Augusta Jane Evans Critical response what was the response to Augusta Evans? Critics have praised the intellectual competence of her female characters, but as her heroes eventually succumb to traditional values, Wilson has been described as an antifeminist. what was her most important female character? Edna Earl, became the namesake of Eudora Welty's heroine
what book was Edna Earl in?
what Augusta Jane Evans's book was Edna Earl in?
Augusta Evans Wilson was not a professional writer and her style was severely criticized as "pedantic." She wrote in the domestic, sentimental style of the Victorian Age. Critics have praised the intellectual competence of her female characters, but as her heroes eventually succumb to traditional values, Wilson has been described as an antifeminist. Of St. Elmo one critic maintained, "the trouble with the heroine of St. Elmo was that she swallowed an unabridged dictionary." Wilson was the first American woman author to earn over $100,000. This would be a record unsurpassed until Edith Wharton.  Macaria, or Altars of Sacrifice, published in 1864, was popular with Southerners and Northerners alike. Melissa Homestead writes that the transportation of the novel to New York was deliberate, done in installments and nearly simultaneous with the novel's preparation for publication in the South. Thus, while previous critics, scholars and biographers have all treated Macaria's appearance in the North as unauthorized, the truth is much more meaningful. Some scholars say that by dispensing with the romantic notion that the novel appeared in a "bootleg" edition, Homestead debunks the hard and fast distinction between Northern and Southern readerships as an invention of historians and critics rather than an accurate reflection of reading practices of the period. However, a great number of discrepancies exist between the version published in the North and the version published in the South, which remove huge portions of the text which romanticize the Southern heroes that are portrayed.  Her novel St. Elmo was her most famous and it was frequently adapted for both the stage and screen. It inspired the naming of towns, hotels, steamboats, and a cigar brand. The book's heroine, Edna Earl, became the namesake of Eudora Welty's heroine (Edna Earle Ponder) in The Ponder Heart published in 1954. The novel also inspired a parody of itself called St. Twel'mo, or the Cuneiform Cyclopedist of Chattanooga (1867) by Charles Henry Webb. CANNOTANSWER
St. Elmo
Madge Allsop (born Marjorie Kiri McWhirter) is a fictitious character invented by satirist Barry Humphries as the long-time companion (and former bridesmaid) of his most popular and enduring character, Dame Edna Everage.  First mentioned in Edna's monologues in the 1960s, Madge was subsequently depicted on stage, TV and film, over three decades, by several people.  The character was discontinued following the retirement of British actress Emily Perry, who played the role for over 15 years.

Origins of character
When Barry Humphries first began to perform as Edna Everage during his one-man shows, the character of Madge Allsop, Edna's bridesmaid and companion, was only ever mentioned in passing and never actually depicted on stage.  By the early 1970s, Madge was an increasingly strong presence in Edna's on-stage musings, but still remained unseen.  In Barry Humphries' 1971 Australian show, A Load of Old Stuffe, her monologue was entitled  "Edna and Madge Allsop in Stratford", while a later one, performed in the 1974 show At least you can say you have seen it, was entitled "Polish up your Kiwi (with Madge Allsop)".  

In 1976, Humphries decided to finally bring Madge Allsop to life with an appearance in his new BBC TV series, The Barry Humphries Show.  She was portrayed by the London-based expatriate Australian actress Madeleine Orr, who appeared as Madge on several subsequent occasions until her death three years later.  Over a period of almost thirty years, from 1976 until 2003, the adult Madge Allsop was portrayed by at least six different people: 

1976–79 – Madeleine Orr 
1982 – Unidentified actress/model, in the book Dame Edna's Bedside Companion 
1987 – Connie Hobbs (in the film Les Patterson saves the world)
1987–2003 – Emily Perry (on stage and TV)
1989 – Anne Charleston (as a joke, on one episode of The Dame Edna Experience)
1998 – Kerris Peeling (who portrayed Madge as a young woman in the stage show Dame Edna: The Spectacle)

Appearances

Film and television
Madge Allsop was first portrayed on television in 1976, when she appeared (played by actress Madeleine Orr) in an episode of the BBC series The Barry Humphries Show.  Following Orr's death in 1979, the role of Madge was re-cast. She appeared alongside Dame Edna on the BBC Parkinson show in 1982, with her face covered in bandages. The character was written into Humphries' 1987 film, Les Patterson Saves the World, and was portrayed, as a one-off appearance, by Australian actress Connie Hobbs.  Later that same year, Humphries announced his search for "definitive Madge", who would appear alongside Edna in his new BBC TV series, The Dame Edna Experience.  Of the audition, Humphries recalled, "all of them tried too hard. Some were whimsical, some camp, but most were far too over the top to resemble an oppressed, inarticulate New Zealand spinster whom life had passed by."  However, after they saw Emily Perry's understated performance, they knew that they had found the perfect Madge.  As she later recalled, "I did nothing at the audition, and I've done nothing ever since." 

Emily Perry's appearance on the Dame Edna Experience was well-received; she subsequently became the definitive Madge Allsop, reprising the role in many of Humphries' other TV specials, including One more Audience with Dame Edna Everage (1988), A Night on Mount Edna (1990), Dame Edna's Neighbourhood Watch (1992), Dame Edna's Hollywood (1993) and Dame Edna's Work Experience (1996).  Perry's last on-screen appearance as Madge Allsop was a cameo in the TV special Dame Edna lives at the Palace (2003), in which the then 97-year-old actress was 'caught' in bed with Ozzy Osbourne.  

Emily Perry became so strongly identified with the character of Madge Allsop that, after her retirement in 2004, the character of Madge was also retired, as it was felt that no other actress could ever recreate her.  When Humphries embarked upon a new TV talk show in 2007, The Dame Edna Treatment, the role of Dame  Edna's silent scapegoat was filled by an actress portraying her errant (and hitherto unseen) daughter, Valmai Gittis.

Dame Edna (belatedly) publicly acknowledged the death of Madge in her 2019 TV special Dame Edna Rules The Waves, first broadcast on BBC1, December 31, 2019. During the show, Dame Edna attempts to dispose of Madge's ashes from the porthole of her luxury yacht, The Ocean Widow, but is prevented from doing so to protect the environment. Madge's last will and testament insisted that Dame Edna took on the care of her sister Mabel, who has now become Dame Edna's silent sidekick, sticking labels on her celebrity guests. Mabel is portrayed by British actress Anne Rason.

In Print
Madge Allsop has been referenced in a number of books written by Barry Humphries since the mid-1970s.  Photographs of Madge (as portrayed by Madeleine Orr) appeared in Dame Edna's Coffee Table Book (1976) and The Sound of Edna: Dame Edna's Family Songbook (1979).  Because of Orr's death from cancer that same year, Madge was subsequently portrayed in Humphries' next book, Dame Edna's Beside Companion (1982), by an unidentified stand-in, whose entire head was concealed by bandages.  For the purposes of the narrative, this was explained away by the claim that "Madge" had recently undergone cosmetic surgery.

The character of Madge Allsop figured prominently in the book My Gorgeous Life (1989), which, although written by Humphries, was purported to be an autobiography of Dame Edna herself.  The book provides much background to Madge and Edna's ongoing friendship, and includes a detailed account of the death of Madge's husband, Douglas Allsop, whilst on their honeymoon in Rotorua.  In the line drawings that illustrate the book (drawn by John Richardson), the young Madge is depicted as a recognizable caricature of Emily Perry.

Since the 1980s, theatre programmes for Barry Humphries' one-man shows have frequently included photographs of Madge Allsop (as portrayed by Emily Perry) alongside those of Dame Edna and Sir Les Patterson.  For example, the glossy souvenir programme for  Humphries' Australian tour, Dame Edna: Back to my roots and other suckers included depictions of Madge in her pink frilly “Edna Loves Me” apron, dancing with Dame Edna while wearing a Vivienne Westwood outfit, shopping with Dame Edna in an exclusive boutique, posing mournfully along Errol Flynn's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and being attacked by a giant prop shark in Edna's swimming pool.

On Stage
Madge Allsop's most notable appearance on stage was as part of the 1998 West End production of Dame Edna: the Spectacle.  The First Act of this show was essentially a retelling of Dame Edna's life story in the form of a lavish stage musical, and Madge Allsop was portrayed as a young woman by Kerris Peeling and as a child by either (depending on the performance) Keely Fawcett, Caroline Graham or Gabrielle Hoffman.  Emily Perry, by then 90 years old, also appeared briefly as the present-day Madge.

Fictional biography

Early life
According to Dame Edna's autobiography,  Madge Allsop was born Marjorie Kiri McWhirter in Palmerston North, New Zealand.  Her date of birth has not been confirmed, although the fact that she was reportedly orphaned in 1931 "at a young age", as a result of the Napier earthquake, implies that she was born in the mid-1920s (and is, therefore, about the same age as Dame Edna herself).  Madge then lived with an aunt until the age of ten, when she moved to Melbourne, Australia.  It was while attending Moonee Ponds Girls' Grammar School that she met young Edna Mae Beazley, who took pity on her and became a reluctant friend.  It is recorded that the young Madge's cardigan, before it was burnt in the school incinerator, yielded some seeds that took root in the school grounds and produced Australia's first kiwi fruit tree.  

In 1951, when Edna married Norm Everage, she chose Madge as one of her four bridesmaids—Madge caught Edna's bouquet "on the back of her neck". When Edna was pregnant with her first child, Madge returned to New Zealand to live with her mother's half-sister, Heather McDonald.  In her memoirs, Edna described going down to Melbourne's Station Pier to see her off: “I was naturally very sweet and affectionate to her, since I never expected to see her again”.  Some years later, as Edna was planning her first trip to London, she received an invitation to act as Matron of Honour at Madge's wedding to Douglas Hugh Allsop, who ran a tourist bus company in Palmerston North.  Edna attended the ceremony in Auckland and, at Madge's request, accompanied the couple on their honeymoon to Rotorua.  Douglas Allsop, however, was killed when, while visiting the famous hot mud pools, he leant too far over the railing and fell in.  The widowed Madge subsequently returned to Australia with Edna, who "took full responsibility for the life and well-being of her sadly sticken school friend, even charitably incorporating her into some of her theatrrical and television events".

Personal life
There is considerable evidence that Madge Allsop is a lesbian, or at least bisexual.  Dame Edna's son, Kenny, has made this suggestion at least twice; it is noted, for example, in the lyrics to the 1978 song “My Bridesmaid and I”, in which Edna sings, “Kenny thinks that she's bi...”.   His claims were re-iterated in Dame Edna's  autobiography, My Gorgeous Life, when she recalled Kenny's Coming Out, and, after misunderstanding her response, his assumption that she and Madge were also an item.  Kenny's sister, Valmai Gittis, makes a similar claim about their mother's relationship with Madge in an unpublished memoir, Edna Dearest, excerpts of which were reproduced in the 1982 book, Dame Edna's Bedside Companion.   A photograph, published in the same source, shows Madge Allsop watching adult videos with titles such as Sapphic Traffic, Loins of Lesbos and Kinky Konvent Kapers.  It is also revealed that Edna and Madge have been known to share a bed, although, by Edna's account, this is entirely platonic.

Later years
In 1982, Madge Allsop underwent what was described as “some radical naso-labial corrective therapy”, which necessitated her entire head being encased with bandages.  Towards the end of that decade, she underwent a radical facelift under Dr Christiaan Barnard, which made her resemble Australian actress Anne Charleston.  The operation, however, was subsequently reversed.

References

Female characters in television
Comedy television characters
Fictional New Zealand people
Television characters introduced in 1976
New Zealand culture Edna Kenton (March 17, 1876 – February 28, 1954) was an American writer and literary critic. Kenton is best remembered for her 1928 work The Book of Earths, which collected various unusual and controversial theories about a hollow earth, Atlantis, and similar matters.

Early life and education
Edna Baldwin Kenton was born in Springfield, Missouri in 1876. Her father, James Edgar Kenton, was a bookkeeper. She attended Drury College, as did her brother Maurice and her sister Mabel, and graduated from the University of Michigan in 1897. She worked in Chicago as a young woman, where she knew Theodore Dreiser.

Career
Kenton's first novel, What Manner of Man (1903), was published while she was still in her twenties. A second, Clem, followed in 1907. Later she concentrated on essays and short stories, as a contributor to Harper's Magazine, Century Magazine, Virginia Quarterly Review, and other periodicals.  She also served on the advisory board of The Seven Arts, a short-lived but influential literary magazine. Kenton wrote some important criticism of Henry James, especially her essay "Henry James to the Ruminant Reader" (1924), which introduced a novel reading of The Turn of the Screw. Her last publication was an edited collection of Henry James stories.

She is credited with writing the screenplay for the silent film Bondage (1917), directed by Ida May Park and starring Dorothy Phillips.

Kenton was an active suffragist  and a charter member of Heterodoxy, a feminist debating club based in Greenwich Village. She served on the executive board of the Provincetown Players, led by fellow Heterodites Eleanor Fitzgerald and Susan Glaspell, and wrote a history of the company, published many years later.  She also wrote a biography of her kinsman, frontiersman Simon Kenton, and several books based on the letters of Jesuit missionaries in North America. But it was The Book of Earths (1928), her collection of esoteric theories about a hollow earth, Atlantis, ancient maps, and similar topics, that found the most enthusiastic and lasting readership, and continues in print.

Personal life
Edna Kenton died in 1954, age 77; author Leon Edel eulogized her in the New York Times. A small collection of her papers is at Columbia University.

References

External links
 Finding aid to Edna Kenton correspondence at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
A photograph of Edna Kenton, taken by Carl Van Vechten in 1938; from the Van Vechten papers at Yale University.

1876 births
1954 deaths
20th-century American writers
American suffragists
University of Michigan alumni
20th-century American women writers Resurrection is a 1980 American drama film directed by Daniel Petrie, written by Lewis John Carlino, and starring Ellen Burstyn, Sam Shepard, Richard Farnsworth, Roberts Blossom, Lois Smith and Eva Le Gallienne. It was produced by Renée Missel and Howard Rosenman.<ref>[https://catalog.afi.com/Film/56493-RESURRECTION The AFI Catalog of Feature Films: Resurrection, 1980] Retrieved November 20, 2016</ref>

The film received two nominations at the 53rd Academy Awards; Best Actress (Ellen Burstyn) and Best Supporting Actress (Eva Le Gallienne). Burstyn was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Drama at the 38th Golden Globe Awards, while Gallienne won the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress. It was further selected by the National Board of Review as one of the top ten films of 1980.

Plot
Edna Mae (Burstyn) survives a car accident that kills her husband and nearly kills her but her brief out of body experience gives her the power to heal people.  She becomes an unwitting celebrity, the hope of those in desperate need of healing, and a lightning rod for religious beliefs and skeptics.

Cast

 Ellen Burstyn as Edna Mae (Harper) McCauley
 Jeffrey DeMunn as Joseph "Joe" McCauley, Edna's husband 
 Roberts Blossom as John Harper, Edna's father
 Eva Le Gallienne as Pearl, Edna's grandmother 
 Lois Smith as Kathy, Edna's cousin 
 Sam Shepard as Cal Carpenter, Edna's lover
 Richard Hamilton as Reverend Earl Carpenter, Cal's father
 Richard Farnsworth as Esco Brown, owner of "Last Chance Gas" 
 Sylvia Walden as Louise, a woman Edna heals in Los Angeles 
 Madeleine Thornton-Sherwood as Ruth, a townswoman Edna heals 

Reaction
Reception
Film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert gave the film a highly enthusiastic review on their weekly TV show Sneak Previews, with both critics praising Burstyn's performance and the handling of the subject matter. In his annual movie guide, Leonard Maltin rated the film 3-stars-out-of-4, and noted the story as "beautifully realized", while prasing Burstyn's "moving performance" as the "centerpiece of a wonderful and underrated film".

Awards and nominations

Home mediaResurrection was released on DVD in 2010 as part of the Universal Vault Series of DVD-on-Demand titles. A Blu-ray version followed in 2019.

In other media
Book
A novelization was written by George Gipe and released in 1980.

Television
The film was remade for television in 1999. Also titled Resurrection'', it was directed by Stephen Gyllenhaal and stars Dana Delany.

References

External links
 1980 film: 
 1999 TV film: 
 
 
 

1980 films
American drama films
English-language films
Films about religion
Films directed by Daniel Petrie
Universal Pictures films
1980 drama films
Films scored by Maurice Jarre
Films with screenplays by Lewis John Carlino
American films
Films about telekinesis
Films about paraplegics or quadriplegics