Content area
Full Text
Edith Wharton: The Fruit of the Tree. Introduction by Donna Campbell. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2000. $47.50 cloth, $18.95 paper. 633 pp. Introduction pp. v-l (50 PP)
The reissuing of this important novel by Edith Wharton, originally published in 1907, provides an essential service to both general readers and American literature scholars. Every bit as welcome as the novel's increased availability, however, is its first-rate introduction by Donna Campbell. Campbell's 45-page preface provides not only a synopsis of the novel and an overview of critical reaction to its initial publication, but also a brief survey of current scholarly readings. The introduction includes, moreover, numerous insights of Campbell's own as well as suggested ways to read this complicated novel. Ultimately, Campbell finds much to recommend The Fruit of the Tree, from its treatment of mam'age, social and labor problems in general to its curiously modern examination of such issues as euthanasia and drug addiction in particular.
Because certain myths have hampered a full appreciation Edith Wharton and her work, contemporary...