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Edith Wharton Naturalism

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Edith Wharton Naturalism
Unconventional, rebellious, and a bit shocking, naturalist author Edith Wharton specialized in lifting the deceptive veil enshrouding the Gilded Age’s superior society. A product of New York’s rich but exacting lifestyle, Wharton poured her apathy for high society life into aristocratic novels like The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence. Her discouraging married life further prompted her fictions of other women confined in depressing marriages. However, Wharton’s life wasn’t completely miserable. A number of rather impressive public figures actually inspired the distinguished socialite. For instance, it was celebrated naturalist author Henry James who suggested that she write about New York’s elite social scene. And Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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