such authors as James rep- resented an escape from the "frantic acquisitiveness" that dominated American life. Characters were catapulted into wealth and high sta- tus, as Zanger points out, in a way that carefully avoided "any realis- tic examination of the practical and moral problems attached to the accumulation of money."
Ultimately, says Zanger, an aristocracy of inherited wealth contra- dicts the American ideal of the self-made man. Yet as long as fame and fortune appear...