This paper is a look at Edith Wharton's, "Roman Fever," and Zora Neale Hurston's "The Gilded Six-Bits." Edith Wharton was
a white American woman of opulence and class, while Zola Neale Hurston was an African-American who was born in Eatonville, Florida, occupied primarily by black families who have
historically been struggling for economic sufficiency and comfort, but have historically been hampered by racial prejudice. The paper looks at how the two celebrated authors write about love,
marriage and family, women and their overt well as covert emotions and desires, with the authors' respective and opposing cultures and social classes as backdrops.