Bunner Sisters in Never too Late to Read Classics

Jul 15, 2018 Chrissie rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2018-read, love, relationships, nyc, audible-uk, religion, shorts, usa, philo-psychol, classics

I will start with the stumbling blocks. If you are looking for a cheery book, this isn’t for you. If old-fashioned writing is not your cup of tea, it Is not for you either. The prose is not hard to follow, but the words chosen to describe a scene, sentiment or action are not the words we would use to express ourselves today.

I really, really liked this. I liked it more and more as it continued. It is sad and depressing, but at the same time it is not devoid of beauty, kindness and love. It is abo ...more

55 likes · Like · see review

May 22, 2022 Sara rated it it was amazing

Shelves: literary-fiction, death, american, short-stories-novellas, family, siblings, women-writers, 20th-century-literature

The Bunner Sisters is a shop, run by the sisters themselves, who are on the verge of spinsterhood and poised to slide into a lonely, but comfortable, old age. They are happy together, have a small but thriving business, with little variety in their daily routine, and it seems to both of them that they have missed something important in life. At the opening of the story, the elder sister, Ann Eliza, buys a clock as a birthday gift for the younger, Evelina, and the purchase introduces them to the The Bunner Sisters is a shop, run by the sisters themselves, who are on the verge of spinsterhood and poised to slide into a lonely, but comfortable, old age. They are happy together, have a small but thriving business, with little variety in their daily routine, and it seems to both of them that they have missed something important in life. At the opening of the story, the elder sister, Ann Eliza, buys a clock as a birthday gift for the younger, Evelina, and the purchase introduces them to the clockmaker, Mr. Ramy, and sets them on a course that will change their lives forever.

Edith Wharton is so amazing in the way in which she can draw you into the lives of her characters, regardless of what strata of life she pulls them from, and then pack the events of their lives with so much tragic meaning. Platitudes kept running through my mind as I was reading: The grass is always greener, be careful what you wish for, don’t fail to see the value in what you have, the best laid plans of mice and men, and love is an uneven thing, someone always loves and gives a bit more than the other.

For the first time in her life she dimly faced the awful problem of the inutility of self-sacrifice. Hitherto she had never thought of questioning the inherited principles which guided her life. Self-effacement for the good of others had always seemed to her both natural and necessary; but then she had taken it for granted that it implied the securing of that good. Now she perceived that to refuse the gifts of life does not ensure their transmission to those for whom they have been surrendered; and her familiar heaven was unpeopled. She felt she could no longer trust in the goodness of God, and that if he was not good he was not God, and there was only a black abyss above the roof of Bunner Sisters.

If you have read other Wharton novels, you will recognize the overall atmosphere that permeates this novella. Wharton often gives us characters who seem to be in the grasp of events they cannot control and who are being swept along to an end which they might have avoided had they read the signs and made different choices. Lily Bart from The House of Mirth kept coming to mind, even though these women are caught in a much different web than the one Lily struggled against.

I think there are few writers who have the skill of Edith Wharton. Her novels are both character and plot driven and I can never recall ending one feeling I had been cheated or that she had failed to stir my emotions. She has a brilliant control of language, never choosing the wrong word or using four when two would suffice. She paints pictures of the human soul, in all its complexity, and she gives us all the sadnesses we visit upon one another.

...more

49 likes · Like · see review

Jan 20, 2009 Laura rated it really liked it

Shelves: 1001-books-you-must-read-before-you, read-2009, classics

A very surprising and emotional story written by Edith Wharton.

5 likes · Like · see review

Jan 09, 2018 Kelly_Hunsaker_reads ... rated it liked it

Shelves: 1001-books, classics

Edith Wharton doesn't write happy stories, but they are charming and sweet. She writes about human -- especially female -- relationships, and does so with a quiet, nuanced writing style. Her characters feel very real. This one isn't sad in the way of Ethan Frome, but (view spoiler) ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Aug 30, 2013 Diane rated it really liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I once read that Dewitt Bodeen (whose writings I admire)
had once dramatized "Bunner Sisters" but even though it
was presented at the Pasadena Playhouse he couldn't
interest any of the film studios in it. And no wonder - it
is just so sad, telling the story of the Bunner sisters and
their life of poverty and deprivation. Wharton's publishers
were nervous about the unrelenting misery of the story but
Edith, even though a new author, believed it was good.
At the story's beginning the sisters are making ...more

1 like · Like · see review