[Vwoolf] New Yorker essay on VW and Wharton

JJ Wilson boxcar at sonic.net
Tue Sep 23 17:58:48 EDT 2014


I too must confess to a certain “grumpiness” when I read these recent what seem quick takes on Woolf’s work, but I think those of us in our dotage, as Anne says so charmingly, must beware dare I say doting — that is, feeling a kind of ownership of the material and readings and interpretations and parameters and even the language used to leapfrog into Woolf as she (and we) recede even further into the past.  Remember Eliot saying that a new translation needs to be done of the classes every ten years because the climate has so changed.  

J.J. Wilson, trying unsuccessfully to resist being bothered
On Sep 23, 2014, at 2:06 PM, Linda Camarasana <camarasana at mindspring.com> wrote:

> Glad you said that, Anne.
>  
> Though I appreciate being reminded of Wharton and connections Colapinto makes between The Age of Innocence and To the Lighthouse, I, too, am a bit bothered by the essay, especially this:
> “Something from The Age of Innocence seems to have reverberated in Woolf’s mind when she sat down to write her own most famous novel, even if it was only the central image of the lighthouse, which, as readers of The Age of Innocence know, is a key symbol on which Wharton’s novel also turns.”
>  
> Makes me want to tell him to read “Reminiscences” and “A Sketch of the Past.” Surely he should at least acknowledge Woolf’s youth, trips to St. Ives, the haunting sounds of the waves, Julia’s death, and Stella’s death as the most obvious influences on To the Lighthouse. 
>  
> Best,
> Linda
>  
> Linda Camarasana, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor, English Department
> Coordinator of Writing Programs 
> New Academic Building 3017
> SUNY College at Old Westbury 
> Old Westbury, NY 11568
> camarasana at mindspring.com
>  
>  
>  
> From: Vwoolf [mailto:vwoolf-bounces at lists.osu.edu] On Behalf Of ANNE Fernald [Staff/Faculty [A&S]]
> Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2014 4:43 PM
> To: vwoolf at lists.service.ohio-state.edu
> Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] New Yorker essay on VW and Wharton
>  
> Dear all,
>  
> I'm very interested to know about the letter from Stuart. The truth is, this essay bugs me. I don't think Wharton is a huge influence on Woolf and I am surprised at the level of speculation he permits himself.
>  
> But I'm getting grumpy in my dotage,
>  
> Best,
>  
> Anne
>  
> On Tue, Sep 23, 2014 at 4:32 PM, Jeannette Smyth <jeannette_smyth at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Thank you, the truth is mighty and it shall prevail!
> Jeannette Smyth
>  
>  
> On Sep 23, 2014, at 12:26 PM, Stuart N. Clarke <stuart.n.clarke at btinternet.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> VW ack’d on 18 Nov 1920 the receipt of a copy of “The Age of Innocence” in an uncollected letter to Messrs Appleton & Co. (letter pub’d in the “Virginia Woolf Bulletin” (Jan. 2011)).  Stephen Barkway discusses VW’s published comments on Wharton – and Wharton’s irritation – in his accompanying note.
>  
> Stuart
>  
> From: Jeannette Smyth
> Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2014 6:51 PM
> To: vwoolf at lists.osu.edu
> Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] New Yorker essay on VW and Wharton
>  
> This is very, very interesting, thank you for the heads up.
> I have read every word of the diaries and letters at least three times, where VW's casual reading and influences are most frequently to be found. I can’t remembering her mentioning Edith Wharton in any connection, and the author here notes he cannot find any record of VW’s having read Age of Innocence. 
> What interesting ouevres to compare, though. And how interesting Woolf’s contention that Wharton was not a real American — only Walt Whitman, of the fluid gender, was.
> Thank you again.
> Jeannette Smyth
>  
> On Sep 23, 2014, at 10:51 AM, Emily Kopley <emily.kopley at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> Hi All,
>  
> This recent essay in The New Yorker makes a good case for VW's thinking of The Age of Innocence as she composed Mrs. Ramsay's death:
>  
> http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/virginia-woolfs-anxiety-influence
>  
> Best,
> Emily
> 
>  
> --
> Dr. Emily Kopley
> Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow
> McGill University, Department of English
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> 
>  
> --
> Anne E. Fernald
> Director of Writing/Composition at Lincoln Center,
> Associate Professor of English and Women's Studies
> Fordham University
> 113 W 60th St.
> New York NY 10023
> 
> 212/636-7613
> fernald at fordham.edu
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