Reappraisal Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton was an important as well as a prolific writer at the turn of century. Among her literary achievements, it is her novels that her fame mainly rests upon. She published over 20 novels at the beginning of the 20th century, including her first successful novel The House of Mirth (1905) and her masterpiece The Age of Innocence (1920). They consolidated her position in American literary history.Edith Wharton was conscious of her works as part of literary traditions. She believed in cultural continuity and the link of writers and their works. She learned a lot from her predecessors. Her aesthetic sensitivity had roots in Aristotle; she borrowed " international theme" from Henry James. Her interest in determinism and heredity was no less than that of a naturalist writer. During her literary career, she neither formed a new literary school nor created new theories. However, her unique ways of using tradition distinguished her from any other writers of her time. Comparing her novels with those written by the literary "masters", we may find that she deserved her fame as an important writer in American literature of the 20th century.