When Edith Wharton wrote the underrated

Twilight Sleep

in 1927, she had spent precisely eleven days in her own country since 1913. She might, therefore, be expected to be disqualified from the subject-matter of the novel, the post-war, Jazz Age frenzy of a middle-aged American club-woman and do-gooder. The reverse is true: long absence from America and second-hand familiarity with its society and culture made perfect material for what is, with

The Custom of the Country

, her most energetic satirical work.

Twilight Sleep

is an extended, almost Jonsonian, caricature of modern mores which could perhaps only have emerged from a sensibility remote from the reality of American life.

Pauline Manford runs her life like a modern-day Mrs Jellyby, her almost supernatural round of meetings, social

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Citation: Preston, Claire. "Twilight Sleep". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 January 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=11287, accessed 19 March 2024.]

11287 Twilight Sleep 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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