| Inventing the Real: The Old Maid and the Real Thing Contributor(s): Wharton, Edith (Author), James, Henry (Author), Caws, Mary Ann (Introduction by) |
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ISBN: 1558615768 ISBN-13: 9781558615762 Publisher: Feminist Press OUR PRICE: $11.66 Product Type: Paperback Published: July 2008 Annotation: Using shades of irony to capture moments of surprise and sadness, Edith Wharton and Henry James play with reality-in the work of a portrait artist and in the secret love of a "fallen" woman for her daughter. The author of over forty books, Edith Wharton (18621937) won the Pulitzer Prize for "The Age of Innocence." Henry James (18431916) wrote numerous stories, essays, plays, and novels, including "The Portrait of a Lady" and "The Ambassadors." Mary Ann Caws is Distinguished Professor of English, French, and comparative literature at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Fiction | Classics - Fiction | Anthologies (multiple Authors) |
| Dewey: FIC |
| LCCN: 2007033832 |
| Series: 2x2 |
| Physical Information: 0.5" H x 5" W x 6.8" (0.35 lbs) 128 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Ironies upon ironies unfold as two kindred writers (in life as well as art) and masters of the short story dance along the border between reality and appearance. Wharton explores the secret love of a woman for her illegitimate daughter, whom her married sister has adopted in an effort to save the mother's reputation and to allow her daughter to have a peaceful childhood. James probes a portrait painter's art as he deals with a couple of threadbare aristocrats, who are seeking employment as his models. They are the "real thing" he is seeking to portray--denizens of drawing room society--but his work is thwarted when he discovers that plucky lower-class models are, in fact, far better able to take on the personae of a rarified class. |