Studies in the Novel, June 22nd, 2006
Like fossil bones stellating a cliff, Edith Wharton's keen interest in evolution appears throughout her works. Critics often note her debt to Darwin (1) and have placed her in the context of literary naturalism. (2) Her narrative patterns, tropes, and even titles like "The Descent of Man" or "The Greater Inclination" (3) come from her readings among the evolutionists--not only Darwin but Spencer, Huxley, Haeckel, and George Romanes, among many others from the "wonder-world of nineteenth century science" (Wharton, Backward 94). Near the end of her life, Wharton wrote that it was "hopeless to ...
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