Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton and Charlotte Perkins Gilman

JANET BEER is Pro Vice Chancellor and Dean of Humanities, Law and Social Science at the Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. She has lectured and published extensively on late nineteenth/early twentieth century American women's writing, and is currently working on a book, in collaboration with Avril Horner, on the figure of the older woman in Edith Wharton's fiction (to be published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2006). Her other publications include Special Relationships: Anglo-American Affinities and Antagonisms, 1854-1936 (co-edited with Bridget Bennett, 2002), American Feminism: Key Source Documents,1848-1920 (editor, 2002), and Edith Wharton (2001).

Review of Hardback Edition: 'Janet Beer's work is particularly welcome in that it combines meticulously attentive generic and thematic readings... with a scrupulous ability to situate the texts both within the context of the author's oeuvre and within the wider social context of the American fin de siecle... An immensely rich and impressively sustained series of interpretative readings, which makes full use of recent relevant scholarship.' - Helen May Dennis, Journal of American Studies 'In this brilliant book, Janet Beer reinvigorates our readings of these three central authors. Concentrating on their short fiction - along a spectrum from Chopin's micro-narratives to Wharton's novellas and Gilman's social analogues - she opens up the nuances, complications and surprises at the heart of all their writings. Engaged, richly informed, and beautifully crafted, every chapter remains memorable, illuminating unexpected facets of each individual author, and stimulating fresh approaches to their work. Taken together, these subtle readings illuminate the practices and possibilities of women's writing in the 1890s and beyond, and offer original insights into the nature and art of fiction.' - Dr Pamela Knights, Department of English Studies, University of Durham, UK

• Acknowledgements New Preface Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton and Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Studies in Short Fiction, An Introduction 'dah you is, settin' down, lookin' jis' like w'ite folks!' Ethnicity Enacted in Kate Chopin's Short Fiction Without End: the Shape and Form of Desire in Kate Chopin's Short Fiction Kate Chopin's Short Stories, on the Verge(s) of Narrative Edith Wharton and the Coherence of the Novella: From Initiation to Disillusion Edith Wharton, Literary Ghosts and the Writing of New England The Means and Ends of Genre in the Short Fiction of Charlotte Perkins Gilman Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Analogues: Reiterating the Social Health 'The Yellow Wallpaper' on Film: Dramatising Mental Illness Conclusion References and Bibliography Index