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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Writings of Wharton, 22 Mar 2007
In a way, Edith Wharton was at her best in her novellas -- her stories are lean, taut and emotionally deep. And "Edith Wharton: Novellas and Other Writings" explores views on love, sex, marriage, the conventions of the 19th and early 20th century, and even her own life. They're not just fascinating, but beautifully written.
"Ethan Frome" is the male half of a loveless marriage, with the fretful, fussy Zeena. Then Zeena's lovely cousin Mattie Silver comes to live with them, and she brings out a happier, more passionate side of Ethan. But when Mattie is sent away, Ethan must make a decision. He knows he can't stay in his horrible marriage, so will he run away with Mattie? The choice they make will affect all three lives.
"Summer" shocked the 1917 public, with its frank-for-its-time look at a young woman's sexual awakening. It takes place in the New England village of North Dormer, where the young librarian Charity lives. But when Charity falls in love with an upper-class young rake named Lucius, she finds herself pregnant and unmarried -- a destructive combination in the 1900s. There's only one respectable way out.
"The Mother's Recompense" explores the difficulties of Kate Clephane, who abandoned her husband and daughter, and now lives as an unhappy divorcee on the Riviera. She's unexpectedly invited back, to attend her daughter's wedding -- only to find that her daughter's fiancee is one of Kate's ex-lovers. Now Kate has to wrestle her own regrets and jealousies, to figure out whether to tell her daughter the truth.
"Madame De Treymes" is a sort of Henry Jamesian novella, taking place in early twentieth-century Paris. It follows the unhappy lives abroad of two Americans -- the miserable Fanny Frisbee is married to a nasty aristocrat, and living in Paris. As a knight on a white horse, her friend John is trying to convince her to divorce her hubby and marry him...
"Old New York" is a collection of four novellas, exploring different facets of, well, Old New York -- family strife, adultery, illegitimate children, and a young man's inner changes. And "A Backward Glance" is totally different -- Wharton's autobiography, describing not only her life, but her friendships with the artists of the day, and the inspirations for her rich fiction.
Edith Wharton gave unvarnished looks at social conventions throughout her career -- she doesn't judge, she just tells it how it was, whether she's talking about the Roaring 20s or the uptight Victorian era. Divorce was almost unthinkable, affairs scandalous if revealed, and women had the cards stacked against them in matters of love, marriage and sex.
So her works are even better when you set them in context, full of characters who were totally unlike her. Some were male, some timid and naive, some disgraced (she herself was divorced, though this didn't hurt her socially), and some completely broken by society's dictates. Few of her characters are much like Wharton, but she gets inside their heads and makes them entirely believable.
Wharton's formal, often poetic writing style makes these stories all the richer. They're rich with light, smells, sounds and the swirl of nature, even in a city. But it's offset by the starkness of her stories -- if she took a hard look at hypocrises and social conventions, she didn't flinch from showing what happened to those that transgressed. It's realistic, but a bit depressing.
Doomed love and personal reflection are what makes up a lot of "Edith Wharton: Novellas and Other Writings," a magnificent collection of her shorter books. Sad and beautiful, gripping and classic.
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