Download or read book The Critical Reception of Edith Wharton written by Helen Killoran and published by Boydell & Brewer. This book was released on 2001 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ironically, now that she is becoming recognized as a Modernist by some, and as perhaps the greatest American writer of her generation, the criticism often obfuscates more than it reveals. The reasons reside in critics' loyalties to various theoretical approaches, the objectivity of which are often compromised by political hopes. This volume not only traces and analyzes the development of Whartonian literary criticism in its historical and political contexts, but also allows Edith Wharton, herself a literary critic, to respond to various concepts through the author's deductions and extrapolations from Wharton's own words.