Sacramental Shopping: Louisa May Alcott, Edith Wharton, a...
Sherman, Sarah Way
Written a generation apart, Little Women (1868) and The House of Mirth (1905) share a deep concern with materialism, moral development, and self-construction. Placing both novels at the historical intersection of modern consumer culture and older religious discourse on materialism and identity, Sarah Way Sherman analyses how Alcott and Wharton rework traditional Protestant discourse to interpret their heroines' struggle with modern consumerism.