Fateful Beauty: Aesthetic Environments, Juvenile Development, and Literature, 1860–1960 (review)

As Douglas Mao points out in his fascinating study, Fateful Beauty, aesthetics and literary naturalism are not concepts scholars ordinarily link together. In fact, naturalism would seem to focus most often on places notable for the absence of aesthetic beauty. Positing his book as a significant departure from this perception, Mao establishes a persuasive argument that proponents of these two distinct ideas have a common ground in their shared interest in the role of environment as a force responsible for shaping individuals. In focusing his attention on the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, he is able to show how anxiety about childhood development led to an increased consideration of the concept of environment and how even the smallest experience could "exert incalculable influence" on a developing individual. This confluence of environment and experience allowed a wide array of critics, theorists, and other authors to consider the potential role of beauty as a source of concern for children in their formative years and beyond.

In his opening chapter, Mao underscores the nineteenth-century belief that children were in need of constant protection to highlight the development of environment as an all-inclusive notion. From its earliest usage, environment entailed "a totality of influences" that shaped each individual. As such, "environment" moves beyond mere notions of a physical space: it stands as something that "migrated freely" and included the domestic space as much as it did the natural world outside of one's door. Through this broad definition, prominent theorists began to examine the aesthetics of a child's surroundings as one of the few aspects of life that remained static in an otherwise chaotic world. Amidst the anxious observation of even the minutest aspect of childhood development, these authors believed it was the "formative power of beautiful environments" that played a crucial, if "unperceived," role in a child's life.

While the book contains detailed examinations of a number of literary figures and their consideration of aesthetics, I was most impressed by Mao's work on Theodore Dreiser, perhaps because of my own work with Dreiser and masculinity. In this chapter, Mao contends that, while many critics have commented on Dreiser's thoughts regarding beauty, not enough attention has been paid to "the interplay of beauty and environment" in his writing. Through a close examination of works like Sister Carrie and An American Tragedy, Mao concludes that dealing with the aesthetic offered Dreiser "a liberatory promise of beauty" that worked against the ideas of "environmental determinism." At the same time, by emphasizing Dreiser's humble origins, Mao reveals that the power of beauty in these novels lay also in the "incitement to struggle" that fueled so many of Dreiser's memorable characters. Viewed through this lens, the seemingly endless longing for beauty expressed by a character like Carrie Meeber can be seen as a yearning for stability that will liberate her from the cycle of desire that motivates her throughout the novel.

Mao's consideration of aesthetics as a significant aspect in literary naturalism allows for a refreshingly unique consideration of Dreiser along with such significant literary figures as James Joyce, Rebecca West, and W. H. Auden. As a result, he has made an important contribution to the field that will surely inspire deeper examinations in the coming years.