Edith Wharton: A New Course at the Salem Athenæum

The following press release is courtesy of the .

The honors the 100th anniversary of Edith Wharton's novel Ethan Frome with a fall course celebrating the author. This study of Wharton's work is slated for seven consecutive Saturday afternoons, 2:30 to 4:30, starting Sept. 10.

The course will be held at the Athenæum, 337 Essex St., Salem and is open to members and the public.
 
Cost for the "Edith Wharton: Tales of Innocence and Experience" course is $195, $175 for Athenæum members. Register at www.salemathenaeum.net or by calling 978-744-2540. 
 
Led by Dorothy Dudley, who teaches English and American literature at Tufts University in the Tufts/Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, this course will examine the life and work of America's first great female novelist. It will focus on five representative works:The House of Mirth (1905), Ethan Frome (1911), Summer (1917)-sometimes called "the hot Ethan Frome,"The Reef (1912), and her award-winning masterwork, The Age of Innocence (1920).
 
Born Edith Newbold Jones (1862) to one of New York's "first families," Edith Wharton spent her formative teenage years in the protected, nearly cloistered world of wealth and privilege bounded by Washington Square and Newport. When, as an unhappily married adult, Edith used her genius to examine the emotional cost of conformity to the traditions of that society, she struck artistic gold.
 
Her novel, The Age of Innocence, for example, recreates the New York of Wharton's youth and chronicles the fate of those who dare to violate the code. The novel won her a Pulitzer Prize (1920) and further contributed to her prominence as a literary figure-so much so that she became the first woman to receive an honorary degree from Yale University (1923).
 
In addition to discussing the major themes of Wharton's novels, participants will have the opportunity to view some of the fine film productions of these works. A field trip to Wharton's home, The Mount, in Lenox, MA may be arranged at the end of the course, given sufficient interest.
 
Bio of Dorothy Dudley

Dorothy Dudley, an educator specializing in British and American literature, has taught at Tufts University for the past 10 years.  In addition to her teaching duties, she has also led her students on five "literary pilgrimages" to the UK and Spain, following in the footsteps of authors that they have studied, including: the Brontes, Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy, Hemingway, Orwell, and Shakespeare.  Dorothy is an avid Dickens scholar and a member of the International Dickens Fellowship.

 
Prior to her full-time work at Tufts, Dorothy worked for six years as a teaching assistant in the classes of our own Dr. SueWeaver Schopf at Harvard University Extension School, where she earned a master's degree in English and American Literature and Language in 1991.

Dorothy finds it remarkable that this exciting decade of teaching and travel comes after her "so-called" retirement. In her 34 years as a public school English teacher, she never imagined a second (or third) career so full of satisfying adventures and experiences. She looks forward to introducing herself and Edith Wharton to Athenaeum members this September.
 
About The Salem Athenæum
 

Incorporated in 1810, The Salem Athenæum is an historic and contemporary library originally founded to promote literature, the arts and the sciences. As the successor to The Social Library founded in 1760 and the Philosophical Library founded in 1781, it is among the oldest membership libraries in the United States. Today, the Athenæum serves as a lifelong learning resource and community for Salem and the North Shore. For more information, call 978.744.2540 or visit www.salemathenaeum.net.