User:Bogark16/sandbox

"Roman Fever" is a short story divided into two parts by American writer Edith Wharton. It was first published in Liberty magazine on November 10, 1934.[1] A revised and expanded version of the story was published in Wharton's 1936 short story collection The World Over.[2]

The short story is about a conversation and the confessions shared between two female peers, both widowed American women who are visiting Rome with their two unmarried daughters. This story is about a homosocial power struggle that ends in a twist of irony when the seemingly more conservative women infers that her daughter Barbara is a child that resulted from a prenuptial tryst with her friend's long deceased husband.

Plot Summary
Part One of the story opens with Grace Ansley and Alida Slade, middle-aged American women visiting Rome with their daughters, Barbara Ansley and Jenny Slade, one afternoon at a restaurant overlooking the Roman Forum. The two women compare and reflect on each other's lives.The women live in Manhattan, New York, and have been friends since they met in Rome twenty-five years ago. Despite this long friendship, Alida notes at the beginning of the story that after all these years they might not actually know each other very well. The two women begin reflecting on their long intertwined histories. Alida is confused on how Grace's daughter Barbara can be so charming when both Mr. Ansley and Grace are what she considers dull people. She also reflects on her lost lifestyle and reputation as the wife of an international corporation lawyer as well as the earlier death of her infant son. While Alida considers Grace to be old fashioned, Grace does not have the best opinion of Alida either as she looks down on her. However she also feels pity for her friend and believes that Alida has led "a sad life"(4).

The rising action of the short story starts in Part Two as the central conversation begins here. What follows will reveal more than one close held secret from the beginning of their twenty-five year friendship. The conversation begins with Alida reminiscing about their first Roman experience. Specifically, in how their mothers carefully guarded them and how it contrasts the current social conventions which permit their daughters to roam the city with young men without them. Alida gives Grace a backhanded compliment regarding Barbra's superiority to her own daughter Jenny, revealing both her jealousy and her contempt for Grace. The moment of awkward tension passes and Alida wonders if she will always be envious of her peer as the sun sets and the afternoon falls into twilight.

The dusky atmosphere inspires Alida to bring up the time when Grace suffered from Roman Fever during their first visit to Rome as young women. Further discussion about the disease eventually prompts Alida to reveal her secret about a letter written to Grace during this same time. Alida had discovered Grace was in love with her fiance, Delpin Slade. This betrayal of friendship is what caused Alida's hatred and jealousy to grow. The letter Grace received was supposedly from Delphin, an invitation for a late night rendezvous at the Colosseum. In reality, Alida forged the letter in an attempt to send Grace on a fruitless outing and hopefully expose her to Roman Fever which would keep her bedridden and away from Delphin for a few weeks.

Although Grace does not correct her, Alida misinterprets the motivation behind Grace's marriage to Horace Ansley two months after the night she caught Roman Fever. While Grace is upset at this revelation that Delpin was not the writer, she explains that she was not left alone at the Colosseum. She responded to the letter and Delphin arrived to meet her that evening. Grace then expresses aloud the same sentiment from Part One, that she feels sorry for Alida. In all her pride, Alida states that Grace ought not to feel sorry for her, because she "had [Delphin] for twenty-five years" while Grace had "nothing but that one letter that he didn't write."(11). Grace responds, in the last sentence of the story, "I had Barbara," implying that Barbara is Delphin's illegitimate daughter.

Themes
Death Death a major feature of this work. Both Alida and Grace are widows, Alida is still grieving the loss of her son who died during infancy, and Grace tells the story of her Great Aunt Harriet who died of Roman Fever. Alida sent Grace the fake letter from Delpin after hearing of Harriet's death during their girlhood suggesting Alida was not totally opposed if Grace unexpectedly died from the disease.

There are also metaphorical deaths that occur. Alida feels the loss of Delphin most heavily in how her identity has changed in his absence, "It was a big drop from being the wife of Delphin Slade to being his widow" (2). Grace experiences an emotional death when she finds out Delphin was not the one sent her the letter. Her whole perception of how he regarded her changed, "I was thinking it was the only letter I ever had from him!"(9)

Female Power Dynamics Alida seems to dominate and lead the conversation for the more deflecting Grace. We discover from Part One that Grace actually feels sorry for Alida, while Alida envies Grace. Even as Alida married Delphin and therefore the victor of their love triangle, she still is not satisfied. The women "visualize each other, each through the wrong end of her little telescope."

Story Telling & Truth Seeking There are actually three stories going on within this one short story that are all interconnected. The first is the story surrounding Barbara and Jenny seeking suitors in Rome. The second is the family history of Grace and Alida's predecessors in Rome, specifically the story of two sisters in love with the same man. The sister Harriet, Grace's relative, dies from Roman Fever after being sent out at night by her sister. The third story happens in a much more immediate past between main characters Alida and Grace involving their experience of Roman Fever. Only through the sharing of their two perspectives do they begin to see a fuller picture of their past.

Critical Analysis
There is a notable body of scholarship written about Roman Fever in relation to Henry James' short story Daisy Miller. Critics seem to refer to James' work when talking about Roman because of the similar situations that are central to the action of the story. Susan Koprince writes that Wharton had been been an admirer of Henry James' earlier fiction, namely Daisy Miller and The Portrait of a Lady, and suggests that the 1934 Roman Fever is a literary reaction to the 1878 Daisy Miller. While the setting for both stories is the same, Koprince seems to argue that time is a significant difference as the love triangle in Daisy Miller is narrated in the present, while Roman Fever has two women reflecting back on an earlier love triangle. Alida and Grace feel at ease during the evening in Rome now and laughingly reflect on what Roman Fever meant to their mothers and grandmothers, during a time that Daisy Miller would have taken place. Rather than malaria, Koprince suggests that Wharton's Roman Fever is more representative of passionate love than both woman held for the same man. This is a modernized Daisy Miller, as the girls Barbara and Jenny enjoy the very liberation that Daisy was condemned for; Wharton's work is a acknowledgement of the increased freedom women have over their 19th century ancestors. Grace Ansley could also be a much more sexually passionate stand in for Daisy Miller. The seemingly straight-laced Grace writes back in response to Delphin's note and goes even though she knows he is engaged. This is the scenario that considers, what if the unconventional woman survived Roman Fever? Koprince argues that Wharton takes this topic in a different direction than James by making her female characters aware of their desires and playing out the consequences of that desire.

Alice Hall Petry focuses on knitting as a major figurative motif in "Roman Fever." It is introduced through Barbara's mocking suggestion that she and Jenny "leave the young things," an ironic reference to their mothers, "to their knitting.” Jenny objects that the women are "not actually knitting" (Wharton's emphasis). To which Barbara replies, "Well, I mean figuratively. [3] Knitting is presented as the past time of middle-aged, docile mothers and Wharton spends the rest of the short story reclaiming this domestic activity as a symbol of sexuality. While Alida does not knit, Grace does have with her a knitting piece that she intently works on of crimson silk. Petry argues that Grace's actions knitting are also indicators of her mental state while Alida struggles to bring their conversation to her confession. When the truth comes out, Grace allows her safety blanket of the knitting to fall away along with the pretense she been keeping up with Alida.

Critic Kathleen Wheeler argues that the search for truth is one of the story's primary themes. And while many readers are initially attracted to the story's surprise ending, Wheeler suggests that the story has levels of complexity that are often overlooked on first reading. "[T]he truth, like the past," Wheeler writes, "is shrouded in mystery." Rather than focusing on the answers provided by Grace's and Alida's revelations in the story's concluding pages, Wheeler foregrounds the way in which "Wharton forces upon the reader numerous unanswerable questions."[4]

Literary Devices
As mentioned above, the knitting needles can be interpreted as a symbol of mental state. However, they can simultaneously serve as a stereotypical sign of middle age matron hood as well as an unconventional sign of passionate female desire. This Irony is a part of what makes Wharton's short story effective. Even something as seemingly negligible as the setting becomes a tool for irony. As the day shifts from late afternoon to dusk to night, the conversation progresses along with it so that over time more of the truth is revealed. The irony is that as it gets darker outside, more light is actually shed on the true relationship between Alida and Grace. Another example, is that Alida is ends up bringing together her fiance Delpin and her friend Grace through actions she took in order to keep them a part. The irony is further prolonged when Grace reveals it is the Colosseum rendezvous that Alida unwittingly orchestrated, that Grace not only has the daughter Alida always envied (Barbara), but it is with Alida's late husband Delpin.

Wharton's irony also sets up multiple opportunities for juxtaposing figures in Roman Fever. Grace and Alida are set up in opposition, not only in love, but in demeanor and physical appearance. Grace is viewed by Alida to be "old-fashioned" yet beautiful when she was young and also depicted by Wharton as "smaller and paler" (1). In contrast Alida is described as much more physically vivid; as such she is identified in Wharton's terms as "the dark lady" (ibid). It is mentioned that the two women even lived across from each in New York for a few years and also lost their husbands within months of each other. Their respective daughters, Alida's Jenny and Grace's Barbara, reflect opposing qualities too. Alida views her daughter Jenny as a "perfect daughter"(4), but to the point of being boring. This is a similar demeanor that Alida attributes to Grace. In contrast, Barbara is seen by Alida to have more "edge"(3) and therefore will be more interesting to prospective Italian suitors than the apparently duller Jenny.

For Further Reading
Barrett, Dorothea. “Lions, Christians, and Gladiators: Colosseum Imagery in Henry James's Daisy Miller and Edith Wharton's ‘Roman Fever.’” Remember Henry James Conference, March 2014, Florence, Italy. Conference Presentation.

Bauer, Dale M. “‘Roman Fever’: A Rune of History.” Edith Wharton’s Brave New Politics. Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 1994. 145-164.

Berkove, Lawrence I. “‘Roman Fever’: A Mortal Malady.” The CEA Critic 56.2 (Winter 1994): 56-60.

Bowlby, Rachel. "Edith Wharton's 'Roman Fever,'" University College, London, England, 12 April 2005. Lecture.

---. “‘I had Barbara’: Women’s Ties and Wharton’s ‘Roman Fever.’” Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 17.3 (Fall 2006): 37-51.

Clavaron, Yves. “Rome: Où S’Attrapent la Maladie de L’Amour et la Maladie de la Mort.” Poétique des Lieux. Edited by Pascale Auraix-Jonchière and Alain Montandon. Clermont-Ferrand, France: Presses Universitaires Blaise Pascal, 2004. 77 - 83.

Comins, Barbara. “‘Outrageous Trap’: Envy and Jealousy in Wharton’s ‘Roman Fever’ and Fitzgerald’s ‘Bernice Bobs Her Hair.’” Edith Wharton Review 17.1 (Spring 2001): 9-12.

Edwards, Laura. “‘I Had Barbara’: Wharton’s Portrayl of the Maternal Declaration.” The Maternal Question: Motherhood in Edith Wharton. A thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty of North Carolina State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts. 2005. 23-37. http://repository.lib.ncsu.edu/ir/bitstream/1840.16/191/1/etd.pdf

Ellison, Kristie L., "Make War, Not Love: Exploring Female Equality in Edith Wharton's 'Roman Fever.' Edith Wharton in Washington, Conference Abstract. Edith Wharton Review 32.1-2 (2016): 111.

Formichella Elsden, Annamaria “Roman Fever Revisited.” Roman Fever: Domesticity and Nationalism in Nineteenth-Century American Women’s Writing. Columbus: Ohio State U P, 2004. 119 - 132.

Gawthrop, Betty. “Roman Fever.” Masterplots:  Short Story Series. Ed. Frank Magill. Vol. 5. Pasadena:  Salem Press, 1986. 1974-1977.

Gill, Linda L. “Structuralism and Edith Wharton’s ‘Roman Fever’.” Short Stories in the Classroom. Eds. Carole Hamilton and Peter Kratzke. Urbana: National Council of Teachers of English, 1999. 85-93.

Griffin, Larry D. “Doubles and Doubling in Edith Wharton’s ‘Roman Fever.’” Texas Wesleyan University, Fort Worth, Texas, February 2, 1990. Lecture.

Hefko, Daniel. “Adapting ‘Roman Fever.’” Edith Wharton in Washington, Conference Abstract. Edith Wharton Review 32.1-2 (2016): 115 - 116.

Hemm, Ashley, "Countering Traditional Mating Strategies: Female Serial Monogamy in Edith Wharton's 'The Other Two' and 'Roman Fever.'" Edith Wharton in Washington, Conference Abstract. Edith Wharton Review 32.1-2 (2016): 116.

Herman, David. "Narration and Knowledge in Edith Wharton's 'Roman Fever.'" Invited presentation for the University of Virginia's Department of English; April 2003.

Hoeller, Hildegard. "The Illegitimate Excess of Motherhood in 'The Old Maid,' 'Her Son,' and 'Roman Fever.'" Edith Wharton's Dialogue with Realism and Sentimental Fiction. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000. 140-172.

Klevay, Robert. “Edith Wharton’s ‘Roman Fever,' Or the Revenge of Daisy Miller.” Critical Insights: Edith Wharton. Ed. Myrto Drizou. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2017. 171 - 185.

Koprince, Susan. “Edith Wharton, Henry James, and ‘Roman Fever.’” Journal of the Short Story in English (Autumn 1995): 21-31.

Macheski, Cecilia. “Visualizing Material Culture in Ethan Frome and ‘Roman Fever.’” Presentation at the Edith Wharton and History Conference. June 27, 2008. Pittsfield, Mass.

Mizener, Arthur. “Roman Fever.” A Handbook of Analyses, Questions, and a Discussion of Technique for Use with Modern Short Stories: The Uses of Imagination. 4th ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 1979. 71-77.

Mortimer, Armine Kotin. “Romantic Fever: The Second Story as Illegitimate Daughter in Wharton’s ‘Roman Fever’.”  Narrative 6.2 (May 1998): 188-198.

Osborne, Kristen, and A. Boghani. Roman Fever and Other Stories (Classic Notes). Lexington: GradeSaver LLC. 2014.

Pennell, Melissa McFarland. "Roman Fever." Student Companion to Edith Wharton. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2003. 51 - 54.

Petry, Alice Hall. “A Twist of Crimson Silk: Edith Wharton’s ‘Roman Fever’.” Studies in Short Fiction 24.2 (1987): 163-166.

Phelan, James. “Narrative as Rhetoric and Edith Wharton’s 'Roman Fever': Progression, Configuration, and the Ethics of Surprise.” The Blackwell Companion to Rhetoric, ed. Wendy Olmstead and Walter Jost. Malden: Blackwell, 2004. 340 - 354.

---. "Progressing toward Surprise: Edith Wharton's 'Roman Fever.'" Experiencing Fiction: Judgments, Progressions, and the Rhetorical Theory of Narrative. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 2007. 95 - 108.

Price, Alan. “‘Stand Up, Mrs. Ansley, Stand Up’: Positions of Power in ‘Roman Fever.’” Edith Wharton in Florence Conference. June 8, 2012. Conference Presentation.

Rehder, Jessie. “On the Uses of Plot.” The Story at Work: An Anthology.” Ed. Jessie Rehder. New York: The Odyssey Press, 1963. 151.

Selina, Jamil S. “Wharton’s ‘Roman Fever.’” The Explicator 65.2 (Winter 2007): 99-101.

Shaffer-Koros, Carole M. “Nietzsche, German Culture and Edith Wharton.” Edith Wharton Review 20.2 (Fall 2004): 7-10.

---.  “Roman Fever.” The Facts on File Companion to the American Short Story. Ed. Abby Werlock. New York: Facts on File, 2000. 370-71.

Salzman, Jack, Pamela Wilkinson, et al. “Slade, Alida.” Major Characters in American Fiction. New York: Henry Holt, 1994. 720.

Sapora, Carol. “A Stereopticon View of Edith Wharton’s ‘Roman Fever’.” NEMLA Conference, 1989. Conference Presentation.

Saunders, Judith P. "The Old Maid and 'Roman Fever': Female Mate Choice and Competition Among Women." Reading Edith Wharton Through a Darwinian Lens: Evolutionary Biological Issues in Her Fiction. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, 2009. 139 - 166.

Stoner, Ruth. “The Perfect Short Story: How Edith Wharton’s 'Roman Fever' Has Crossed the Boundaries of Time.” The Short Story in English: Crossing Boundaries. Eds. Gema Castillo García, Rosa Cabellos Castilla, Juan Antonio Sánchez Jiménez, Vincent Carlisle Espinola. Alcalá de Henares: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Alcalá, 2006. 920-931.

Sweeney, Susan Elizabeth. “Edith Wharton’s Case of Roman Fever.” Wretched Exotic: Essays on Edith Wharton in Europe. Ed. Katherine Joslin and Alan Price. New York: Peter Lang, 1993. 313 - 331.

Tuttleton, James W., Kristin O. Lauer, Margaret P. Murray, eds. "The World Over." Edith Wharton: The Contemporary Reviews. New York: Cambridge UP, 1992. 531 - 538.

Wankey, Stan. “Wharton Hears a WHO.” EastWesterly Review 12 (Summer 2003): < http://www.postmodernvillage.com/eastwest/issue12/12a-0002.html >.

Wheeler, Kathleen. “The Attack on Realism: Edith Wharton’s In Morocco and ‘Roman Fever.’” “Modernist” Women Writers and Narrative Art. New York: New York UP, 1994. 77-98.

Wright, Sarah Bird. "Roman Fever." Edith Wharton A to Z: The Essential Guide to the Life and Work. New York: Facts on File, 1998. 215.


 * Barrett, Dorothea. “Lions, Christians, and Gladiators: Colosseum Imagery in Henry James's Daisy Miller and Edith Wharton's ‘Roman Fever.’” Remember Henry James Conference, March 2014, Florence, Italy. Conference Presentation. Bauer, Dale M. “‘Roman Fever’: A Rune of History.” Edith Wharton’s Brave New Politics. Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 1994. 145-164.  Berkove, Lawrence I. “‘Roman Fever’: A Mortal Malady.” The CEA Critic 56.2 (Winter 1994): 56-60.  Bowlby, Rachel. "Edith Wharton's 'Roman Fever,'" University College, London, England, 12 April 2005. Lecture.  ---. “‘I had Barbara’: Women’s Ties and Wharton’s ‘Roman Fever.’” Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 17.3 (Fall 2006): 37-51.  Clavaron, Yves. “Rome: Où S’Attrapent la Maladie de L’Amour et la Maladie de la Mort.” Poétique des Lieux. Edited by Pascale Auraix-Jonchière and Alain Montandon. Clermont-Ferrand, France: Presses Universitaires Blaise Pascal, 2004. 77 - 83.  Comins, Barbara. “‘Outrageous Trap’: Envy and Jealousy in Wharton’s ‘Roman Fever’ and Fitzgerald’s ‘Bernice Bobs Her Hair.’” Edith Wharton Review 17.1 (Spring 2001): 9-12.  Edwards, Laura. “‘I Had Barbara’: Wharton’s Portrayl of the Maternal Declaration.” The Maternal Question: Motherhood in Edith Wharton.  A thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty of North Carolina State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts.  2005. 23-37. http://repository.lib.ncsu.edu/ir/bitstream/1840.16/191/1/etd.pdf  Ellison, Kristie L., "Make War, Not Love: Exploring Female Equality in Edith Wharton's 'Roman Fever.' Edith Wharton in Washington, Conference Abstract. Edith Wharton Review 32.1-2 (2016): 111.  Formichella Elsden, Annamaria “Roman Fever Revisited.” Roman Fever: Domesticity and Nationalism in Nineteenth-Century American Women’s Writing. Columbus: Ohio State U P, 2004. 119 - 132.  Gawthrop, Betty. “Roman Fever.” Masterplots:  Short Story Series. Ed. Frank Magill. Vol. 5. Pasadena:  Salem Press, 1986. 1974-1977.  Gill, Linda L. “Structuralism and Edith Wharton’s ‘Roman Fever’.” Short Stories in the Classroom. Eds. Carole Hamilton and Peter Kratzke. Urbana: National Council of Teachers of English, 1999. 85-93.  Griffin, Larry D. “Doubles and Doubling in Edith Wharton’s ‘Roman Fever.’” Texas Wesleyan University, Fort Worth, Texas, February 2, 1990. Lecture.  Hefko, Daniel. “Adapting ‘Roman Fever.’” Edith Wharton in Washington, Conference Abstract. Edith Wharton Review 32.1-2 (2016): 115 - 116.  Hemm, Ashley, "Countering Traditional Mating Strategies: Female Serial Monogamy in Edith Wharton's 'The Other Two' and 'Roman Fever.'" Edith Wharton in Washington, Conference Abstract. Edith Wharton Review 32.1-2 (2016): 116.  Herman, David. "Narration and Knowledge in Edith Wharton's 'Roman Fever.'" Invited presentation for the University of Virginia's Department of English; April 2003.  Hoeller, Hildegard. "The Illegitimate Excess of Motherhood in 'The Old Maid,' 'Her Son,' and 'Roman Fever.'" Edith Wharton's Dialogue with Realism and Sentimental Fiction. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000. 140-172.  Klevay, Robert. “Edith Wharton’s ‘Roman Fever,' Or the Revenge of Daisy Miller.” Critical Insights: Edith Wharton. Ed. Myrto Drizou. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2017. 171 - 185.  Koprince, Susan. “Edith Wharton, Henry James, and ‘Roman Fever.’” Journal of the Short Story in English (Autumn 1995): 21-31.  Macheski, Cecilia. “Visualizing Material Culture in Ethan Frome and ‘Roman Fever.’” Presentation at the Edith Wharton and History Conference. June 27, 2008. Pittsfield, Mass.  Mizener, Arthur. “Roman Fever.” A Handbook of Analyses, Questions, and a Discussion of Technique for Use with Modern Short Stories: The Uses of Imagination. 4th ed.  New York: W. W. Norton, 1979.  71-77.  Mortimer, Armine Kotin.  “Romantic Fever: The Second Story as Illegitimate Daughter in Wharton’s ‘Roman Fever’.”  Narrative 6.2 (May 1998): 188-198.  Osborne, Kristen, and A. Boghani. Roman Fever and Other Stories (Classic Notes). Lexington: GradeSaver LLC. 2014.  Pennell, Melissa McFarland. "Roman Fever." Student Companion to Edith Wharton. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2003. 51 - 54.  Petry, Alice Hall. “A Twist of Crimson Silk: Edith Wharton’s ‘Roman Fever’.” Studies in Short Fiction 24.2 (1987): 163-166.  Phelan, James. “Narrative as Rhetoric and Edith Wharton’s 'Roman Fever': Progression, Configuration, and the Ethics of Surprise.” The Blackwell Companion to Rhetoric, ed. Wendy Olmstead and Walter Jost. Malden: Blackwell, 2004. 340 - 354.  ---. "Progressing toward Surprise: Edith Wharton's 'Roman Fever.'" Experiencing Fiction: Judgments, Progressions, and the Rhetorical Theory of Narrative. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 2007. 95 - 108.  Price, Alan. “‘Stand Up, Mrs. Ansley, Stand Up’: Positions of Power in ‘Roman Fever.’” Edith Wharton in Florence Conference. June 8, 2012. Conference Presentation.  Rehder, Jessie. “On the Uses of Plot.” The Story at Work: An Anthology.” Ed. Jessie Rehder. New York: The Odyssey Press, 1963. 151.  Selina, Jamil S.  “Wharton’s ‘Roman Fever.’” The Explicator 65.2 (Winter 2007): 99-101.  Shaffer-Koros, Carole M. “Nietzsche, German Culture and Edith Wharton.” Edith Wharton Review 20.2 (Fall 2004): 7-10.  ---.  “Roman Fever.” The Facts on File Companion to the American Short Story. Ed. Abby Werlock. New York: Facts on File, 2000.  370-71.  Salzman, Jack, Pamela Wilkinson, et al. “Slade, Alida.” Major Characters in American Fiction. New York: Henry Holt, 1994. 720.  Sapora, Carol. “A Stereopticon View of Edith Wharton’s ‘Roman Fever’.” NEMLA Conference, 1989. Conference Presentation.  Saunders, Judith P. "The Old Maid and 'Roman Fever': Female Mate Choice and Competition Among Women." Reading Edith Wharton Through a Darwinian Lens: Evolutionary Biological Issues in Her Fiction. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, 2009. 139 - 166.  Stoner, Ruth.  “The Perfect Short Story: How Edith Wharton’s 'Roman Fever' Has Crossed the Boundaries of Time.” The Short Story in English: Crossing Boundaries. Eds. Gema Castillo García, Rosa Cabellos Castilla, Juan Antonio Sánchez Jiménez, Vincent Carlisle Espinola. Alcalá de Henares: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Alcalá, 2006. 920-931.  Sweeney, Susan Elizabeth. “Edith Wharton’s Case of Roman Fever.” Wretched Exotic: Essays on Edith Wharton in Europe. Ed. Katherine Joslin and Alan Price. New York: Peter Lang, 1993. 313 - 331.  Tuttleton, James W., Kristin O. Lauer, Margaret P. Murray, eds. "The World Over." Edith Wharton: The Contemporary Reviews. New York: Cambridge UP, 1992. 531 - 538.  Wankey, Stan. “Wharton Hears a WHO.” EastWesterly Review 12 (Summer 2003): < http://www.postmodernvillage.com/eastwest/issue12/12a-0002.html >.  Wheeler, Kathleen. “The Attack on Realism: Edith Wharton’s In Morocco and ‘Roman Fever.’” “Modernist” Women Writers and Narrative Art. New York: New York UP, 1994. 77-98.  Wright, Sarah Bird. "Roman Fever." Edith Wharton A to Z: The Essential Guide to the Life and Work. New York: Facts on File, 1998. 215.