Love and Death in the Works of Edith Wharton: The Republic of the Spirit
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Love and Death in Edith Wharton's Fiction examines the struggle between philosophic and scientific notions of love found throughout Wharton's works. The role of death in romantic relationships highlights the central struggle Wharton saw as implicit in the concept of love: the struggle between Darwin's theory of sexual selection and Plato's ideal love of the soul. It was this tension between the romantic notion of soul mates reuniting and the realistic view of sexual selection that became a central focus of romantic relationships in Wharton's works.
Ch. 1Introduction1Ch. 2"The fullness of life"13Ch. 3The house of mirth23Ch. 4The fruit of the tree45Ch. 5Ethan Frome65Ch. 6The reef79Ch. 7Summer95Ch. 8The glimpses of the moon107Ch. 9Twilight sleep123Ch. 10The Buccaneers135Ch. 11Conclusion149
