We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
from Part II - International Wharton
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 November 2019
This essay addresses the role of Greece in Edith Wharton’s representation of home as a topos of strong human and cultural bonds. While Wharton saw France as the epitome of this ideal, she found in Greece its most symbolic expression, one that she identified in The Odyssey and later developed into a narrative of cultural wandering and triumphant return. The essay examines Homeric-inspired tropes of wandering and return in The House of Mirth (1905) and The Children (1928), as well as non-fictional works, such as Wharton’s diary of the 1888 Vanadis cruise. Using archival resources, including Wharton’s undated poem “Penelope” and her impressions from the 1926 visit to Greece on the steam yacht Osprey, I argue that Wharton conceptualized Greece not only as the ancient cradle of Western civilization but also as a paradigm of cultural recovery and the antidote to modern forms of alienation and drift.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
