ONLINE: A Zoom invitation link will be sent one day before each class session begins.
Enrollment for this class is limited to 15 students. A waitlist will be available.
Texts: The Custom of the Country Edith Wharton, 1913
Available in Kindle and several print editions.
The Guest Emma Kline, 2023 Random House,
Kindle edition available.
For Love and/or Money: Golddiggers in Classic and Contemporary American Literature
Join Cecilia Donohue in discussing two celebrated novels whose protagonists are female, attractive, and committed to maintaining their connections to wealth and society. In Edith Wharton’s The Custom of the Country (1913), Undine Spragg’s ambitious nature runs counter to her generation’s expectations of the silent, passive woman. Fast-forwarding a century later, this class will explore one of the most acclaimed novels of the summer of 2023. In Emma Kline’s The Guest, readers follow Alex on her quest to remain in the good graces of the Long Island wealthy after her break-up with one of its members. Cecilia Donohue retired in 2013 following a 25-year career of undergraduate instruction, graduate teaching, and academic administration. She now resides in rural Tennessee with her husband Bill and their menagerie of two horses, one cat, and one dog. Cecilia has written extensively on America’s southern authors and poets, notably Robert Penn Warren. She is currently an associate editor of The Steinbeck Review.
