A private madness : the genius of Elinor Wylie / Evelyn Helmick Hively.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hively, Evelyn Helmick.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wylie, Elinor, 1885-1928--Criticism and interpretation.

Wylie, Elinor.

Wylie, Elinor, 1885-1928.

Women and literature--United States--History--20th century.

Women and literature.

Criticism and interpretation.

United States.

History.

Physical Description:

xvi, 264 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Kent, Ohio : Kent State University Press, [2003]

Summary:

Elinor Wylie's body of work -- four novels and four volumes of poetry produced between 1921 and 1928 -- has often been overshadowed by her controversial personal life. In A Private Madness Evelyn Hively explores the points at which her life and her art intersect and demonstrates how Wylie "used language and literary form to transform the chaos of her experiences." This purpose was successfully met, as A Private Madness presents Wylie and her work within the culture of the twenties. Described by contemporaries as an icon of the age, Wylie was illustrative of the tone and mores of the notorious decade in which her poems, novels, and Vanity Fair articles were written. Her friendships with such notables as Edna St. Vincent Millay, Dorothy Parker, and William Rose Benet and the events she endured -- her father suffered breakdowns and a brother, a sister, and her first husband fell victim to suicide -- colored her life and often mirrored the temper of the twenties. Her independence, unconventional behavior, narcissism, interest in the occult and the frantic pace of her life and her problem with alcohol are evident in her novels and her poems. Her work embraces the escapism of the era in which she wrote and captures the wit and irony that set the tone of the decade. This carefully researched literary study of the art of a writer who enjoyed brief but brilliant fame in 1920s America will be a welcome addition to women's literary studies.

Contents:

I Elinor Morton Hoyt, September 1885-December 1906

1 "A power remote and exquisite" 3

2 "Bitter springs of truth" 10

3 "The egregious egoist" 18

II Elinor Hichborn, December 1906-August 1916

4 "When the world turns completely upside down" 27

5 "My escape, my retreat" 31

III Elinor Wylie, August 1916-November 1923

6 "Here is my lover, here is my friend" 43

7 "Sometimes she gives her heart" 47

8 "Words opalescent, cool, and pearly" 52

9 "An iridescent music to be my own" 59

10 "I swear to you I am content" 66

11 "This poor armour patched from desperate fears" 74

12 "There's sorcery in it, and surprise" 81

13 "Your grateful friends will crown your name with laurel" 87

14 "Let us return again together" 109

IV Elinor Benet, November 1923-December 1928

15 "Take now the burning question of morality" 114

16 "The lady stuffed with pistachio nuts" 119

17 "This strict ascetic habit of control" 126

18 "Here is no peace" 131

19 "Since we can neither run nor hide" 135

20 "In coldest crucibles of pain" 141

21 "A subtle spirit has my path attended" 147

22 "Our mutable tongue is like the sea" 158

23 "Call her not wicked" 169

24 "In masks outrageous and austere" 177

25 "Preoccupied by a Platonic mind" 185

26 "A structure elegant and airy" 194

27 "The love that speech can never render plain" 199

28 "The pure integral form" 213

29 "This veil concealing sorrow's face" 219

30 "Never ask the end" 223.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-256) and index.

ISBN:

0873387465

OCLC:

49680115