Slavery, Philosophy, and American Literature, 1830-1860 Book

Somers makes a few really interesting points to begin with but doesn't actually expand on them (good news for me I suppose) Her final judgement that "these "privileges" were among the strongest forces that threatened to overcome and defeat her [Wharton]." (157) become simplistic and ultimately sound more like writing than argument. The claim that Wharton "wrote her own life" (155) is articulate but is it accurate? She also quotes Wharton's 1911 letter to Fullerton where she argues "I'm a better landscape gardener than novelist" (156) without pointing out that Wharton died in the 30s. A later source of Wharton's opinion of her own role as a writer would be more interesting, more helpful. The comparisons to Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt also feel half-baked (especially in the face of Mackenzie Stuart's biography of Consuelo and her mother) but not uninspired. I think the material is there but spends itself out establishing the Newport and New York scene (already done quite well in books like Displaying Women)

The most interesting part of the book occurs in a quotation on 151-152 (the book picks up in general as it winds down) as to the nature of the Marble House and its gilded-museum like nature. Here is a real point of spatial analysis, the comparison of gilded-age museums to gilded age mansions. The building period of these institutions were parallel. Surely that's an interesting area to explore? And a real area of spatial analysis.