Table of Contents

1: A Backward Glance 2: Introduction to the 1936 Edition of The House of Mirth: Edith Wharton 3: The Death of the Lade (Novelist): Edith Wharton's House of Mirth: Elaine Showalter 4: Debasing Exchange: Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth: Wai Chee Dimock 5: Crowded Spaces in The House of Mirth: Amy Kaplan 6: The House of Mirth: A Novel of Admonition: Linda Wager-Martin 7: "The Word Which Made All Clear": The Silent Close of The House of Mirth: Shari Benstock 8: The Perfect Jew and The House of Mirth: Irene C. Goldman-Price 9: Another Sleeping Beauty: Narcissism in The House of Mirth: Joan Lidoff 10: Lily Bart and the Drama of Femininity: Cynthia Griffin Wolff 11: Engendering Naturalism: Narrative Form and Commodity Spectacle in U.S. Naturalist Fiction: Lori Merish 12: The Crumbling Structure of "Appearances": Representation and Authenticity in The House of Mirth and The Custom of the Country: Christopher Gair 13: Extinction, Taxidermy, Tableaux Vivants: Staging Race and Class in The House of Mirth: Jennie A. Kassanoff

About the Author

Carol J. Singley is Associate Professor of English at Rutgers University-Camden. She is a past president of the Edith Wharton Society and editor of A Historical Guide to Edith Wharton.

Reviews

"[Singley] has been vigilant about including articles from so many different critical perspectives, i.e. biographical, feminist, psychological, materialist, new historicist, and cultural studies. Here, the reader benefits from seeing how the literary text is very much a contested territory and how readings of a particular text change over time, depending upon the different concerns and interests of the critics."--College Literature
"[Singley] has been vigilant about including articles from so many different critical perspectives, i.e. biographical, feminist, psychological, materialist, new historicist, and cultural studies. Here, the reader benefits from seeing how the literary text is very much a contested territory and how readings of a particular text change over time, depending upon the different concerns and interests of the critics."--College Literature