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Henry James observed in an August 1902 letter to Edith Wharton's sister-in-law, Mrs. Cadwalader Jones, that Wharton "must be tethered in native pastures, even if it reduces her to a back-yard in New York." At almost the same time, he wrote Wharton, begging her to permit him to "admonish" her "in favour of the American subject" while she was "young, free, expert." He hoped she would "profit, be warned by my awful example of exile and ignorance." Biographer R. W. B. Lewis terms James's plea "the wisest literary advice Edith Wharton ever received." Clearly, however, James did not foresee publication of the travel books that constitute a vital and enduring segment of her work. They provide a framework within which she could introduce her intellectual abilities and interests without the constrictions of plot and character imposed by fiction. Moreover, her travel writing validates her role as connoisseur and cicerone of the first magnitude, well able to enlighten her countrymen about the subtleties of taste and aesthetic achievements of the Old World.
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