Edith Wharton & Ethan Frome

In her long career, which stretched over forty years and included the publication of more than forty books, Edith Wharton (1862-1937) portrayed a fascinating segment of the American experience. She was a born storyteller, whose novels are justly celebrated for their vivid settings, satiric wit, ironic style, and moral seriousness. Her characters, such as Ellen Olenska in The Age of Innocence, Ethan Frome, and the charming but ineffectual Lily Bart in The House of Mirth, are some of the most memorable in American literature. Often portrayed as tragic victims of cruel social conventions, they are trapped in bad relationships or confining circumstances. Her own life stands as an example of the obstacles that a woman of her time and place had to overcome to find self-realization.

Read more about Edith Wharton at Smithsonian...

PDF Update: I've added the most recent hand-outs to the class website. They are downloadable as PDF files, as follows:

Introduction to Edith Wharton & Ethan Frome

Ethan Frome Assignment Sheet
Please note: This PDF is updated to include the data sheet due date, March 29 -- the same day as the final test on the Ethan Frome unit. You can still download the PDF and Word versions of the data sheet (see below). I will also make some more hard-copies available in the room

Data sheet in PDF

Date sheet in (DOC) Word

PSAT/SAT Question of the Day #3

Choose the pair of words that, when inserted in the sentence, best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole.

Ms. Fergusson's main criticism of the artist's rendering of the ancient mammal's physical appearance is that, unsupported by even a ------- of fossil evidence, the image is bound to be ------- .
Answer Choices

(A) modicum . . speculative
(B) particle . . supplemented
(C) perusal . . substantiated
(D) fabrication . . obsolete
(E) recapitulation . . exhausted

Have a guess, and then check the comments box for the answer. Which one is correct, and why?

PSAT/SAT Question of the Day #2

Part of the following sentence is italicized; beneath the sentence are five ways of phrasing the underlined material. Select the option that produces the best sentence. If you think the original phrasing produces a better sentence than any of the alternatives, select choice A.

Looking up from the base of the mountain, the trail seemed more treacherous than it really was.

(A) Looking up
(B) While looking up
(C) By looking up
(D) Viewing
(E) Viewed

Try to figure out which one is correct and why -- before you look at the answer in the comments box.

Trailer For Every Oscar-Winning Movie Ever

For anyone interested in making an Oscar-winning movie, here's the formula -- at least for a trailer. Now it's your turn: Get to work!

PSAT/SAT Question of the Day #1

Part of the following sentence is italicized; beneath the sentence are five ways of phrasing the underlined material. Select the option that produces the best sentence. If you think the original phrasing produces a better sentence than any of the alternatives, select choice A.

Clara Barton founded the American branch of the Red Cross, a nurse who was sometimes called the “angel of the battlefield.”

(A) Clara Barton founded the American branch of the Red Cross,
(B) The founder of the American branch of the Red Cross was Clara Barton,
(C) It was Clara Barton founding the American branch of the Red Cross,
(D) Clara Barton, who founded the American branch of the Red Cross, she was
(E) In founding the American branch of the Red Cross, Clara Barton was

Which answer is correct, and why...? Typically, I'll post the answer in the comments box. So, try to figure it out first and then check the comments box for the answer.