Friday, July 20, 2012

A Summer Afternoon with Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton
Photo via here

"We would love you to join our book club for a discussion of "The House of Mirth."  What a lovely invitation for a summer afternoon.  Some friends invited me to come as their guest to a meeting of their book club.  They were discussing "The House of Mirth" and knew that I was a big fan of Edith Wharton.  I was thrilled to be invited and delighted to spend a summer afternoon talking about Wharton.  On this beautiful summer day I could picture Edith Wharton's garden at the Mount, her home in Lenox, Massachusetts, and how it might look on this day in July.  I love the Berkshires in Massachusetts and have visited Wharton's home whenever I have been in that area.  The Mount is truly an autobiographical house, reflecting the owner Edith Wharton in so many ways.  She was an authority on architecture, interior design, and European gardens.  Her home, which she designed, reflects all these talents.  And it was there that she wrote the book we were reading today.

The Mount
Photo via here

This year is the 150th anniversary of Edith Wharton's birth and I was hoping to find time to revisit some of her books. "The House of Mirth" is one of my favorites.  When I arrived at the home of the friend who was hosting the meeting, we all sat down to a lovely lunch and dove right into a fantastic discussion of this book.  I hadn't read it for a long time and it was such a treat to discover this classic all over again.  I marveled at the beauty of Wharton's writing and the compelling story of Lily Bart's downfall as she struggles to win a place in New York society but ultimately is tripped up by her own mistakes and errors of judgement.

 The Fifth Avenue Hotel, a fixture of the Gilded Age social scene
Photo via here

There was so much to talk about!  We discussed the plight of Lily Bart, a woman with little money and only the currency of her good looks to buy her way into society.  She had no family or any real friends,  and was almost entirely on her own.  It was sad to think of her complete lack of a support system.   We talked about the financial anxiety that is at the core of her character and her desperate hopes to snag a husband based on her looks.  She makes mistakes all along the way and passes up several opportunities for marriage.  We all wondered if it was because she was foolish or she just couldn't face settling for a lifetime of boredom and a loveless marriage.

We discussed the fact that Edith Wharton was herself a member of the New York society that Lily Bart aspires to, and yet wrote books critical of this group.  The people that she knew, their values and mores, came under her critical eye again and again and she skewered them, not just in this book, but others.  We talked about the fact that Edith Wharton became a Pulitzer-prize winning writer despite the fact that she had no formal education and was discouraged by her family and friends.  But we weren't surprised that she chose this alternative life -- she was a brilliant woman with a deep intellect -- considering the empty and meaningless life she would have led otherwise, based on the way she depicted it in her books.  She became one of the most famous writers of the early twentieth-century and when she moved to France for the last few decades of her life, she moved in impressive literary circles.  She also lent her time and vast wealth to the efforts to aid refugees during World War I.  For her war efforts she was made a chevalier of the Legion of Honor.

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I loved revisiting Wharton through the book club's discussion of "The House of Mirth" and am looking forward to reading some of her other  books during this anniversary year.  When I got home I opened up "The House of Mirth" to look at some of my favorite passages.  Edith Wharton has a style that is distinctively her own and many of her passages of dialogue and description have a richness, rhythm and beauty that take my breath away.  They reveal a writer with real insight into the way people behave.  There is no one like Wharton for getting to the heart of the struggle in people between individual freedom and fitting in, and also depicting the world of old New York as it existed during the Gilded Age of the late nineteenth-century.  Wharton's ability to convey the accumulated damage to the emotions and hearts of her characters caused by the pressures of society has no peer.   Her novels are a gift to readers.  If you are in a book club you might want to read one of her books this year so you can celebrate her 150th birthday!

12 comments:

  1. What a wonderful suggestion. I am actually putting together a few titles to submit for consideration for my own book group. It will soon be the time when we put together our list for the year. I read "The Age of Innocence" well over twenty years ago.

    Isn't it amazing the number of prolific authors who with very little formal education wrote novels...stories that we continue to return to and enjoy. I often wonder who today will be so successful. So enjoyed your post. Have a wonderful weekend. Bonnie

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    1. Bonnie, that is so true, many women authors wrote great books with little formal education. Virginia Woolf is one I can think of, she read the books in her father's library and that was her education in literature. I hope you can read one of Wharton's books for your book club!

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  2. Except for The Buccaneers, which I read earlier this year, I have only seen film adaptations of Wharton novels. I ended up really enjoying her writing and have decided to read more of her novels. Maybe The House of Mirth should be next! I don't remember much of the film other than Gillian Anderson looking absolutely stunning.

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    1. Lauren, have you seen the film adaptation of "The Age of Innocence"? It was excellent! And there was a television adaptation of The Buccaneers on Masterpiece Theatre a while ago. Also very good!

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  3. "The Age of Innocence" is one of my favorite books ever, and one I've re-read numerous times. Edith Wharton is/was a truly fascinating woman.

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    1. Kathy, I agree with you about "The Age of Innocence" It is definitely my favorite Wharton book, and one of my favorite books ever. And Edith was definitely a fascinating woman.

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  4. I love Edith Wharton and her writing. I didn't realize that it is the 150th anniversary of her birth this year. I have read most of her novels, but many years ago so I think I should start over and read them all again!

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    1. Anbolyn, if you go on the Mount's website you will find many articles that have been written to celebrate this 150th anniversary year. And it's a great source for learning more about Edith Wharton. Her books definitely merit rereading. You will enjoy them.

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  5. I, too, didnt know of the 150th anniversary this year. I look up at my bookshelf and see - among others - "Old New York", "Edith Wharton" (the biography by Hermione Lee), and "the Custom of the Country". Which shall I pick up first....

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  6. I would start with "Old New York" which I recently read. I haven't read "The Custom of the Country," but would like to. Happy reading!

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  7. Hooray for Edith Wharton! I was so glad to hear that you were reading "House of Mirth". I read "The House of Mirth" a few years ago and couldn't put it down, regardless of the emotional trauma it caused me at the time. I truly loved Lily's "real" and "tangible" character with all of her ambitions and strengths and flaws, which was why it was so devastating for me to watch happiness and hope slip through grasp time and time again. Whether Wharton intended HoM to be a parable or not, that is how it resonated with me. I currently have Ethan Frome on my library list and am looking forward to reading it as I celebrate this most excellent author's anniversary. So glad you stopped by!

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  8. Sunday...i am reading "House of Mirth" for the first time. I have seen the film but Edith Wharton's language makes it an entirely different story. I began thinking of what else I have read recently that basically has the same theme. I read "Madam Bovary" a month ago and reread 'Anna Karenina" recently. These beautiful women become entangled in the confines of society and can't manage to escape or handle matters well. Interestingly enough, it is the financial weight as well. Lily Bart is American, Emma Bovary is French and Anna Karenina is Russian. There must be a British doomed heroine also, but I can't think who. All of Jane Austen's characters(and George Eliot's) survive. Answer if you can.

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