In this Book
- Sacramental Shopping: Louisa May Alcott, Edith Wharton, and the Spirit of Modern Consumerism
- Book
- 2013
- Published by: University of New Hampshire Press
- Series: Becoming Modern: New Nineteenth-Century Studies
summary
Written a generation apart and rarely treated together by scholars, Louisa May Alcott's Little Women (1868) and Edith Wharton's 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 discourses on materialism and identity, Sarah Way Sherman analyzes how Alcott and Wharton rework traditional Protestant discourses 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.
Placing both novels at the historical intersection of modern consumer culture and older religious discourses on materialism and identity, Sarah Way Sherman analyzes how Alcott and Wharton rework traditional Protestant discourses 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.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Title Page, Copyright Page
- pp. 2-9
- Acknowledgments
- pp. xi-xvi
- Introduction
- pp. 1-16
- 1. Raising Virtuous Shoppers
- pp. 17-72
- 3. Lily at the Crossroads
- pp. 119-168
- 4. Smart Jews and Failed Protestants
- pp. 169-216
- 5. Lily in the Valley of the Shadow
- pp. 217-270
Additional Information
ISBN
9781611684124
Related ISBN(s)
9781611684223
MARC Record
OCLC
859388827
Pages
336
Launched on MUSE
2013-10-21
Language
English
Open Access
No