Constance Fenimore and Edith Wharton: Perspectives On Landscape and Art

by Sharon L. Dean

The first study to draw connections between Constance Fenimore Woolson and Edith Wharton, this book explores the contrasting ways in which these two important writers responded to the rapidly changing landscapes of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Sharon L. Dean considers the travel essays of Woolson and Wharton, as well as their fiction, and contextualizes their work with the rise in tourism and with evolving theories and techniques of landscape design. She argues that for both writers, the manner in which they saw and transcribed landscape informed their ways of seeing themselves as artists. Full of fresh insights into the literary achievements of both Woolson and Wharton, Dean's book will also prompt readers to reconsider their own responses and obligations to landscape and how those responses are shaped by their experiences and by larger cultural forces.

296 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2002

About the author

Sharon L. Dean grew up in Massachusetts where she was immersed in the literature of New England. She earned undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of New Hampshire, a state she lived and taught in before moving to Oregon. Although she has given up writing scholarly books that require footnotes, she incorporates much of her academic research as background in her mysteries. She is the author of three Susan Warner mysteries and three Deborah Strong mysteries. Her collection Six Old Women and Other Stories explores settings in New Hampshire. Leaving Freedom has been re-released in June 2023 along with a sequel, Finding Freedom. Dean continues to write about New England while she is discovering the beauty of the West.