Introduction
?、? Edith Wharton's Life and Works
?、? Critical Reception of Edith Wharton
?、? Edith Wharton Rediscovered
?、? The Layout of the Book
Chapter One Challenging Traditional Religious Values
Ⅰ. Questioning Christian Values
1. The Prosaic and the Ideal
2. Railroads and Pilgrims
3. Lilies of Love
4. Salvifie Death
5. The Heart of Wisdom
?、? Transcending Calvinist Sensibilities
1. New England Revisited
2. Lost Eden
3. Inscrutable Powers
4. A Usable Past
Chapter Two Challenging Traditional Social Conventions
?、?Rejecting the Stagnant Social Conventions of Old New York
1. Puritan Hellenism
2. Higher Reality
3. Truth or Taste?
4. Arrested Ascent
Ⅱ. Subverting the Norm of Marriage
1. The Divorce Novel
2. Sweet Hotel
3. Turn West, Turn East
4. Becoming Town Talk
Chapter Three Challenging Traditional Patriarchal Values
?、? Subversively Conforming to the Law of the Father
1. Critical Background
2. The Resistance
3. The Subversive Conformation
4. The Significance of the Novel
Ⅱ. Seeking Feminine Powers
1. Seeking Sophia
2. Delicate Deceptions
3. Perilously Aground
4. Charting New Courses
Conclusion
Bibliography