No Gifts from Chance: A Biography of Edith Wharton - Hardcover

Benstock, Shari

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0241132983 ISBN 13: 9780241132982

Publisher: Hamish Hamilton, 1994

Synopsis

EDITH WHARTON - A BIOGRAPHY - No Gifts from Chance, hardcover, Good, A very good, clean and sound copy in black cloth boards with dust jacket (protective plastic cover).

About this title

Review

Praise for the first edition (published by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1994): "Here, at last, is Edith Wharton in all her power, her ambitions, and her angers. For the first time we have a biography using new material and allowing us to acclaim an accomplished though prejudiced woman, one who was against women's suffrage, who surrounded herself with famous men, yet was the author of insightful, feminist novels. Here is the truth, brilliantly recounted, compelling to read." Carolyn G. Heilbrun, author of Writing a Woman's Life "This may be the best-written biography of the [1990s]. Evocative, rich in new material, and always focused on Edith Wharton the woman, Benstock's way of telling the woman writer's story is superb. If we thought we knew the Wharton story before, this book proves us wrong." Linda Wagner-Martin, author of Sylvia Plath: A Biography "It was indeed an age of innocence but it was also an age of experience. Shari Benstock's biography of Edith Wharton captures that world. Beautifully researched and impressively thorough, this new biography is especially interesting about Wharton's family and her relationships. It will benefit all students and lovers of her fiction." Fred Kaplan, author of Henry James: The Imagination of Genius "Shari Benstock's biography is quite simply the standard biography of Edith Wharton. This is true even though other excellent biographies preceded hers." Carol J. Singley, author of Edith Wharton: Matters of Mind and Spirit

Synopsis

Offers a new approach to the life and work of Edith Wharton (1862-1937). Drawing on the recent discovery of many of her letters, the book examines the intricate network of relations between her life and art, her public reputation and private life. The author attempts to engage one of America's most prolific writers as both a woman and a writer, examining the place of a woman and the meaning of femininity and female sexuality in late-19th- and early-20th-century America and France. Particular attention is payed to Wharton's childhood and young adulthood in New York and Newport, her breaking away from America and the years of her residency in France, most importantly in Paris, where she successfully entered the closed society of French nobility.

About this edition

• Publisher: Hamish Hamilton
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0241132983
• ISBN 13: 9780241132982
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 560