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A Son at the Front

3.56 of 5 stars 3.56 · rating details · 70 ratings · 6 reviews

Wharton's antiwar masterpiece, now once again available, probes the devastation of World War I on the home front. Interweaving her own experiences of the Great War with themes of parental and filial love, art and self-sacrifice, national loyalties and class privilege, Wharton tells an intimate and captivating story of war behind the lines.

Paperback, 239 pages

Published 1995 by Northern Illinois University Press (first published 1923)

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Jul 30, 2010 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: world-war-i, american-lit, war

Edith Wharton’s pet subjects — failed marriages, social minefields, and stymied dreams — play out against the backdrop of the Great War. As always, Wharton’s prose beautifully combines criticism with compassion, lyricism with clarity, and subtlety with wrenching drama. I found myself re-reading passages and just sighing.

The set up for this novel hooked me before I even read it: In the summer of 1914, a divorced expatriate father living in Paris is anticipating a month’s travel with his son, Geo...more Edith Wharton’s pet subjects — failed marriages, social minefields, and stymied dreams — play out against the backdrop of the Great War. As always, Wharton’s prose beautifully combines criticism with compassion, lyricism with clarity, and subtlety with wrenching drama. I found myself re-reading passages and just sighing.

The set up for this novel hooked me before I even read it: In the summer of 1914, a divorced expatriate father living in Paris is anticipating a month’s travel with his son, George, who just finished college in America. Adding a rosy glow to the prospect is the father’s recent success as an artist after years of struggle, which means he’ll finally be able to support his son financially. (After all, he wants George to be “independent” and not have to work in some soul-destroying business such as the one his ex-wife’s second husband owns — such a nice touch to combine class snobbery and whiff-of-Bohemian artistic snobbery!)

Anyway, war breaks out and prevents the father/son vacation, but the big crisis is that George can be drafted into the French army because he was born while his parents were visiting France. Oh, the twists of fate. This danger forces the ex-husband, ex-wife, and her second husband (who essentially reared the son) into an uneasy collaboration to protect George, without his knowing it, from active duty. The three parents scramble and scheme to pull every string they have to get George behind a desk, but, to everyone’s amazement and horror, George enlists himself in the infantry. The mother is devastated and the fathers are secretly proud. The bulk of the novel concerns the agonies of parents waiting on the home front, a situation more complex because of the divorce and the weirdness of being foreigners in a country at war.

Wharton explores the human psyche with such unrelenting perception that it’s almost painful. So many times I wanted to reach into the book and shake the characters even as I ached for them. You yearn for these people to rise above their petty concerns — the father resents the second husband because he’s wealthy and was able to provide a home for George; the second husband resents the father because he has a father’s claim on George — but people usually fall short. However, Wharton is a genius at portraying the moments of connection that offer transcendence. For instance, both men know the wife isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer and needs to be handled carefully, though they can’t say it aloud, both have a father’s love for George, and both have a conflicted admiration for George’s willingness to fight. I wanted the characters to burst into soulful, lushly orchestrated duets about their differing roles, but Wharton doesn’t provide musical theatre, just realistic insight, and so the result is more exploratory than cathartic.

Edith Wharton lived in Paris during the Great War and drove an ambulance to and from the front, so she writes with nuance and authority on the issues of being American in Paris during the years before the U.S. entered the war. Mostly, though, I enjoyed a personal and family saga that gives insight into both a vanished social context and universal experiences.
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Oct 25, 2010 El rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: early20th-centurylit, edith-wharton

(Courtesy: Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library)

Way back in forgotten times, when the world was still all black and white, Edith Wharton lived in Paris. She was in Paris during World War I and through some connections was actually one of the few foreigners to be able to be on the front lines for her work as a war correspondent for Scribner's Magazine. In addition to her correspondent work she also did oodles for refugees of the war, founding hostels a...more

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Jul 04, 2012 Christopher Sutch rated it 4 of 5 stars

A fine novel, under appreciated for too many years (even now, almost twenty years after its republication). Wharton writes about the part of World War I she knew the best, the life at the rear of the conflict, in Paris, including the charity work, the many, many people who continually receive news that their sons have died in the conflict, and artistic and social life. The editor of this edition, in her introduction, says that in this novel Wharton lays out her idea of the role of intellectuals...more

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Oct 11, 2011 Donald rated it 3 of 5 stars

This did not quite have the punch that I was hoping for. Fully cognizant that almost every man in France between the ages of 18 and 40 died in World War I, I was prepared for a sad outcome. While well written, it seemed like the characters were kept at a distance. You never really get to know them or care about them. It did not even provoke a tear at the end, a requisite for me to give four or five stars.

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Apr 28, 2012 Angelina rated it 3 of 5 stars

I liked her characters (for the most part) and her plot, but something about her writing just does not grip me. I've been coming back to this book off and on for over a year, and I've finally managed to plow through it.

Still, I'd take this over "House of Mirth" ANY DAY.

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Feb 16, 2011 Resa rated it 5 of 5 stars

Very rarely do I come along such a beautiful novel. I loved the author's style. She was very clear and it flowed well.
This novel is about a father's priorities for his son, but once he enters WW11, those priorities explode and the father is devastated. The father is very pessimistic and anti-war and his attitude reminds me of the current feelings concern the Iraqi war.

I am in love with this one :)

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About Edith Wharton

Edith Newbold Jones was born into such wealth and privilege that her family inspired the phrase "keeping up with the Joneses." The youngest of three children, Edith spent her early years touring Europe with her parents and, upon the family's return to the United States, enjoyed a privileged childhood in New York and Newport, Rhode Island. Edith's creativity and talent soon became obvious: By the a...more Edith Newbold Jones was born into such wealth and privilege that her family inspired the phrase "keeping up with the Joneses." The youngest of three children, Edith spent her early years touring Europe with her parents and, upon the family's return to the United States, enjoyed a privileged childhood in New York and Newport, Rhode Island. Edith's creativity and talent soon became obvious: By the age of eighteen she had written a novella, (as well as witty reviews of it) and published poetry in the Atlantic Monthly.

After a failed engagement, Edith married a wealthy sportsman, Edward Wharton. Despite similar backgrounds and a shared taste for travel, the marriage was not a success. Many of Wharton's novels chronicle unhappy marriages, in which the demands of love and vocation often conflict with the expectations of society. Wharton's first major novel, The House of Mirth, published in 1905, enjoyed considerable literary success. Ethan Frome appeared six years later, solidifying Wharton's reputation as an important novelist. Often in the company of her close friend, Henry James, Wharton mingled with some of the most famous writers and artists of the day, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, André Gide, Sinclair Lewis, Jean Cocteau, and Jack London.

In 1913 Edith divorced Edward. She lived mostly in France for the remainder of her life. When World War I broke out, she organized hostels for refugees, worked as a fund-raiser, and wrote for American publications from battlefield frontlines. She was awarded the French Legion of Honor for her courage and distinguished work.

The Age of Innocence, a novel about New York in the 1870s, earned Wharton the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1921 -- the first time the award had been bestowed upon a woman. Wharton traveled throughout Europe to encourage young authors. She also continued to write, lying in her bed every morning, as she had always done, dropping each newly penned page on the floor to be collected and arranged when she was finished. Wharton suffered a stroke and died on August 11, 1937. She is buried in the American Cemetery in Versailles, France.
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