This hook presents an in-depth analysis of Edith Wharton's progressive attitude to wards history with the focus on her challenges of the conventional values in the American so-ciety in the latter part of the 19th century.With the analysis of the six works,the author intends to show that Wharton has succeeded in instilling in the reader the notion that the disappearance of the old values is inevitable because they impede people's pursuit for happiness and social progress.

Introduction

 Ⅰ. Edith Wharton's Life and Works

 Ⅱ. Critical Reception of Edith Wharton

 Ⅲ. Edith Wharton Rediscovered

 Ⅳ. 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

 Ⅱ. Transcending Calvinist Sensibilities

1. New England Revisited

2. Lost Eden

3. Inscrutable Powers

4. A Usable Past

Chapter Two Challenging Traditional Social Conventions

 Ⅰ.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

  Ⅰ. 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