Some authors are in a class entirely their own, and Edith Wharton is one of them. Edith was born Edith Newbold (Jones) on January 24, 1862, in New York, New York. Her family was socially prominent and affluent, and she was educated privately at home and in Europe. She learned several languages, among them French, Italian, and German, and, at the age of 12, decided to write her first story. It began as follows:
"Oh, how do you do, Mrs. Brown?" said Mrs. Tomkins. "If only I had known you were going to call I should have tidied up the drawing-room."
When Edith showed her first attempt at fiction to her mother, she was struck by the curt and cool observation, "Dining rooms are always tidy." However, by the time she was 15, Edith had long forgotten her mother's words and, in January 1877, she began writing a thirty-thousand-word novella that would eventually be called Fast and Loose.
A perfectionist who was highly critical of her own work, Edith spoke deprecatingly of the novella in New York and London periodicals, saying, "It is a false charity to reader and writer to mince matters. The English of it is that every character is a failure, the plot a vacuum, the style spiritless, the dialogue vague, the sentiment weak, and the whole thing a fiasco."
During this same period of time, the young Edith also lent her hand to verse, moving from dramatic and historical poetry to lyrical poems. She was devoted to the works of such poets as Browning, Swinburne, Tennyson, and Rossetti, and also had some religious leanings. One of her poems centers around a visitation from Christ to the bed of a dead maiden and features the passage, "She is not dead but liveth."
Edith made her social debut in 1879, and prior to this time her most significant social activities were going to church and to the theatre. Although later on Edith became quite gregarious, she was actually morbidly timid in her youth. She referred to this period as "a long cold agony of shyness," and abhorred being the object of attention.
In 1885 Edith married Edward Wharton, whom she affecionately referred to as "Teddy." At the age of twenty-six, after a period in which writing and literature played but a small part in Edith's life, she returned to writing lyrical poetry. She sent three of the poems she wrote during this time to Scribners, Harper's, and the Century, all accompanied by calling cards. It was Scribner's that Edith had luck with. In October of 1890, Edith's poem, "The Last Giustiniani," was published. The poem is somewhat romantic in nature and is set in 18th-century Venice. It is loosely based on an actual incident that also provided the inspiration for Henry James' unsuccessful play, Guy Donville.
While writing poetry, Edith was simultaneously trying her hand at writing fiction, as well. Her story, "Mrs. Manstey's View," a cozy tale about an elderly widow living in the back room of a New York boardinghouse, was published by Scribner's on May 26, 1890. Edith was twenty-nine at the time.
In 1899, Edith's first collection of stories was published. It was called "The Greater Inclination." Although several of the pieces included in the collection are amateurish, at least a handful are quite good, perhaps even first-class. A year prior to publishing this volume, Edith compiled a list of her favorite authors and books, and much can be ascertained by the choices she made. Goethe's Faust, the writings of Marcus Aurelius (a favorite of my own, incidentally), Pascal's Pensees, and the poetry of Walt Whitman have high places on her list. As for novels, it appears she was largely interested in French literature. Two novels by Flaubert, Madame Bovary and Bouvard and Pecuchet,are included, along with Stendhal's Le Rouge et Le Noir and La Chartreuse de Parma. Rounding out the list are Benjamin Constant's Adolphe and Prevost's Manon Lescaut. In spite of Edith's lifelong adoration for Honore de Balzac, none of his books appear on this early list. It is thought that Edith liked all the ones she had read so much, that she was unable to make decisions as to which ones were her favorites. At a later date, Edith would say that what she loved and admired so much about Balzac were his characterizations of women, "as much compact of human contradictions and torn with human passions" as were his male characters.
Edith's first novel, The Valley of Decision, was published in 1902. Three years later, Edith produced her masterpiece, The House of Mirth, which was both a critical and popular success. This book, which tells the ultimately tragic story of the headstrong, fiercely stubborn Lily Bart remains my favorite of all Wharton's many novels. To quote a passage from the opening of the book:
"There was nothing new about Lily Bart, yet he could never see her without a faint movement of interest; it was characteristic of her that she always roused speculation, that her simplest acts seemed the result of far-reaching intentions."
And, a passage from the first chapter that, I think, sums up the reasons for Lily Bart's tragic destiny:
"She was so evidently the victim of the civilization which had produced her, that the links of her bracelet seemed like
manacles chaining her to her fate."
Indeed, Lily Bart is both a product and a victim of her times, and I daresay few authors could fully capture the character of a young woman of Miss Bart's ilk as skillfully as Edith Wharton does. It is not difficult to see why this book alone established Edith as one of the most important writers of her time. In the two decades following the publication of The House of Mirth, Edith turned out several of her finest and most famous novels, among them The Reef (1912), The Custom of the Country (1913),
Summer (1917), and the dazzling, Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Age of Innocence. In spite of the scope, richness, and magnificence of many of these works, it is most likely for the short, grim Ethan Frome (1911) that Edith Wharton will be best remembered. Wharton has been noted for the original style and razor-sharp irony of this masterful work, and it is a book that fully demonstrates Wharton's dislike of the unmitigated standards of loyalty placed upon others by society. The plot of the book centers around three characters: Ethan, his wife, Zenobia, and Zenobia's young cousin, Mattie Silver. Although Ethan and Mattie fall madly in love, the romance, as is the case in much of Wharton's fiction, is doomed.
Wharton's later work is usually thought to be inferior to that which she produced in during the early 1900s and 1920s. This decline is often attributed to the writing Wharton did for women's magazines. Among her other notable achievements is the fabulous Jazz-Age novel, The Twilight Sleep (1927), which deals with everything from sex and drugs to the occult and spiritual healing. She also wrote a manual in 1925 entitled The Writing of Fiction.
Edith's personal life was quite eventful. She was very active in society and enjoyed close friendships with such literary luminaries as Aldous Huxley, Andre Gide, Jean Cocteau, and Henry James. At one point, she even wrote Huxley a letter in which she asked him to help her "understand" Dostoevsky's books. Although she was a brilliant woman, Edith was inclined to enjoy novels that were centered more around societal issues and relationships than deep, psychologically complex subjects. She was also a woman of who wasn't reluctant to share her strong opinions. In September 1922, after wading through James Joyces' Ulysses, she declared, "It's a welter of pornography (the rudest school-boy kind), and unformed and unimportant drivel." She also had little admiration for Virginia Woolf's fiction, though she conceded that she had "prodigious gifts in other directions."
Edith's most notable role model, and the writer whom she owed the most to, was Henry James. Although many think much of Wharton's writing is more superficial than that of James, James himself was a great admirer of Wharton and felt that The Reef was her most remarkable novel.
In her early 70s, Edith entered into a new phase of sensuality. She became very much attached to the French novelist, Colette, whom she called "one of the greatest writers of her time." She felt that Colette was able to fully convey the depths of female passion and said that she wrote about and understood the "tears in sensual things." She also enjoyed, while in her 70s,
the works of such writers as W. Somerset Maugham, Sinclair Lewis, and, most especially, Theodore Dreiser, whose novel, An American Tragedy, she lavished high praise upon. At the same time, the classic authors of the nineteenth century from France, England, and Russia, remained what she liked best. In her book, The Writing of Fiction, she returns again and again to a rather specific list of names: Jane Austen, Balzac, Stendhal, Trollope, Thackeray, George Eliot, Meredith, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky (though not as often), and, to a lesser extent, Thomas Hardy and Joseph Conrad.
Edith Wharton died just before six in the evening on August 11, 1937. Her coffin was transported to the Cimetiere des Gonards in Versailles on August 14. On her gravestone the words are inscribed:
Edith Wharton
Nee Edith Newbold Jones
January 24, 1862-August 11, 1937
Ave Crux Spes Unica
Several of Wharton's novels have been made into films. Martin Scorsese's splendid, Oscar-nominated adaptation of The Age of Innocence is just one example. Both Ethan Frome and The House of Mirth have been made into stunning movies, and there was much speculation for awhile about a movie adaptation of The Custom of the Country starring actress Madeleine Stowe. However, in recent years there has been little talk about this.
For more on Wharton, check out the Wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Wharton
And:
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/wharton.html
You can read more about my favorite Wharton novel, The House of Mirth, and order your own copy by going here:
http://www.amazon.com/House-Mirth-Signet-Classics/dp/0451527569
Any other Wharton fans here? I would love to hear your thoughts on her spectacular oeuvre of work, and I am also quite curious about what other listmembers' favorite Wharton novels and short stories are.
All the best,
Titania
"The cleverest girl may miscalculate where her own interests are concerned,
may yield too much at one moment and withdraw too far at the next..."
~The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
"Oh, how do you do, Mrs. Brown?" said Mrs. Tomkins. "If only I had known you were going to call I should have tidied up the drawing-room."
When Edith showed her first attempt at fiction to her mother, she was struck by the curt and cool observation, "Dining rooms are always tidy." However, by the time she was 15, Edith had long forgotten her mother's words and, in January 1877, she began writing a thirty-thousand-word novella that would eventually be called Fast and Loose.
A perfectionist who was highly critical of her own work, Edith spoke deprecatingly of the novella in New York and London periodicals, saying, "It is a false charity to reader and writer to mince matters. The English of it is that every character is a failure, the plot a vacuum, the style spiritless, the dialogue vague, the sentiment weak, and the whole thing a fiasco."
During this same period of time, the young Edith also lent her hand to verse, moving from dramatic and historical poetry to lyrical poems. She was devoted to the works of such poets as Browning, Swinburne, Tennyson, and Rossetti, and also had some religious leanings. One of her poems centers around a visitation from Christ to the bed of a dead maiden and features the passage, "She is not dead but liveth."
Edith made her social debut in 1879, and prior to this time her most significant social activities were going to church and to the theatre. Although later on Edith became quite gregarious, she was actually morbidly timid in her youth. She referred to this period as "a long cold agony of shyness," and abhorred being the object of attention.
In 1885 Edith married Edward Wharton, whom she affecionately referred to as "Teddy." At the age of twenty-six, after a period in which writing and literature played but a small part in Edith's life, she returned to writing lyrical poetry. She sent three of the poems she wrote during this time to Scribners, Harper's, and the Century, all accompanied by calling cards. It was Scribner's that Edith had luck with. In October of 1890, Edith's poem, "The Last Giustiniani," was published. The poem is somewhat romantic in nature and is set in 18th-century Venice. It is loosely based on an actual incident that also provided the inspiration for Henry James' unsuccessful play, Guy Donville.
While writing poetry, Edith was simultaneously trying her hand at writing fiction, as well. Her story, "Mrs. Manstey's View," a cozy tale about an elderly widow living in the back room of a New York boardinghouse, was published by Scribner's on May 26, 1890. Edith was twenty-nine at the time.
In 1899, Edith's first collection of stories was published. It was called "The Greater Inclination." Although several of the pieces included in the collection are amateurish, at least a handful are quite good, perhaps even first-class. A year prior to publishing this volume, Edith compiled a list of her favorite authors and books, and much can be ascertained by the choices she made. Goethe's Faust, the writings of Marcus Aurelius (a favorite of my own, incidentally), Pascal's Pensees, and the poetry of Walt Whitman have high places on her list. As for novels, it appears she was largely interested in French literature. Two novels by Flaubert, Madame Bovary and Bouvard and Pecuchet,are included, along with Stendhal's Le Rouge et Le Noir and La Chartreuse de Parma. Rounding out the list are Benjamin Constant's Adolphe and Prevost's Manon Lescaut. In spite of Edith's lifelong adoration for Honore de Balzac, none of his books appear on this early list. It is thought that Edith liked all the ones she had read so much, that she was unable to make decisions as to which ones were her favorites. At a later date, Edith would say that what she loved and admired so much about Balzac were his characterizations of women, "as much compact of human contradictions and torn with human passions" as were his male characters.
Edith's first novel, The Valley of Decision, was published in 1902. Three years later, Edith produced her masterpiece, The House of Mirth, which was both a critical and popular success. This book, which tells the ultimately tragic story of the headstrong, fiercely stubborn Lily Bart remains my favorite of all Wharton's many novels. To quote a passage from the opening of the book:
"There was nothing new about Lily Bart, yet he could never see her without a faint movement of interest; it was characteristic of her that she always roused speculation, that her simplest acts seemed the result of far-reaching intentions."
And, a passage from the first chapter that, I think, sums up the reasons for Lily Bart's tragic destiny:
"She was so evidently the victim of the civilization which had produced her, that the links of her bracelet seemed like
manacles chaining her to her fate."
Indeed, Lily Bart is both a product and a victim of her times, and I daresay few authors could fully capture the character of a young woman of Miss Bart's ilk as skillfully as Edith Wharton does. It is not difficult to see why this book alone established Edith as one of the most important writers of her time. In the two decades following the publication of The House of Mirth, Edith turned out several of her finest and most famous novels, among them The Reef (1912), The Custom of the Country (1913),
Summer (1917), and the dazzling, Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Age of Innocence. In spite of the scope, richness, and magnificence of many of these works, it is most likely for the short, grim Ethan Frome (1911) that Edith Wharton will be best remembered. Wharton has been noted for the original style and razor-sharp irony of this masterful work, and it is a book that fully demonstrates Wharton's dislike of the unmitigated standards of loyalty placed upon others by society. The plot of the book centers around three characters: Ethan, his wife, Zenobia, and Zenobia's young cousin, Mattie Silver. Although Ethan and Mattie fall madly in love, the romance, as is the case in much of Wharton's fiction, is doomed.
Wharton's later work is usually thought to be inferior to that which she produced in during the early 1900s and 1920s. This decline is often attributed to the writing Wharton did for women's magazines. Among her other notable achievements is the fabulous Jazz-Age novel, The Twilight Sleep (1927), which deals with everything from sex and drugs to the occult and spiritual healing. She also wrote a manual in 1925 entitled The Writing of Fiction.
Edith's personal life was quite eventful. She was very active in society and enjoyed close friendships with such literary luminaries as Aldous Huxley, Andre Gide, Jean Cocteau, and Henry James. At one point, she even wrote Huxley a letter in which she asked him to help her "understand" Dostoevsky's books. Although she was a brilliant woman, Edith was inclined to enjoy novels that were centered more around societal issues and relationships than deep, psychologically complex subjects. She was also a woman of who wasn't reluctant to share her strong opinions. In September 1922, after wading through James Joyces' Ulysses, she declared, "It's a welter of pornography (the rudest school-boy kind), and unformed and unimportant drivel." She also had little admiration for Virginia Woolf's fiction, though she conceded that she had "prodigious gifts in other directions."
Edith's most notable role model, and the writer whom she owed the most to, was Henry James. Although many think much of Wharton's writing is more superficial than that of James, James himself was a great admirer of Wharton and felt that The Reef was her most remarkable novel.
In her early 70s, Edith entered into a new phase of sensuality. She became very much attached to the French novelist, Colette, whom she called "one of the greatest writers of her time." She felt that Colette was able to fully convey the depths of female passion and said that she wrote about and understood the "tears in sensual things." She also enjoyed, while in her 70s,
the works of such writers as W. Somerset Maugham, Sinclair Lewis, and, most especially, Theodore Dreiser, whose novel, An American Tragedy, she lavished high praise upon. At the same time, the classic authors of the nineteenth century from France, England, and Russia, remained what she liked best. In her book, The Writing of Fiction, she returns again and again to a rather specific list of names: Jane Austen, Balzac, Stendhal, Trollope, Thackeray, George Eliot, Meredith, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky (though not as often), and, to a lesser extent, Thomas Hardy and Joseph Conrad.
Edith Wharton died just before six in the evening on August 11, 1937. Her coffin was transported to the Cimetiere des Gonards in Versailles on August 14. On her gravestone the words are inscribed:
Edith Wharton
Nee Edith Newbold Jones
January 24, 1862-August 11, 1937
Ave Crux Spes Unica
Several of Wharton's novels have been made into films. Martin Scorsese's splendid, Oscar-nominated adaptation of The Age of Innocence is just one example. Both Ethan Frome and The House of Mirth have been made into stunning movies, and there was much speculation for awhile about a movie adaptation of The Custom of the Country starring actress Madeleine Stowe. However, in recent years there has been little talk about this.
For more on Wharton, check out the Wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Wharton
And:
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/wharton.html
You can read more about my favorite Wharton novel, The House of Mirth, and order your own copy by going here:
http://www.amazon.com/House-Mirth-Signet-Classics/dp/0451527569
Any other Wharton fans here? I would love to hear your thoughts on her spectacular oeuvre of work, and I am also quite curious about what other listmembers' favorite Wharton novels and short stories are.
All the best,
Titania
"The cleverest girl may miscalculate where her own interests are concerned,
may yield too much at one moment and withdraw too far at the next..."
~The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
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While I wouldn't regard Jane Austen as chick lit, she certainly lacks the level of penetrating insight that Wharton displays with such aplomb. Wharton is able to give those who read her a scathing look into the inner workings of society. Having been around a bevy of snobs starting at a very young age (classical music attracts them in droves!), I find it refreshing to read a writer who shows the devious, manipulative tactics they are capable of. Undine Spragg, in The Custom of the Country, is a clear-cut example of the female psychopath. She is an inveterate social climber who will stop at nothing to achieve what she wants. Consider adding this to your TBR stack, along with The House of Mirth. If you're disappointed in either book, let me know, give me your mailing address, and I'll send you however much $$$ the book cost. That is how strongly I feel about Edith Wharton's prose. In a word, she is brilliant. And I seriously hope there will NEVER come a day when Harold Bloom includes any "chick lit" writers in his books on literary geniuses.