Edith Wharton's "Tact of Omission": Harmony and Proportion in A Backward Glance

In this article Judith Fryer examines the widely-held belief—posited by Edith Wharton herself—that there were two Whartons, one who "makes up," or embellishes herself for a social audience, and one who "makes up" stories. The one is motivated by the sort of order set forth in Wharton's Decoration of Houses; the other is attracted to the disorder of Wharton's ghost stories. Fryer not only demonstrates the interrelationships between these "selves," but shows how in A Backward Glance Wharton recreates herself as her own fictional heroine.