Edith Wharton's Ghost Stories

Did you know that, in addition to her critically-acclaimed novels (Age of Innocence, Ethan Frome, and House of Mirth) Edith Wharton also wrote ghost stories, many of them written as morality tales? Some of these include:

"Bewitched," 1925

This ghost story is considered "an interesting ghostly counterpart" to Ethan Frome. Similar in some ways to Hawthorne's "Ethan Brand" -- read at your own risk!

"Afterward" From Tales of Men and Ghosts, 1910.

A vengeful spirit from the past returns to strip Ned Boyne of the fortune he has made years ago under questionable circumstances.

"The Eyes" From Tales of Men and Ghosts, 1910.

Reminiscent of Poe's "William Wilson," this short story features protagonist Andrew Culwin, who is haunted by a pair of repulsive, disembodied eyes. Only much later does he realize that the eyes are apparitions from the future, a phantasmal projection of his own wizened conscience as it looks back upon his youthful indiscretions and self-deception.

"The Fulness of Life" 1893

A woman dies and meets her soul-mate, who turns out to be....

"Kerfol" 1916

One of Wharton's best ghost stories: quasi-Gothic architecture, an antiquarian immersion in the Renaissance past, some ghostly dogs — less terror but more haunting than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic Sherlock Holmes ghostly canine tale The Hound of the Baskervilles. "Kerfol" depicts a ruined French estate haunted by the spirits of dogs, animals murdered by the previous owner in revenge for what he wrongly believed was his wife's adultery.

"The Lady's Maid's Bell" 1902

The ghost of a former maid continues to serve her mistress. Seeking to protect the woman, an invalid, from an encroaching danger, the dead maid's spirit rings her bell, but to no avail.

"The Triumph of Night"
A man becomes plagued by obsessive feelings of guilt after failing to respond to a nightmarish vision in which he sees his friend's death planned by a greedy uncle.

PSAT/SAT Question of the Day #5

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

Barbara McClintock's systematic examination of corn demonstrated the transposition of genes, a finding that overturned entrenched beliefs and proved that ------- study may produce brilliant insights and ------- change.

(A) haphazard . . radical
(B) inherent . . controversial
(C) improvised . . startling
(D) methodical . . revolutionary
(E) derivative . . gradual

Take your guess, and then check the comments box for the answer.

Extra Credit: Edith Wharton Quiz

"The Mount" -- Edith Wharton's Estate in Lenox, Mass.

Here's an end-of-the-quarter extra credit opportunity. If you can answer these ten questions about Edith Wharton correctly, I'll give you an extra 50 points. Many of you are on the bubble between grades, e.g., between an A+ and an H-. You must submit the answers to me in writing at the beginning of class on Thursday.

1 What was Edith Wharton's first published book?

2 What famous American author was Edith Wharton's good friend and traveling companion?

3 At about what age did Edith Wharton publish her first book of short stories?

4 Lily Bart is the heroine of which Wharton novel?

5 Published in 1917, this book set in the New England town of North Dormer featured a young heroine who falls in love with a visiting architect. What is it.

6 For which work did Edith Wharton win the Pulitzer Prize in 1921?

7 Wharton edited The Book of the Homeless and wrote Fighting France: From Dunquerque to Belforte to provide relief for refugees during what war?

8 In 1923, Edith Wharton was honored as the first woman to receive an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from what university?

9 The first draft of Ethan Frome was written in which language?

10 Although she traveled extensively before and after this time, after about 1913 Edith Wharton lived primarily in which country?

PSAT/SAT Question of the Day #4

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.

Scenes from the everyday lives of African Americans, which are realistically depicted in the paintings of Henry Ossawa Tanner.

(A) Scenes from the everyday lives of African Americans, which are realistically depicted in the paintings of Henry Ossawa Tanner.

(B) Scenes from the everyday lives of African Americans being realistically depicted in the paintings of Henry Ossawa Tanner.

(C) The paintings of Henry Ossawa Tanner realistically depict scenes from the everyday lives of African Americans.

(D) Henry Ossawa Tanner, in his realistic paintings, depicting scenes from the everyday lives of African Americans.

(E) Henry Ossawa Tanner, whose paintings realistically depict scenes from the everyday lives of African Americans.

Check the comments box for the answer!

Approved "Guiding Questions"

The following are guiding questions that have been approved. These questions should guide your initial research and culminate in the formation of a working thesis:

Julianna
How do the three methods of "time travel" in Time Out of Joint, Time and Again, and The End of Eternity bresult in the time-travel creators' "playing God," and what are, ot could have been, the consequences of their actions?

Ashley
How do Catch-22, Slaughterhouse-Five, and The Naked and the Dead show the effect of the imminence of death on soldiers fighting in World War II?

Jennifer
In what ways do Little Women, The Age of Innocence, and Peony portray the conflict between duty and personal interests in a moral light?

Larry
How do Mark Twain's novels and short stories portray maturity, the maturing process, or the lack of maturity in people and American society?

Sean
How do the characters in Chaim Potok's The Chosen, The Promise, and My Name is Asher Lev reconcile their faith and tradition with modern secular society?

Annmarie
What do Not Without Laughter, The Outsider, and Contending Forces have to say about black communities after the Civil War?

Olivia
In what ways do To Kill a Mockingbird, The Invisible Man, and A Lesson Before Dying express racial injustice through forms of government oppression?

Joseph B
How do Johnny Got His Gun, The Red Badge of Courage, and Slaughterhouse Five go about showing the effects war can have on a man?

Gabriela
How do Black Boy, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Uncle Tom's Cabin demonstrate that racism is incompatible with civil and natural law?

Elizabeth
In what ways do Contending Forces, Pudd'nhead Wilson, and Uncle Tom's Cabin scrutinize the absurdity and selfishness of putting one's own race above another?

Marcella
What do Willa Cather's My Antonia, O Pioneers!, and A Lost Lady have to say about the American Dream"?

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.

Homegrown Limericks

Here we go. I've chosen a selection of our limericks to post here for posterity. Most of you and moi are represented. Can you guess who wrote which? N.B. I did make a few minor tweaks here and there to conform the verse to the limerick "da DUM" pattern.

There was an old geezer from Butte
Whose face was no longer so cute.
His eyebrows were jutting.
The hairs needed cutting.
They ran down his face to his boot.

I knew a man who once chewed
So loudly was it very rude!
I gave him a stare
Returned by a glare
And out of his mouth flew the food.

My brocc'li tastes awful when chewed.
It also tastes awful when stewed.
My mother insists
While we all resist
And the brocc'li continu'lly gets booed.

Remeber the gum that I chewed
And with it that bubble I hewed?
I'm sorry to say
It may ruin your day
That all over you it just spewed.

I do not mean to complain,
Not of my very own name.
Yet it's such a both'a
When ya name's Julianna
And nobody spells it the same.

There was a young gal from Kentucky
Who stated her state was unlucky.
She swam 'cross the river.
Emerged with a shiver
And said, "Aint Ohio just ducky!"

I once held a book that was mine
Its pages held many a time
The killer yelled, "Stop,
Hold your hands high up top,
Turn around and look straight at the rhyme."

The neat little town they call Dwyer
Had people who lived in a dryer!
The people, they say,
Are all wet in the day
But I think that "they" are a liar.

There once was a fly in the hall
Who loved to provoke kids to bawl.
So he had some fun
And called out, "hey son!"
And watched them run into a wall.

One day I awoke with the sun
And decided to go for a run.
I tripped on my feet,
Fell into the street.
Getting hit by a car is no fun!

Once as I sat in the park
It seemed to grow ever so dark.
And then it did rain
Oh my, what a pain!
I guess I will build me an ark.

I love you sweet deer with dear love,
Much more than an ever dear dove
When I gut out your innards
And make you for dinnards
You taste better to my dearest love.

There once was a wee boy called Pete
Who couldn't sit still in his seat
The teachers, they tried
To make him abide
But they later accepted defeat.

I think that my school skirt's too plain
It's boring, old-fashioned, mundane
Put on my sweater
I think, "This aint better."
The monotony drives me insane

Gabriela fell out of the sky
To catch her, Troy Bolton did try.
"I'll catch you," he said.
But she smashed in his head.
Gabriela and Troy both did die.

There once was a girl from LA
Who stayed up throughout all the day.
She stayed up all night
For it was all light
And wondered why light it did stay.

Schedule Adjustments

I am making a small adjustment for next week's schedule. Here's how the week shapes up:

Monday, March 8:
Poetry Explication Essay due
Poetry Exam -- Part I

Tuesday, March 9
Poetry Exam -- Part II

Wednesday, March 10
3rd Book Data Sheet due

Monday, March 15
Guiding Question and Working Thesis Statement due
(I'll be giving you your full term paper assignment packet on Wednesday, March 10)

A Catalog of Limericks

A limerick is a five-line poem written with one couplet and one triplet. If a couplet is a two-line rhymed poem, then a triplet would be a three-line rhymed poem. The rhyme pattern is a a b b a with lines 1, 2 and 5 containing 3 beats and rhyming, and lines 3 and 4 having two beats and rhyming. Some people say that the limerick was invented by soldiers returning from France to the Irish town of Limerick in the 1700's.

Limericks are meant to be funny. They often contain hyperbole, onomatopoeia, idioms, puns, and other figurative devices. The last line of a good limerick contains the PUNCH LINE or "heart of the joke." As you work with limericks, remember to have fun! Say the following limericks out loud and clap to the rhythm.

The limerick packs laughs anatomical
In space that is quite economical,
But the good ones I've seen
So seldom are clean,
And the clean ones so seldom are comical.

There was an Old Man with a beard,
Who said, 'It is just as I feared!
Two Owls and a Hen,
Four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard!'

There was an Old Man who supposed,
That the street door was partially closed;
But some very large rats,
Ate his coats and his hats,
While that futile old gentleman dozed.

There once was a man from Great Britain
Who interrupted two girls at their knittin'.
Said he with a sigh,
"That park bench, well I
Just painted it right where you're sittin'."

A flea and a fly in a flue
Were imprisoned, so what could they do?
Said the fly, "let us flee!"
"Let us fly!" said the flea.
So they flew through a flaw in the flue.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock -- Animated

Here's an artistic animation rendering of T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred prufrock," read by Eliot himself.

Metaphors -- The Moon Is A Ball of Cheese

Though I was innocently using "the moon is a ball of cheese" as an example of a metaphor (figurative and literal terms both named), apparently there is an ongoing controversial debate between scientists who have two theories about the composition of the moon. Some say rock; others say -- you guessed it -- cheese.

Direct from SkepticReport.com, here is a summary of the cheese theory, given by Rico Dodton, who holds a PhD in celestial foodstuffs:

For hundreds of years, humans have known intuitively that the Moon is made of cheese. It’s really quite obvious if you don’t hide behind a bunch of scientific mumbo jumbo. Let me give you a little thought experiment. If you opened up your refrigerator at home, and saw something greenish white, with little holes in it, you would assume it was cheese. Any rational person would do the same. Why then, should the case of an object in the sky be any different? Logically, we should assume the same thing – the Moon is white, the Moon has holes, and therefore it is cheese. But don’t take my word for it — I have statistical facts to back up that statement.

Let’s first look at the so-called “scientific” theory that is taught in our schools today. Scientists tell us that the Moon is a huge ball of rock, circling – in astronomical terms – right next to the Earth, another huge ball of rock. Now I ask you, does this make sense? Does it seem likely that two balls of rock would be found right next to each other in space? Let’s look at the math. According to scientists, the ratio of empty space to rock in the universe is enormous. Jump anywhere in space and you are likely to find yourself in a totally rock-free zone. Considering this, what are the chances that two balls of rock would appear right next to each other in the vast enormity of space? I’ve performed the calculations, and the answer is: nil. Of all the places for a ball of rock to appear, right next to the Earth is so unlikely as to be statistically impossible. So we’re left with the question – if a ball of rock could not appear next to the Earth, what might the Moon in fact be? And of course, the only other possibility is a ball of cheese.

Read the whole debate!

Who Was Kubla Khan? And What is Xanadu?

Some of you asked for a little help on explicating Kubla Khan. So, here are a few tips.

1. You should know something about the historical Kubla Khan.
2. You should understand what is meant by Xanadu.
3. You should be aware that the poem is a product of the Romantic era.
4. You should consider that the poem is a fragment of the poet's dream.

As for who is Kubla Khan, he was the greatest of the Mongol emperors after Genghis Khan and founder of the Yüan Dynasty in China. When he declared himself emperor, the historical Khan claimed he had the Mandate of Heaven, a traditional Chinese concept of rule by divine permission, and therefore gained absolute control over an entire nation. Between warring and distributing the wealth his grandfather Genghis Khan had won, Khan spent his summers in Xanadu and had his subjects build him a home suitable for a son of God. Read more...

Due to Coleridge's poem, Xanadu has become fabled as a metaphor for opulence, a kind of quasi- Utopian fantasy place created by a dictator of unlimited wealth.

Radio Drama: Slaughterhouse 5

Dresden after WWII carpet bombing by the Americans

A couple of you are reading/have read Kurt Vonnegut's anti-war and time-traveler novel Slaughterhouse 5 for your term-paper project. BBC Radio has an interesting Radio Play adaptation. Brief synopsis: Billy Pilgrim, who hops back and forth in time, relives various moments in his real and fantasy lives, as a prisoner of war, optometrist and time traveler.

It is available here online at the BBC website until Saturday morning.

Usage Tip: Lie vs. Lay

When you're dealing with the present tense, it's pretty simple to keep it straight. "Lay" is a transitive verb -- you lay something, meaning you put it down. A direct object is required (direct objects are boldfaced):

I lay my head on my pillow.
She lays her hands on his head.
They lay their magic carpets in the garage.

"Lie" is an intransitive verb, meaning there's no direct object required. It's something you can do all by your self:

The dog lies in the sun.
I am lying on my belly.
The oysters lie on the beach.

Use this as a memory device for lie vs. lay in the present tense: You lay something down, but people lie down by themselves.

I shall let Grammar Girl explain the usage tip for past tense:

...But then everything goes all haywire, because lay is the past tense of lie. It's a total nightmare! I tried and tried to come up with a mnemonic for this, but I couldn't do it. Instead, I've made a table that you can print out from the website and tape up over your desk or in your notebook, because you just have to memorize this or look it up every time. [see graphic above]

So, anyway, here's how to conjugate these two verbs:

The past tense of lie is lay, so:

Last week, Steve lay down on the floor.
The cat lay in the mud after it rained yesterday.

The past tense of lay is laid, so

Last week, I laid the TPS report on your desk.
Mary forcefully laid her ring on the table.

The past participle of lie is lain, so

Steve has lain on the floor for days.
The cat has lain in the mud for hours.

The past participle of lay is laid, so

I have laid the data sheet on your desk.
Mary has forcefully laid her ring on the table.

Usage Tip: Affect vs. Effect

This is perhaps one of the trickiest usage issues in the English language; but the cartoon above serves as an excellent memory device. But be careful: There are exceptions. Here's a simple, brief explanation from Grammar Girl:

The majority of the time you use affect with an a as a verb and effect with an e as a noun.

Affect
Affect with an a means "to influence," as in, "The arrows affected Ardvark," or "The rain affected Amy's hairdo." Affect can also mean, roughly, "to act in a way that you don't feel," as in, "She affected an air of superiority."

Effect
Effect with an e has a lot of subtle meanings as a noun, but to me the meaning "a result" seems to be at the core of all the definitions. For example, you can say, "The effect was eye-popping," or "The sound effects were amazing," or "The rain had no effect on Amy's hairdo."

Common Uses of Affect and Effect
So most of the time affect with an a is a verb and effect with an e is a noun. There are rare instances where the roles are switched, and I'll get to those later, but for now let's focus on the common meanings. This is "Quick and Dirty" grammar, and my impression from your questions is that most people have trouble remembering the basic rules of when to use these words, so if you stick with those, and you'll be right 95% of the time.

So, most of the time, affect with an a is a verb and effect with an e is a noun; and now we can get to the mnemonics. First, the mnemonic involves a very easy noun to help you remember: aardvark. Yes, if you can remember aardvark -- a very easy noun -- you'll always remember that affect with an a is a verb and effect with an e is a noun. Why? Because the first letters of "a very easy noun" are the same first letters as "affect verb effect noun!" That's a very easy noun. Affect (with an a) verb effect (with an e) noun.

"But why Aardvark?" you ask. Because there's also an example to help you remember. It's "The arrows affected Aardvark. The effect was eye-popping." It should be easy to remember that affect with an a goes with the a-words, arrow and aardvark, and that effect with an e goes with the e-word, eye-popping. If you can visualize the sentences, "The arrows affected the aardvark. The effect was eye-popping," it's pretty easy to see that affect with an a is a verb and effect with an e is a noun.

Rare Uses of Affect and Effect
So what about those rare meanings that don't follow the rules I just gave you? Well, affect can be used as a noun when you're talking about psychology--it means the mood that someone appears to have. For example, "She displayed a happy affect." Psychologists find it useful because they know that you can never really understand what someone else is feeling. You can only know how they appear to be feeling.

And, effect can be used as a verb that essentially means "to bring about," or "to accomplish." For example, you could say, "Aardvark hoped to effect change within the burrow."

read the whole post...

Schedule Adjustments

Due to the fact that we've only had two poetry classes together since we began the unit, I am adjusting the schedule generally by an entire week. That means that your second explication will be due next Tuesday, February 23. Your next 5-minute quick quiz will be next Tuesday -- and we'll go from there.

You should download the revised assignment schedule here: [ assignment sheet ]

Please note one other adjustment on the assignment sheet: I have assigned one Junior to give an introductory presentation on each of the remaining poems, beginning with Auden's "Musee des Beaux Arts," which we will discuss in the next class, whether it is this Tuesday or Wednesday -- depending on snow. Please consult the revised assignment sheet to see which poem you are responsible for. (Annmarie already gave a presentation on Bartleby the Scrivener.)

NOTE: I am not adjusting the schedule for data sheets. The data sheet due today can either be emailed to me -- or, I will collect it on the morning of the next day we have school.

Do let me know if you have any questions.