The Sexual Education of Edith Wharton

By Gloria C. Erlich

Book Overview

Starting with the tensions in the early family constellation, Gloria C. Erlich traces Edith Wharton's erotic evolution--from her early repression of sexuality and her celibate marriage to her discovery of passion in a rapturous midlife love affair with the bisexual Morton Fullerton. Analyzing the novelist's life, letters, and fiction, Erlich reveals several interrelated identity systems--the filial, the sexual, and the creative--that evolved together over the course of Wharton's lifetime.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520075838
• ISBN13: 9780520075832
• Release Date: June 1992
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 223 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Aha! That's Where Undine Sprague Comes From

There is a deep sense of irony in a lot of Edith Wharton's work. It seems puzzling given her time and gender-this is not a voice typical of nineteenth century women. Along comes Gloria Erlich, an independent scholar with an account of Wharton's childhood with an aloof mother followed by a celibate marriage (?! as they might say in chess-talk). All of a sudden, Wharton's voice becomes easier to understand and her female characters a lot more accessible. Score one for independent scholars. --Lynn Hoffman, author of THE NEW SHORT COURSE IN WINE and the sexually well-educated bang BANG: A Novel