Reply to Thoughts on Edith Wharton?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I love House of Mirth, it remains a favorite read for me. It's tragic but also funny and insightful. There are passages in it about how Lily's friendships operate that I think have relevance even in a world where single women are not reliant on others for housing and food. Wharton writes about how Lily [b]essentially has a job or service to perform, to be charming and good company and to enliven parties and balance out dinners, and that she knows she must do these things in order to maintain her friendships and earn her way into her friend's homes. It's transactional,[/b] yes, but I also think this is also often how friendships even now operate. If you've ever fallen on hard times and rapidly discovered that many of your friends lose interest in you once you are no longer simply a fun and rewarding party guest, you can relate. The first time I read this book, I wound up staying home all weekend to finish it because I was so engrossed. I read it again a few years ago and was worried it would disappoint, but if anything I got more out of it the second time around. It's terribly sad but I think worth the read.

I read Ethan Fromme in high school and hated it and have no interest in revisiting it. The setting is too dreary and the core conflicts too upsetting to me. I think there was also something about having it assigned, and then discovering that it was such a stark and kind of depressing narrative, that poisoned it for me. I was the kid who loved doing assigned reading in HS but this was a book that truly felt like homework and I couldn't embrace it.

I think Age of Innocence is very good but as a social commentary, I think it lacks the soft touch of other authors, including Austen. I know, I know -- different places, different eras. But AoI left me with a harsh taste in my mouth. Unlike HoM, it doesn't feel tragic so much as cynical. Though some of the comments in this thread make me think I should reread it.

Despite my varied opinions on her books, I think Wharton is one of the greats in American literature. I also think she's emblematic of her era and in some way has come to define turn-of-the-century America -- I see her fingerprints all over the show The Gilded Age, for instance. An essential read IMO, even if I would not start most people off with Ethan Fromme.

I've also read a handful of her short stories in writing classes I've taken over the years but none jump out at me. I think she shines as a novelist because the length gives her time to build in these layers of meaning and understanding (or lack thereof) that give her work so much complexity.[/quote]

+1
Very much similar to the "bright young things" of the current young generations.
[/quote]

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