Memorial Boxes and Guarded Interiors: Edith Wharton and Material Culture

328 Pages·2007·21.4 MB·English

by  Gary Totten

MEMORIAL BOXES
AND GUARDED INTERIORS
STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERARY REALISM AND NATURALISM
SERIES EDITOR
Gary Scharnhorst
EDITORIAL BOARD
Louis J. Budd
Donna Campbell
John Crowley
Robert E. Fleming
Alan Gribben
Eric Haralson
Denise D. Knight
Joseph McElrath
George Monteiro
Brenda Murphy
James Nagel
Alice Hall Petry
Donald Pizer
Tom Quirk
Jeanne Campbell Reesman
Ken Roemer
MEMORIAL BOXES
AND GUARDED INTERIORS
Edith Wharton and Material Culture
EDITED BY GARY TOTTEN
THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA PRESS
Tuscaloosa
Copyright © 2007
The University of Alabama Press
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0380
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Typeface: AGaramond
00
The paper on which this book is printed meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Ma
terials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Memorial boxes and guarded interiors : Edith Wharton and material
culture I edited by Gary Totten.
p. cm. - (Studies in American literary realism and naturalism)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8173-1561-0 (alk. paper)
ISBN-IO: 0-8173-1561-6 (alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-8173-5419-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-IO: 0-8173-5419-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
I. Wharton, Edith, 1862-1937-Criticism and interpretation. 2. Material culture in
literature. I. Totten, Gary.
PS3545.H16Z746 2007
813'·52-dc22
Contents
c<::::::::Y
List of Illustrations
Vll
Acknowledgments
IX
1. Introduction: Edith Wharton and Material Culture
Gary Totten I
I. AUTHORITY AND PROFESSIONALISM
2. Presence and Professionalism: The Critical Reception of Edith Wharton
Lyn Bennett 19
3. No Innocence in This Age: Edith Wharton's Commercialization
and Commodification
Jamie Barlowe 44
4. Materializing the Word: The Woman Writer
and the Struggle for Authority in "Mr. Jones"
Jacqueline Wilson-Jordan 63
II. THE BODY
5. Picturing Lily: Body Art in The House ofM irth
Emily J Orlando 83
6. Building the Female Body: Modern Technology
and Techniques at Work in Twilight Sleep
Deborah J Zak
III
vi ~ Contents
III. CONSUMERISM
7. Fashioning an Aesthetics of Consumption in The House ofM irth
Jennifer Shepherd 135
8. The Futile and the Dingy: Wasting
and Being Wasted in The House ofM irth
J Michael Duvall 159
IV. INTERIORS
9. The Bachelor Girl and the Body Politic: The Built Environment,
Self-Possession, and the Never-Married Woman in The House ofM irth
Linda S. watts 187
10. "Use Unknown": Edith Wharton, the Museum Space,
and the Writer's Work
Karin Roffman 209
V. TECHNOLOGY
II. The Machine in the Home: Women
and Technology in The Fruit oft he Tree
Gary Totten 237
12. Undine Spragg, the Mirror
and the Lamp in The Custom of the Country
Carol Baker Sapora 265
Works Cited 287
Contributors 303
Index 305
III ustrations
I. Sir Joshua Reynolds, Portrait ofJ oanna Lloyd ofM aryland (c. 1775-76)
92
2. Sir Anthony van Dyck, Portrait of a Flemish Lady (c. 1618)
94
3. Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, Maria Teresa Cayetana de Silva,
Duchess ofA lba (1795)
95
4. Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Beata Beatrix (1864-70)
IOI
5. Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Dante's Dream
at the Time of the Death of Beatrice (1856)
I02
6. Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Sancta Lilias (1874)
I04
7. Alonzo Kimball. Justine, Amherst, and Dillon. Scribner's Magazine 41.1
(January 1907)
257
8. Alonzo Kimball. Justine and Amherst.
Scribner's Magazine 42.4 (October 1907)
258
9. George Inness, The Lackawanna Valley (c. 1856)
261

Acknowledgments
~
T
his project has been supported by a number of individuals and institu
tions. A Centennial Scholars Research Grant from Concordia College,
Moorhead, Minnesota, provided important time and funding for research
early in the project relating to the material in the introduction. I also bene
fited from the excellent insights of two undergraduate students who par
ticipated with me in the research grant, Kathleen Curtis and Stephanie
Rollag. The staff at the University of Alabama Press professionally and
patiently guided the project from its early stages. Anonymous reviewers at
the press provided valuable suggestions for revision. The interlibrary loan
department at North Dakota State University helped track down even the
most obscure sources. The following agencies and institutions have granted
permission to reproduce artwork: Sir Joshua Reynolds's Portrait ofJ oanna
Lloyd of Maryland, Bridgeman-Giraudon/Art Resource, New York; Sir
Anthony van Dyck's Portrait ofa Flemish Lady, Andrew W. Mellon Collec
tion, Image © 2005 Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washing
ton, D.C.; Francisco de Goya's Maria Teresa Cayetana de Silva, Duchess of
Alba, Scala/Art Resource, New York; Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Beata Beatrix,
Dante's Dream at the Time of the Death of Beatrice, and Sancta Lilias all ©
Tate, London 2005; George Inness's The Lackawanna Valley, Gift of Mrs.
Huttleston Rogers, Image © 2005 Board of Trustees, National Gallery of
Art, Washington, D.C. The cover photograph of Edith Wharton, 1910, is