SOURCE: Balestra, Gianfranca. “‘For the Use of the Magazine Morons’: Edith Wharton Rewrites the Tale of the Fantastic.” Studies in Short Fiction 33, no. 1 (winter 1996): 13-24.

In the following essay, Balestra compares two versions of Wharton's “Pomegranate Seed” and “All Souls',” using them as a basis to examine Wharton's ideas regarding ghost stories.

Edith Wharton's relationship with the reading public and the market economy was ambiguously made up of acceptance and resistance, desire and mistrust. She obviously sought success and dealt with her publishers in a very professional and business-like manner, yearned to establish a connection with her readers, but was aware of the dangers involved in lowering her literary standards to meet popular taste. In the latter part of her career, pressed by economic necessity and a decrease in popularity, she appeared at times more willing to compromise and come to terms with the requests of the marketplace...