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Although Wharton wrote many articles on writing and writers, this is her only book on the subject. After a chapter on fiction in general, there’s one on short stories, two on novels, and a final chapter on Marcel Proust, a contemporary author she greatly admired. While Wharton expresses strong opinions, she is not dogmatic: “General rules in art are useful chiefly as a lamp in a mine, or a hand-rail down a black stairway; they are necessary for the sake of the guidance they give, but it is a mistake, once they are formulated, to be too much in awe of them.”
When reading her fiction, one can see how she does—and does not—follow her rules.
Published in October 1925
