Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1974 Edith Wharton and Virginia Woolf: Tradition and Experiment in the Modern Novel. Julia Chandler L'enfant Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation L'enfant, Julia Chandler, "Edith Wharton and Virginia Woolf: Tradition and Experiment in the Modern Novel." (1974). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 2677. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/2677 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or patterns which may appear on this reproduction. 1. The sign or “target" for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is “Missing Page(s)“. If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting thru an image and duplicating adjacent pages to insure you complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated with a large round black mark, it is an indication that the photographer suspected that the copy may have moved during exposure and thus cause a blurred image. You will find a good image of the page in the adjacent frame. 3. When a map, drawing or chart, etc., was part of the material being photographed the photographer followed a definite method in . “sectioning" the material. It is customary to begin photoing at the upper left hand corner of a large sheet and to continue photoing from left to right in equal sections with a small overlap. If necessary, sectioning is continued again - beginning below the first row and continuing on until complete. 4. The majority of users indicate that the textual content is of greatest value, however, a somewhat higher quality reproduction could be made from "photographs" if essential to the understanding of the dissertation. Silver prints of “ photographs" may be ordered at additional charge by writing the Order Department, giving the catalog number, title, author and specific pages you wish reproduced. 5. PLEASE NOTE: Some pages may have indistinct print. Filmed as received. Xerox University Microfilms Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 75-1938 L ’EyEANT, Julia Chandler, 1944- EDITH WHAKTCN AND VIRGINIA WDOLF: TRADITION AND EXPERIMENT IN IHE MODERN NOVEL. The Louisiana State Ihiversity and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Ph.D., 1974 Language and Literature, modem Æ Xerox University Microfilms,Ann Arbor, Michigan 48105 © 1974 JULIA CHANDLER L ’ENFANT ALL RIGHTS RESERVED THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. EDITH WHARTON AND VIRGINIA WOOLF: TRADITION AND EXPERIMENT IN THE MODERN NOVEL A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The Department of English by Julia Chandler L'Enfant B.A., Louisiana State University, 1965 M.A., Louisiana State University in New Orleans, 1968 August, 1974 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank Professor Donald E. Stanford for con­ stant help and encouragement on this project, beginning with his fine seminar on Henry James, William Dean Howells, and Edith Wharton, which developed rty interest in the theory of the modern novel. I also thank Professors Thomas Watson, John Weaver, Darwin Shrell, and Jack Gilbert, all of whom have been inspiring teachers and stimulating critics. Grateful acknowledgement is given to Donald Gallup, Curator of the Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, for per­ mission to examine and quote from Edith Wharton's unpub­ lished criticism. I wish to gratefully acknowledge the award of a Dis­ sertation Year Fellowship by the Graduate School of Louisiana State University. Finally, I wish to thank above all my husband Howard and daughter Jamie, whose encouragement and support have made this study a pleasure. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................ ü ABSTRACT ................................................ V INTRODUCTION...............................................viii CHAPTER I. EDITH WHARTON'S THEORY OF THE N O V E L ......... 1 a m The Theoiry #••••••••••••••• 1 b. An Example of the Theory: The Reef .... 38 II. VIRGINIA WOOLF'S THEORY OF THE N O V E L ......... 70 a. The Function of Criticism .................. 70 b. Virginia Woolf's Theory of the Novel . 77 c. The Conteirporary Novel: Jacob's Room . 102 d. The Novel of the Future: The Waves .... 127 e. A Note on Influences ...................... 154 III. THE CRITICAL THEORIES OF EDITH WHARTON AND VIRGINIA WOOLF: FROM DRAMA TO POETRY .... 158 a. The Function of Criticism .................. 158 b. The Function of the No v e l .................. 167 c. The Contenç>orary S c e n e .................... 177 d. P r o u s t ................. 198 e. The Reef and The W a v e s .................... 202 1. Point of View: the Inner Plus the Outer ................. 204 2. Time: the Drama and the Poetry .... 220 IV. A CHANGE IN VIEWPOINT: THE AGE OF INNOCENCE AND BETWEEN THE A C T S ................. 233 a. The Reef to The Age of Innocence; the Ex- pansiofT”of D r a m a .......................... 238 b. The Waves to Between the Acts : the Emer- gence of F a c t ............................... 261 c. The Age of innocence and Between the Acts : the Spirit of the Age ............. 292 iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Page V. CONCLUSION: THE PUBLIC TRANSACTION ........ 308 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................. 340 VITA ..................................................... 353 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. To H. W. L. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT Virginia Woolf's assertion in "Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown" that "in or about December, 1910, human character changed" is often quoted as evidence of her belief that the modern age is essentially different from what came before and requires a new form in the novel to represent it. Every student of the modern novel must decide whether that is true in order to determine the role of the tradition of the novel in his writing or teaching. This study deals with the issue by comparing two writers who represent two eras in twentieth century fiction, Edith Wharton, who constructed dramatic novels often linked with Henry James, and Virginia Woolf, who envisioned poetic novels often in direct rebellion against the Jamesian conventions, to determine the nature and the viability of the novelistic tradition as they under­ stood it. Chapter I analyzes Mrs. Wharton's Jamesian critical principles, particularly in The writing of Fiction (1925), and presents The Reef (1912) with its limited point of view and use of dramatically "crucial moments" as a particularly pure exanple of the theory in practice. Chapter II analyzes Mrs. Woolf's far more coitplicated critical principles, especially as gathered in the Collected Essays (1966), and presents "Modern Fiction" (1919), Jacob's Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Room (1922), "Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown" (1924), "The Nar­ row Bridge of Art" (1927), and The Waves (1931) as interre­ lated examples of her evolving theories of poetic impersonal­ ity and saturated moments, and their embodiment in practice. Chapter III makes the coup arisen explicit. Mrs. Whar­ ton's and Mrs. Woolf's critical theories are collated, es­ pecially their ideas on the function of the novel, which both agree is to represent life, and its history, which shows Mrs. Wharton's enphasis on manners, Mrs. Woolf's on poetry. Their divergence remains in their attitudes toward the contemporary scene: the formalization of Henry James, the formlessness of the great Russians, and, more broadly, the revolution in fundamental assumptions about man. The differences, amount­ ing to a definition of Mrs. Woolf's experimentalism, Mrs. Wharton's traditionalism, are summarized by means of their contrasting analyses of Proust's achievement. The Reef and The Waves are then conpared, especially in terms of point of view (a combination of the inner and the outer, concentrating on the inner) and the handling of the passage of time ("cru­ cial moments" as opposed to "the