Lewis, professor of English & American studies at Yale University, is the author of "Edith Wharton: A Biography", which won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, & the Bancroft Prize. His other books include "The City of Florence", "The Jameses", & "American Characters". He most recently was given the award for lifetime achievement as a biographer by he American Academy of Arts & Letters. He lives in Bethany, Connecticut. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Awards and Honors
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1975
- People/Characters
- Edith Wharton
Classifications
- Genres
- Biography & Memoir, Literature Studies and Criticism, Home & Garden
- DDC/MDS
- 813.52 — Literature & rhetoric American literature in English American fiction in English 1900-1999 1900-1945
- LCC
- PS3545 .H16 .Z696 — Language and Literature American literature American literature Individual authors 1900-1960
Statistics
- Members
- 306
- Popularity
- 104,328
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (4.36)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 6
- ASINs
- 5
