autobiograpgy

Wrong time period, but at least she‘s in Paris 👆

A Backward Glance
#whartonbuddyread

Today:
IX The Secret Garden
X London
XI Paris

Dec 13: finish

On writing House of Mirth
“The answer was that a frivolous society can acquire dramatic significance only through what its frivolity destroys. Its tragic implication lies in its power of debasing people and ideals.”

I‘m smitten all. What are your thoughts?

Graywacke @CarolynM @Currey @IMASLOWREADER @jewright @Lcsmcat @Leftcoastzen @TheBookHippie 20h

Lcsmcat I highlighted that passage too. Also “As a stranger and newcomer, not only outside of all groups and coteries, but hardly aware of their existence, I enjoyed a freedom not possible in those days to the native born, who were still enclosed in the old social pigeon-holes, which they had begun to laugh at, but to which they still flew back.” 19h

Graywacke @Lcsmcat Paris! How interesting 19h

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Graywacke A big thing i‘m contemplating is the world changing impact of WWI. Like how Cather said the world broke in 1922 (which is an odd choice of year). 19h

Lcsmcat I also added Enrique Larreta, Paul Bourget, and Howard Sturgis, to my TBR. I like reading what a favored author read. (edited) 19h

Lcsmcat @Graywacke I think WWI gave others the freedom that Wharton tasted as an outsider in Paris society. The classes and the expectations of one‘s place in society shifted so dramatically then. 19h

TheBookHippie @Lcsmcat I do too!! 19h

TheBookHippie I keep thinking about the importance of writing is art. You must do your art. The stories swimming inside her, oh to be a witness to that. But mostly I‘m just smitten with the prose and her observations. It is fascinating to me the shifting of “society”. 19h

Leftcoastzen I‘m not done yet but just finished rewatching Downton Abbey. They did such a good job illustrating how WWI changed so much . The youngest daughter Sybil, working as a nurse . The family turning their home into a convalescent center. 19h

Currey @Graywacke WWI was completely world transforming but I did find Wharton picking 1922 odd. I keep thinking about how I would tell others about my friendships and acquaintances. She just could really capture her friend‘s unique properties. 19h

Graywacke @Lcsmcat i didn‘t add those three 🙂 But I did find them fascinating. Howard - what a character! 10h

Graywacke @TheBookHippie she really has a way of making you interested in whatever she wants to tell about. That prose… 10h

Graywacke @Leftcoastzen I‘ve never seen Downtown Abbey. 🙁 That element interests. The show interests. The fact you‘re watching it a second time interests! 9h

Graywacke @Currey goodness, I could never bring anyone alive the way she does. It‘s so special. (It was Cather, not Wharton, who made the 1922 quip.) 9h

Currey @Graywacke Oh Cather made that remark. I am not sure I understand that any better but it does make more sense given Cather being in the US and Wharton in Europe. 8h

Lcsmcat @Graywacke If I read any of them I‘ll tag you. Although finding an English translation of Bourget may be difficult. 14m

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Graywacke

A Backward Glance | Edith Wharton

A Backward Glance - VI-VIII
(Next, Dec 6 IX-XI)
#whartonbuddyread

Wharton‘s early works, through House of Mirth, but more about her “inner group” - with Walter Berry, and a magical section on Henry James:

“these elaborate hesitancies…were like a cobweb bridge flung from his mind to theirs, an invisible passage over which one knew that silver-footed ironies, veiled jokes, tiptoe malices, were stealing to explode a huge laugh at one's feet.”

Graywacke Also, I didn‘t know Emily Bronte wrote poetry! What a gorgeous poem - Remembrance: https://poets.org/poem/remembrance 1w

Graywacke What did you all think? @CarolynM @Currey @IMASLOWREADER @jewright @Lcsmcat @Leftcoastzen @TheBookHippie (edited) 1w

Graywacke On Walter Berry: “From my first volume of short stories to “Twilight Sleep”, the novel I published just before his death, nothing in my work escaped him, no detail was too trifling to be examined and discussed, gently ridiculed or quietly praised.” 1w

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Lcsmcat I underlined so many sections! I was particularly amused by her description of New York conversation being like the gossip column of a country newspaper. (My NYC daughter would be incensed!) 1w

Lcsmcat “I remember once saying that I was a failure in Boston. . . because they thought I was too fashionable to be intelligent, and a failure in New York because they were afraid I was too intelligent to be fashionable.” 1w

Lcsmcat “None of my relations ever spoke to me of my books, either to praise or blame-they simply ignored them; and among the immense tribe of my New York cousins, though it included many with whom I was on terms of affectionate intimacy, the subject was avoided as though it were a kind of family disgrace, which might be condoned but could not be forgotten.” 1w

Graywacke @Lcsmcat it‘s a gorgeous section. So inspiring and interesting and amusing. I remember these quotes! 1w

Leftcoastzen I especially love the quote about her family not being interested in her books ! Hilarious they are ! As I think she noted if she was in a British or European family it would be of interest! 1w

Leftcoastzen I like how she discusses her friends and mentors. I read a lot of lost generation writers and in their time they seemed to act like they rose out of the ashes of war fully formed, and owed nothing to the earlier generations of writers. 1w

Currey @Lcsmcat Yes, you picked the perfect quotes for this section. I loved the part on Henry James, instead of making him appear more stuffy, it made him more vulnerable, more insecure and therefore more powerful to rise out of that to write how he wrote. And how could a family just ignore the very thing that is the core of you. She does not have much good to say about her husband does she? 1w

Lcsmcat @Leftcoastzen I liked how she gave her mentors and informal editors credit too. And how she was honest about her early stuff. I don‘t have my copy in front of me now, but there was something about not having a personality of her own until the first collection of short stories was published. 1w

Lcsmcat @Currey Yes, Henry James‘ personality really comes through. 1w

Graywacke @Leftcoastzen well - this lost generation were essentially chanting, “down with Edith Wharton” 🙂 1w

Graywacke @Currey @Lcsmcat Henry James comes out so lovable 1w

Graywacke @Leftcoastzen @Lcsmcat that names were so interesting! The social fabric that she sook out by intent 1w

Lcsmcat @Graywacke @Leftcoastzen And she skewered the lost generation too with “the amusing thing about the turn of the wheel is that we who fought the good fight are now jeered as the prigs and prudes who barred the way to complete expression—as perhaps we should have tried to do, had we known it was to cause creative art to be abandoned for pathology.” 1w

Currey @Lcsmcat Ouch 1w

jewright I‘m late commenting, but I thought there would be more about her marriage, but not so far, other than their trips. I did enjoy the parts about Henry James. 7d

Lcsmcat Has this section and the one just started for next week exploded anyone else‘s TBR, or is it just me? 7d

Graywacke @Lcsmcat other than needing to read everything by Henry James? 7d

Graywacke @jewright she‘s quiet quiet on that so far. And it‘s coming to an end 7d

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Graywacke

A Backward Glance | Edith Wharton

👆Land‘s End - Wharton‘s Newport RI home

A Backward Glance - Chapters I-V
(Next week, Nov 29, chapters VI-VIII )

Before Newport, there is Rome, Alhambra, Paris, Bad Wildbad (Germany), old brownstone Manhattan, Florence and a yacht tour of the Aegean. We also meet Egerton Winthrop, Ogden Codman, Walter Berry, and kinda/sorta Mr. Wharton. Lush stuff, presented as natural and even middle class. The leisure class world. Thoughts?

Graywacke #whartonbuddyread
@CarolynM @Currey @IMASLOWREADER @jewright @Lcsmcat @Leftcoastzen @TheBookHippie 2w

Graywacke @CarolynM - looks like your handle didn‘t take above 2w

Graywacke Scroll down for a video of Land‘s End. It recently sold for $8.6 million. Be sure to check out the backyard views. https://liladelman.com/listing/42-ledge-rd-newport/ 2w

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Currey @Graywacke ah, yes, nice middle class views 2w

Leftcoastzen Her writing is just wonderful , as always! I knew we were not going to get true confessions! 😁Her descriptions of her travels with such details of the art & architecture, great . I love the details of how NYC changed from her youth . And her love of books and her father‘s library ! I know people of means loved the long vacation tours . It was harder then , but they had nothing to compare it to . Part of their education indeed ! 2w

Currey @Graywacke She does indeed seem to believe that she was middle class but during that era, the life she describes is not middle class. Her father‘s reversals of fortunes even did not leave them destitute but only forced them to live a cheaper life in Europe. 2w

Currey @Graywacke @leftcoastzen I really enjoyed the section about her mother‘s English and how that reflected exactly their place in society. And as always, it is wonderful to be back in Wharton‘s prose. I also was delighted to see how her life travels turned up later in her books 2w

Graywacke @Leftcoastzen that prose. How does she do it? It‘s the first thing I notice here is how lovely that voice is. Relaxes this reader immediately 2w

Graywacke @Currey right. I think she is clearly advertising the lost joys of the leisure class. But she can‘t bring herself to acknowledge it wasn‘t the fairest of lives. So she pleads denial, while fronting amazing travel, food, books and houses. But - what a childhood! And I love the visual impressions of 1870‘s Manhattan (edited) 2w

Graywacke @Currey one side trip to the accidentally wrong part of the Alps formed the basis of 3 books! I was also fascinated by the focus on the proper spoken English 2w

Graywacke @Leftcoastzen @Currey i‘m so happy you‘re enjoying. I didn‘t know what to expect. It feels lovely so far 2w

Lcsmcat Wow. If that‘s middle class, I‘m destitute. 😂 I think it shows how many even more wealthy people she hung around with! 2w

Lcsmcat I loved her mention of the (then) unpublished Fast and Loose “It was destined for the private enjoyment of a girlfriend, and was never exposed to the garish light of print.” 2w

Lcsmcat She did seem to be trying to justify her privilege. “In every society there is the room, and the need, for a cultivated leisure class” Is there really, Edith, is there really? 2w

Graywacke @Lcsmcat can i volunteer to take that role - for the civic wellbeing? 2w

Graywacke She was a wonderful reader. A quote: “There was in me a secret retreat where I wished no one to intrude, or at least no one whom I had yet encountered. Words and cadences haunted it like song-birds in a magic wood, and I wanted to be able to steal away and listen when they called.” 2w

Lcsmcat @Graywacke Why not? Edith says we need one. 😂 2w

Lcsmcat @Graywacke Per your quote, I wonder if that desire of hers was part of the reason her marriage failed - a la Hudson River Bracketed. She needed more interior life than her society was willing to allow her? 2w

Graywacke @Lcsmcat there were larger issues. He mentally broke down (and emptied her trust secretly) 2w

Lcsmcat @Graywacke And yet she (so far at least) makes no attempt to foreshadow this, which I find odd. 2w

Graywacke @Lcsmcat yes. She hasn‘t said his name, or anything significant about their relationship or his personality. 2w

TheBookHippie Sorry so late! I love the prose. I just love it. As for the leisure class is there a sign up?? The video was a WOWOWOW. Do you think she thought she was middle class??? As for the English it reminded me of my Grandmother who knew the upper and lower class French, Dutch and Yiddish (as it was used) she would say that‘s a scrub woman‘s French of Dutch- I would about pass out ..however she used that in ⬇️ (edited) 2w

TheBookHippie ⬆️volunteering in nursing homes with senile or Alzheimer patients as they‘d lose English immediately if they were immigrants and or refugees like she was- (back in the 1960- 1980s) she felt she owed it to help. 2w

TheBookHippie The not mentioning the MR is saying A LOT. I‘m very much loving this. Do you think she wanted to be single but society didn‘t allow it? 2w

Lcsmcat @TheBookHippie I don‘t know if she wanted to be single when she was young, but I think she didn‘t want to repeat the experiment when older. 😀 2w

Graywacke @TheBookHippie a scrub woman‘s French of Dutch. 🙂 You‘re not late. No clocks here. And I‘m with you on the prose! 2w

TheBookHippie @Lcsmcat For sure that! 2w

TheBookHippie @Graywacke my Bubbe was something ELSE. The prose is so very good. 2w

jewright She certainly had a fascinating childhood. I can‘t imagine spending so much time traveling. I always find people‘s earliest memories interesting, and that‘s how she started the book. 2w

Graywacke @jewright me too - I enjoy reading about early childhoods. I‘m fascinated by the nature of traveling in the 1860‘s & 1870‘s. (I tend to forget she was a child of this era. I think of her as an early 20th century person because that‘s when she started publishing. But she had a lived a lot before that) 2w

CarolynM I haven‘t had a chance to get to this yet. Hoping to catch you up before the end 🙂 2w

Graywacke @CarolynM i was worried about reading it. But it‘s been lovely. Read when you can. Glad you gave an update. 2w

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Graywacke

A Backward Glance | Edith Wharton

Lush life 2 - the books! #whartonbuddyread

Lcsmcat Loved this section. I can visualize that library! 2w

Leftcoastzen Yes ! I loved this section! 2w

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Graywacke

A Backward Glance | Edith Wharton

Lush life. The food! #whartonbuddyread

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Graywacke

A Backward Glance | Edith Wharton

#whartonbuddyread - I‘m finally starting. Chat Saturday!

IMASLOWREADER, Lcsmcat, CarolynM, TheBookHippie, Leftcoastzen, Currey, jewright

Leftcoastzen I need to start ASAP!😄 3w

Lcsmcat I‘m finding it a quick read so far. (Love the 🐈‍⬛mug!) 3w

Graywacke @Leftcoastzen I need to get going too. 🙂 I‘m behind my planned schedule. @Lcsmcat glad it‘s fast! The opening chapter reminded me how wonderful her prose can be. 3w

50 likes3 comments

bibliothecarivs

Back in the Day: A Memoir | Melvyn Bragg

Recent acquisition for our personal library.

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Graywacke

A Backward Glance | Edith Wharton

#whartonbuddyread - how committed are you? 🙂 Here‘s the plan for Wharton‘s notoriously unrevealing autobiography. We‘ll learn what she wants us to learn about her parents and Henry James, etc - I think.

Are you in?

Plan:
Nov 22 chapter I-V Friendship and Travels
Nov 29 chapter VI-VIII Henry James
Dec 6 chapter IX-XI Paris
Dec 13 chapter XII-XIV And After