Sacramental Shopping: Louisa May Alcott, Edith Wharton, and the Spirit of Modern Consumerism (Becoming Modern: New Nineteenth-Century Studies) - Softcover

Sherman, Sarah Way

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1611684374 ISBN 13: 9781611684377

Publisher: University of New Hampshire Press, 2013

Synopsis

Written a generation apart and rarely treated together by scholars, Little Women (1868) and The House of Mirth (1905) share a deep concern with materialism, moral development, and self-construction. The heroines in both grapple with conspicuous consumption, an aspect of modernity that challenges older beliefs about ethical behavior and core identity.

Placing both novels at the historical intersection of modern consumer culture and older religious discourse on materialism and identity, Sarah Way Sherman analyzes how Alcott and Wharton rework traditional Protestant discourse to interpret their heroines’ struggle with modern consumerism. Her conclusion reveals how Little Women’s optimism, still buoyed by otherworldly justice, providential interventions, and the notion of essential identity, ultimately gives way to the much darker vision of modern materialistic culture in The House of Mirth.
Hardcover is un-jacketed.

About this title

About the Author:

SARAH WAY SHERMAN is an associate professor of English and American studies at the University of New Hampshire.

Review:

“Two eminent writers—Louisa May Alcott and Edith Wharton—are the focus of this study about the struggle between moral and material values in American culture. Sherman’s analysis of Little Women and The House of Mirth makes clear how both novels rework Protestant discourse. Her connections between these writers and texts are original, penetrating, and illuminating. . . . Professor Sherman has produced meritorious, well-researched study that will permanently change readers’ understanding of Little Women and The House of Mirth.” (Carol Singley, professor of English, Rutgers University–Camden)

“This is a very fine reading of Alcott’s Little Women and Wharton’s The House of Mirth, two novels that have been much analyzed, but the author has a number of illuminating insights no one else has made. . . . Even readers who know both novels well will be enlightened by such an insightful reading, and for those who don’t know the novels, this is a perfect introduction to them.” (Elsa Nettels, Mildred and J. B. Hickman Professor of English and Humanities, Emerita, College of William and Mary)

About this edition

• Publisher: University of New Hampshire Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1611684374
• ISBN 13: 9781611684377
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336