Kirjahaku

Delicate Pursuit explores the way in which Henry James and Edith Wharton treated subject matter that was considered controversial by American publishers at the turn of the century. In their treatment of risque topics, James and Wharton pursued discretion, the key concept of this study, in order to avoid censorship. Discretion marks not only the author's relationship to their subject matter but also the behavior of the characters in the fiction. This study takes into particular account the influence of the French literary tradition on these two authors. At the crossroads of the new freedom of expression opened up by French realism and the persisting puritanical standards of their American audiences, James and Wharton sough safe ways to address adult sexuality, and the French theme of adulterous love in particular.

Delicate Pursuit explores the way in which Henry James and Edith Wharton treated subject matter that was considered controversial by American publishers at the turn of the century. In their treatment of risque topics, James and Wharton pursued discretion, the key concept of this study, in order to avoid censorship. Discretion marks not only the author's relationship to their subject matter but also the behavior of the characters in the fiction. This study takes into particular account the influence of the French literary tradition on these two authors. At the crossroads of the new freedom of expression opened up by French realism and the persisting puritanical standards of their American audiences, James and Wharton sough safe ways to address adult sexuality, and the French theme of adulterous love in particular.

When Anna, now living in California, is contacted by the Italian lover she knew decades before, she recalls their affair and the child she gave up for adoption. As the episode returns to haunt her - threatening the life she's built, including her marriage - the story moves back in time to her youth in Europe. Rome, 1979. Anna, twenty-two and living abroad, is involved with a man already engaged to be married. When she meets and befriends his fiancee, she is forced to confront the moral consequences of her actions. But an unexpected pregnancy, an anonymous letter, and threatening relatives complicate the picture. A novel in which an unconventional heroine, far from home, is forced to reckon with the judgment of others.

It's 1976, the second wave of feminism is in full swing, and three cousins share an apartment at Yale. Two are seniors; the third is starting graduate school. Each is seeking her own path in both love and work - but all three women, not quite knowing how to use the new freedoms available to them, alternate between supporting and undermining each other in their efforts. Julia, the most conventional of the three, wants the security of her monogamous relationship but is attracted to men. Anna plans on traveling the world to escape her boyfriend and alcoholic mother. Robin, who is bisexual, has various partners as she dreams of open relationships. All fall under the spell of a charismatic musician, Michael, who is too wounded to be available. By the end of a year of experiments and necessary mistakes, the cousins will make crucial decisions that will determine the course of the rest of their lives. This prequel to Levine's first two critically acclaimed novels, The Geometry of Love and Nothing Forgotten, dramatizes the struggles that women have faced and continue to face while entering adulthood in a world not quite ready to accept them as equals.

Why is it easier for a woman to be a muse than to have one? Can one be fully creative - in art or life - without the inspiration of erotic love? These are the questions asked in The Geometry of Love, a novel set in New York in the 1980s, then fast-forwarding to Northern California 20 years later. Julia, an aspiring poet, is living with her British boyfriend Ben, a restrained professor at Princeton, when she has a chance meeting with Michael, a long-ago friend. A charismatic composer, Michael was once a catalyzing muse for her, but now returns as a destabilizing influence. Julia longs to become involved with Michael, but hesitates to give up the security of her relationship with Ben. When Michael signals he is too wounded to make a commitment, Julia turns her triangular situation into a square by setting him up with a cousin. In the process she discovers, as Pascal once said, that ''the heart has its reasons which reason does not know.'' This deeply psychological tale explores the surprising ways we make romantic choices.