Mary E. Wilkins Freeman ranks among the foremost interpreters of New England village and rural life. Though she may correctly be described as a local colorist, she is much more, for in her short stories and novels she deals perceptively with the 250-year...

The life of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman has too often been compared to that of the spinsters who populate much of her fiction. Although she lived most of her life in small New England villages and did not marry until she was forty-nine years of age, Freeman'...

A small doll-like woman, who never wished to grow old and yet came to resemble so many of her aging heroines, created in her fiction the heart of New England's life and ethos. Mary Wilkins Freeman created strong-willed characters, whose Yankee stoicism o...

Critics have held widely varying opinions on the quality of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman's "A New England Nun," the quality of the characters, and even whether or not Freeman liked the spinster Louisa Ellis who is, ironically, the protagonist in this sexually dynamic...

Mary Wilkins Freeman's "A New England Nun" is the most widely analyzed-and controversial--of her tales. Indeed, even a cursory review of the criticism devoted to it will turn up a daunting number and diversity of interpretations. (1) Despite the long-standing and extensive discussion...