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Ethan Frome
Edith Wharton Collection
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Ethan Frome: Week 1 - Part I: Introduction & Chapters 1-4
Hmmm! I may be seeing the engineer in myself. I largely expect vast areas of human creativity to stand and be evaluated independent of their creators. I find nothing (at least, "little") demeaning about that. I am also aware that we as humans do choose to value and honor certain creators, often for valid reasons, sometimes not, while others disappear into the anonymity of the rest of humankind.
Mod
Lily, it wasn't the word-postmodern-that I objected to, it is the meaning of it (i.e., the context in which you framed it, and I realize that you weren't necessarily espousing that philosophy, but simply stating what adherents to postmodernism believe). That was my objection. Also, I don't think there is any disagreement that reading "Ethan Frome" can be accomplished independent of any knowledge of Wharton, or her time; but my question would be, 'Why?' It seems that the reader needs some of that information to contextualize and process what is being read.
Again, Lily, I do hope you realize that my posting at no. 240, above, was not directed at you personally; it was my somewhat--yes, I'll admit it--visceral (and maybe slightly knee-jerk) response to postmodernism. No offense intended whatsoever.
Finally, I have to say that I do largely agree with your last paragraph; but, for me, I do find that some knowledge of the author, time and place, etc., do tend to enhance the overall quality of my reading experience.
Christopher wrote: "Again, Lily, I do hope you realize that my posting at no. 240, above, was not directed at you personally; it was my somewhat--yes, I'll admit it--visceral (and maybe slightly knee-jerk) response to postmodernism. No offense intended whatsoever."Chris, more amused than offended. I wouldn't post as much as I do on boards like this if I got offended that easily! The only concern that brought me back to try to clarify was whether emotion got in the way of discourse. (Now, if I wanted to have fun, I might throw out whether one needs to know about God to stand in awe of the universe -- but let's not go there! That's a deeper hole than deciphering the distinguishing characteristics of a Puritan. LOL!)
Back to Ethan -- what I find most disconcerting at the moment is something someone mentioned earlier -- the transition from the framing narrator to the story told beginning in Chapter One. Given the opening comments, I really did expect a story built up of fragments shared by Ethan interwoven with tidbits from the townspeople. Instead, I seem to be getting this omniscient view of Ethan and his thoughts and feelings.
I read the whole book in one sitting without knowing anything about the author or background, and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I saw the whole story from Ethan's point of view. However, now I'm very curious to learn more about the background, so will catch up on other threads. Madge has mentioned naturalism, which seems to be a topic to learn more about as well. The diversity of viewpoints represented here also greatly increases and prolongs the pleasure of reading the book.Still wondering how it was received at the time of publication.
So...I just started reading all the background and was very excited to discover a review which Lily brought to our attention (message 7 in Background). From the University of Virginia archive the review contains such gems as 'triumphant malice and tortured love'. In relation to how the harsh climate has a profound influence, the reviewer describes 'a sense of invisible fetters, self-contained endurance that even the houses know how to express.'And even more thought-provoking...
'The wife who stands for fate in this drama is a curious and repugnant figure. She introduces the same vein of close-mouth malignity which darkens local history...'
There is much more, and I would recommend reading the whole thing. I found myself agreeing with its sentiments( and wishing I could write such brilliant reviews!)
This interpretation of Zeena (above) as representing fate, I find particularly interesting....cold, cruel, fate....limiting, relentless, suppressive...crushing the joy out of life, holding the victim with 'invisible fetters'. I would like to know how other people reacted to that review, in particular this concept of 'the wife who stands for fate.'
MadgeUK wrote: "Not at all Bill - no rules whatsoever,"I have yet to meet anybody who wants to live with no rules whatsoever.
I don't know whether Wharton intended this, but I am getting a strong sense of fatalism in what I have read so far. Ethan wants to be an engineer, but has done, and is doing, precious little to make that happen. He seems to accept that life on a hardscrabble farm with a women who gives him little if any support or affirmation is the best he can expect from life. Mattie presumably didn't choose to lose her parents, but she isn't doing much if anything to become independent, to follow whatever course in life she hungers after; rather, she seems to just be drifting along there in her cousin's house without, as far as we can see, any care for the future. I'm not sure I would call their lives exactly ones of quiet desperation, but I think they're pretty close to what Thoreau intended by that phrase. I long for somebody to show some initiative, some enthusiasm, some sense that there must be something better than this, and I should at least try to go for it.
Everyman wrote: "I don't know whether Wharton intended this, but I am getting a strong sense of fatalism in what I have read so far. Ethan wants to be an engineer, but has done, and is doing, precious little to ma..."I feel as though Ethan is a dreamer and all of them are stuck in poverty, which is keeping any of them from moving on. It seems Mattie's only possible escape would be marriage.
While, like background on the author, the story, its setting, the time period,..., I find reviews useful and helpful, I also view them with the caution that they can skew one's reading of the text. Whether that is good or bad or neutral, I leave open to each possibility.
Lily wrote: "While, like background on the author, the story, its setting, the time period,..., I find reviews useful and helpful, I also view them with the caution that they can skew one's reading of the text...."Of course, some people may not have finished the book yet (whereas I couldn't put it down and read the whole thing Wednesday morning) so of course I'm reading the review after completing the book, so it won't skew my reading. I can wait until next week if people would prefer to discuss reviews after finishing the book.
Bill wrote: "Jan wrote: "Of course, some people may not have finished the book yet (whereas I couldn't put it down and read the whole thing Wednesday morning) so of course I'm reading the review after completin..."We're on a reading schedule and you can read at whatever pace you like but you can't discuss past chapter 4 right now.
We're not supposed to spoil anyone's reading of the book by discussing anything beyond chapter four, but nobody's saying you can't finish reading. There is a lot of freedom and few rules here...play nicely, and don't 'spoil'...give away what's going to happen next. It being already March 4th here in Australia, we are only a couple of days away from discussing every aspect, so why not go ahead and read the rest, Bill? But remember...no spoilers, ok?
Bill wrote: "JI would like to finish the book too, but I thought we were supposed wait until next week to do that. I never thought why that should be the case until now...is it the case?"You can finish reading the book any time you want to. But you can't discuss, or allude to, or make mention of, or make hints about anything that happens beyond the chapters under current discussion. Even a casual reference to an event which happens from Chapter 5 on can spoil the chance for a reader to come fresh to those chapters.
Lily wrote: "Hmmm! I may be seeing the engineer in myself. I largely expect vast areas of human creativity to stand and be evaluated independent of their creators. I find nothing (at least, "little") demeani..."Hmmm... like Hoovers and Dysons maybe:). Don't most of us hope that something of us, somewhere, somehow, will remain behind, if only a gravestone or a brass plaque or just photos in a family album?
Christopher wrote: ...my question would be, 'Why?' It seems that the reader needs some of that information to contextualize and process what is being read.'I would add to that, especially if you are reading a book in a book club where such information can be shared and add to the communal experience.
The fact that you use puritan as an example of a button, did make me think you may have been talking about me.Nothing personal here Bill, the word Puritan/puritan has been mentioned because it appears in the text and because New England (Boston) is known as where one of the earliest settlements of Puritans/Pilgrims in America took place and for its Puritan traditions. Wharton had a lifelong interest in Calvinist doctrine, Puritan culture and geography. She visited New England a number of times before building her house in Lennox and she is said to have associated early American culture 'with sensual and aesthetic deprivation', as did a number of writers around this period, who also wrote about its harshness and austerity, as in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter.
I think what you say is a good answer to Madge's proclivity to see this as a story about someone trapped by circumstances beyond their control.
This isn't my proclivity, it is part of the naturalism/determinism espoused by Wharton which is present in her other novels too. For my own part, I do not believe in 'fate' and look to nurture rather than nature.
BTW Freud did not write that a man wanted to see his mother in his wife, he wrote that subconsciously a boy child loved his mother and sometimes had difficulty in transferring that love to another woman. Ethan seems to have transferred his love of his mother to Zeena, an older woman, soon after her death, which is psychologically interesting because it could imply that he had not thrown off his earlier love, so the marriage started on rocky ground (in Freudian terms). Another example of a naturalistic interpretation by Wharton.
To further the analogy, Ethan's home and the land around him also nurtured him like a mother and he seemingly became reluctant to throw off that love too. In Chapter 3 he had been fascinated by the gravestone outside his house which carries his name and which memorializes the lives and fifty year marriage of his parents.
In Chapter 4, referred to by Silver above, he thinks of Mattie on his way home and as he enters the house he realises that 'For the first time they would be alone together indoors, and they would sit there, one on each side of the stove, like a married couple, he in his stocking feet and smoking his pipe...' which might be reminiscent of his parent's marriage, brought home to him by looking at the gravestone earlier. This is an innocent enough (possibly Freudian) thought and we here learn more of the similarities between Zeena and his mother, who were both 'talkers' who nurtured him.
The first sight of Mattie brings another favourable comparison: 'She stood just as Zeena had stood, a lifted lamp in her hand, against the black background of the kitchen. She held the light at the same level...' but we then learn that Mattie had a red ribbon in her hair and she suddenly seemed to Ethan 'taller, fuller, more womanly in shape and motion' than Zeena, the ribbon of course being an allusion to the scarlet letter 'A' worn by earlier Puritan women who had committed adultery (cf Hawthorne).
That telling scarlet ribbon and the description of Mattie in this chapter seems to me to indicate a change of emphasis and here, half way through the book, I feel a sense of foreboding. This is of course later symbolised by the breaking of the red pickle dish, together with the deceit shown in the mending and hiding of it. I now begin to suspect Ethan's intentions and see him as less of a dreamer, more as a possible predator. The Fates (and Wharton!) have decreed that something unpleasant will happen and I feel the novel will be all downhill from hereon in:(. (Bill will be pleased that I have come to this conclusion at last:):).)
MadgeUK wrote: "The fact that you use puritan as an example of a button, did make me think you may have been talking about me.Nothing personal here Bill, the word Puritan/puritan has been mentioned because it ap..."
I think it is interesting the subtle ways in which we see Mattie starting to take Zeena's place, so to speak. His picture of him sitting with her as if they were married couple, and seeing her standing in the doorway just as his wife had done before.
As well as the particular significance that the jar which was broken was a gift given to Zeena as a wedding present, showing perhaps the final shattering of their marriage.
And I think the very fact that he has met Mattie under the same circumstances in which he had met Zeena, with first the death of his mother, and than the illness of his wife does not seem to bode well for the fate which awaits Ethan and Mattie, there is already this since of doom which seems to be cast over the relationship.
I also though it was a bit ironic that Ethan states how he does not like having to lie when he is asking Hale for the advanced money, directly after he lied to Zeena about his not being able to take her because he was going to collect said money. Yet when addressing his wife he did not seem to feel that same reservations about the fact that he lied, he seemed more concerned over how much money Zeena would spend in believing that he was getting paid right before leaving.
I also though it was a bit ironic that Ethan states how he does not like having to lie when he is asking Hale for the advanced money, directly after he lied to Zeena about his not being able to take her because he was going to collect said money.Yes, the lying in this chapter, including the deceit over the dish, is significant and, of course, it is against Puritan ethics. (Well, against any ethics, but here I think the a-Puritan element is a factor because it is a transgression against God - transgression being another theme of the novel.)
Mod
Oh, good one, Madge! I hadn't even considered the deceit angle, I just kind of focused on the symbology of the event (i.e., the breakage, reassembling, and the hiding it on the shelf). You're right though, the conscious decision to deceive Zeena, on both of their parts, I'm thinking that that may well be the real point of the scene.
Yes Chris, I think this paragraph is a telling one:'If he glued it together the next morning months might elapse before his wife noticed what had happened, and meanwhile he might after all be able to match the dish at Shadd's Falls or Bettsbridge. Having satisfied himself that there was no risk of immediate discovery he went back to the kitchen with a lighter step, and found Mattie disconsolately removing the last scraps of pickle from the floor.'
And it occurs to me to ask y'all, do doughnuts, blueberries and pickles have any sexual symbolism in the US?
Blueberries are known to be an aphrodisiac. And while pickles are phallic in nature I do not know of any particular meaning that they may have off the top of my head.
Silver wrote: "As well as the particular significance that the jar which was broken was a gift given to Zeena as a wedding present, showing perhaps the final shattering of their marriage."Is it of symbolic importance that Zeena tried to keep what was a wedding gift apparently precious to her and considered an item of beauty stored away on a top shelf, not to be used, certainly not every day?
Or is the only symbolism in its theft-like usage by Mattie, subsequent shattering, and neglected reconstruction?
Lily wrote: "Silver wrote: "As well as the particular significance that the jar which was broken was a gift given to Zeena as a wedding present, showing perhaps the final shattering of their marriage."Is it o..."
I think that the very fact that it was a gift of marriage that is broken during what seems to be the brimming of an affair between Ethan and Mattie that has symbolism of its own.
But you also bring up a good point about the fact that it was something of special meaning to Zeena of which she kept stored away, presumably safe. It is something "sacred" symbolically speaking, that this intruder into her home, and into her marriage than destroys.
The hidden beauty of the jar could also be seen as having symbolism of its own. For it seems that once Zeena herself was seen as a figure of beauty, but that has come to fade away making her appear like an old woman, consequently the vase an object of beauty is left out of sight, to collect dust perhaps in the breaking of the vase it also says something about the fragility of beauty as well. As current Mattie is viewed as an object of beauty, but she too in a way has been tucked away into this small town, and how long will her beauty last and what will be her fate when it fails her?
I presume many of us know the dynamics of families where the "good silver" and the "good dishes" are "kept" for rare occasions and of families where nice and pretty things are an integral part of everyday living -- even where the families are of similar economic means.
Everyman wrote: "I don't know whether Wharton intended this, but I am getting a strong sense of fatalism in what I have read so far. Ethan wants to be an engineer, but has done, and is doing, precious little to ma..."Do you think in 1900 Mattie had a great many ways to become independent? Or that Ethan has the financial means to become an engineer?
Silver wrote: "Blueberries are known to be an aphrodisiac. And while pickles are phallic in nature I do not know of any particular meaning that they may have off the top of my head."The only symbolism I know for pickles relates to Christmas. German families hide a pickle, signifying good luck, and the children have to find it. I have blown a glass pickle for my Christmas tree.
Could the sourness of pickles possibly stand in for Zeena? LOL Or are we just over-analyzing every word for hidden meanings. The fact is that it was Zeena's dish, she loved it, and it represented their relationship or maybe herself. Shall we give further significance to the seeds in the pickles? How about the pickle juice? :D
Silver wrote: "Blueberries are known to be an aphrodisiac. And while pickles are phallic in nature I do not know of any particular meaning that they may have off the top of my head."Oh! do pickles mean gherkins to you? To us they are onions and other vegetables pickled in vinegar. Yes gherkins are phallic - how jolly! What about doughnuts - do they symbolise the vagina?
Rochelle's idea about the sourness of pickles is a good one - again, our pickles are often sweet but gherkins aren't.
Bill wrote: "Rochelle wrote: "Everyman wrote: "I don't know whether Wharton intended this, but I am getting a strong sense of fatalism in what I have read so far. Ethan wants to be an engineer, but has done, a..."I do not think there is any indication that Zeena actively objected to them leaving, but rather it was Ethan's perception of Zeena that prevented it. He determined for himself that she could not live in a city that would look down upon her, but I do not think there is evidence that Zeena herself refused to leave Starkfield at least not initially, but now with her illness and Ethan's financial state he is in a position where it would be more difficult to leave.
Also I though I though I cannot say for certain but I thought there were certain age limits for apprenticeship programs, I think most people entered them at a fairly young age. While by our standards 28 is not old, it may have been difficult than to enter into an apprenticeship at that age, as I think it was something usually done before the age of 20, or early 20s but again I could be wrong about this.
MadgeUK wrote: "Silver wrote: "Blueberries are known to be an aphrodisiac. And while pickles are phallic in nature I do not know of any particular meaning that they may have off the top of my head."Oh! do pickle..."
Yes in the states the word pickle is the common word for gherkins, at least now, I cannot say it was that way in the early 1900's.
Haha I would be lying if that thought about doughnuts did not cross my mind, but that may be stretching things too far.
MadgeUK wrote: "Silver wrote: "Blueberries are known to be an aphrodisiac. And while pickles are phallic in nature I do not know of any particular meaning that they may have off the top of my head."Oh! do pickle..."
Of course pickles come from cucumbers, not necessarily gherkins. I don't think either blueberries or doughnuts have any significance. Again, I think we're parsing more than was ever meant in the first 4 chapters. sounds like the group is treading water till 3/6.
Bill wrote: "Rochelle wrote: "Everyman wrote: "I don't know whether Wharton intended this, but I am getting a strong sense of fatalism in what I have read so far. Ethan wants to be an engineer, but has done, a..."For 'fatalism', read determinism which is one of the Themes.
Mattie, being a woman, has less options then Ethan. But I think there were quite a few societies for women back then that could have helped her out.
In these isolated communities there was little around to help people get further education or training, perhaps a travelling library. We know that Ethan went to Florida for some sort of engineering course and that indicates the sort of distance which had to be travelled and the sort of expense that would be involved. So marriage and inheriting a farm would perhaps be the only realistic thing for both of them. Their future was determined.
Ethan couldn't sell the farm, which is why he did not up and go to get an apprenticeship or anything else. It is perhaps difficult for us to see, in our more affluent times, with greater opportunities, how tied to the land farmers in particular were. We see a lot of this sort of dilemma in Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath where the Great Depression reduced peoples' opportunities even further. EF is in the sort of situation where we have to 'walk a mile in someone's moccasins' before you criticise his decisions.
P.S.S. I don't know how you guys are able to do this..talk about those first 4 chapters with folks like me who don't have a clue.
You have 'clues' of your very own Bill and very interesting ones they have been! :).
Great post at 277 - thanks Silver! I particularly like the last paragraph about the symbolism of the jar relating to Zeena and the comment by Lily about using 'good dishes' on rare occasions is apposite too.
Rochelle wrote: I think we're parsing more than was ever meant in the first 4 chapters. sounds like the group is treading water till 3/6. ..."I don''t agree Rochelle - there is plenty of other sexual symbolism in the novel and the sharing of food is often used as a sexual connotation. In times when sex was a taboo subject authors found all kinds of ways of bringing it into their work - as we know from earlier readings, Hardy was a past master at it!
I think all of what has been discussed in the first 4 chapters has been relevant to the themes, motifs and symbolism of the novel, which is why it has been such a lively discussion which has kept people on board.
Bill wrote: "MadgeUK wrote: "Their future was determined. .."Thats a little to drastic I think. Lots of men abandoned their responsibilities to wife and family in those days. That is always an option for Et..."
Not drastic - I am following the theme of determinism in the novel, which is why Wharton does not have them go west and why she characterises them the way she has. She was using the ideas behind Calvinistic pre-destination and so am I. And even if you do not follow that theme, there were thousands who could not go West and were trapped, for one reason or another, on the land. To some communities the inheritance of the land itself is sufficient reason not to up sticks. They would rather die than move - God put them there and there they will stay. It would be a different story if Ethan had 'gone west'. (The Grapes of Wrath explores the idea that going west was not the answer because the characters found equally difficult conditions in California - although the weather was a darn sight better:).)
Bill wrote: "MadgeUK wrote: "In times when sex was a taboo subject authors found all kinds of ways of bringing it into their work.."As an example of this: I offer up to the group a poem by that chaste maiden,..."
LOL. Good one Bill!
MadgeUK wrote: "It would be a different story if Ethan had 'gone west'. (The Grapes of Wrath explores the idea that going west was not the answer because the characters found equally difficult conditions in California - although the weather was a darn sight better:).) ."That was also under different circumstances, during the Depression and the great Dust Bowl in the Midwest. And neither son was married, but the whole family moved together.
MadgeUK wrote: "I don''t agree Rochelle - there is plenty of other se..."I was replying specifically to pickles, donuts and blueberries, unless someone wants to research their symbolism.
Rochelle wrote: "MadgeUK wrote: "I don''t agree Rochelle - there is plenty of other se..."I was replying specifically to pickles, donuts and blueberries, unless someone wants to research their symbolism."
Silver has said that blueberries are an aphrodisiac and we know that gherkins are phallic and (some) doughnuts are vaginal looking. As this was the first meal they had alone together I think this symbolism is probably relevant.
Rochelle wrote: "MadgeUK wrote: "It would be a different story if Ethan had 'gone west'. (The Grapes of Wrath explores the idea that going west was not the answer because the characters found equally difficult cond..."Yes indeed, I was making the point that 'going west' as Bill suggested was not an option for EF, although I get the impression from EF that New England farms are also in a recession at this time. Poverty seems to be a theme.
Thanks, Madge (for Background Thread comment)
As I was looking for the info on Mattie's health (chapter 3)("When she tried to extend the field of her activities in the direction of stenography and book-keeping her health broke down, and six months on her feet behind the counter of a department store did not tend to restore it")
I came across these sentences which I thought so well-crafted...and telling:
"Her nearest relations...ungrudgingly acquitted themselves of the Christian duty of returning good for evil [Mattie's father had after all lost their money] by giving his daughter all the advice at their disposal" (36).
[personal commentary: yes, I know Christians like that; I know non-Christians like that. Great observation of human nature]
And there was this observation on Zeena:
"Zenobia, though doubtful of the girl's efficiency, was tempted by the freedom to find fault without much risk of losing her; and so Mattie came to Starkfield" (37).
As I was looking for the info on Mattie's health (chapter 3)("When she tried to extend the field of her activities in the direction of stenography and book-keeping her health broke down, and six months on her feet behind the counter of a department store did not tend to restore it")
I came across these sentences which I thought so well-crafted...and telling:
"Her nearest relations...ungrudgingly acquitted themselves of the Christian duty of returning good for evil [Mattie's father had after all lost their money] by giving his daughter all the advice at their disposal" (36).
[personal commentary: yes, I know Christians like that; I know non-Christians like that. Great observation of human nature]
And there was this observation on Zeena:
"Zenobia, though doubtful of the girl's efficiency, was tempted by the freedom to find fault without much risk of losing her; and so Mattie came to Starkfield" (37).
Good catch and poor lass! It certainly seems that Wharton was drawing upon the real Pierces for her characterisation of Zenobia, one of whom was 'doughfaced' and another who was 'sickly and grief stricken'. (cf Background.)
Rochelle wrote: "Do you think in 1900 Mattie had a great many ways to become independent? Or that Ethan has the financial means to become an engineer? "Mattie certainly would have had options, though you're right to imply that they might not have been very desirable ones. In 1800 there was no licensing of engineers and no guild system, so he was free to read up on engineering and look for work with an engineering firm or hang out his own shingle. Most engineering, I believe, was learnt by working your way up in a firm or going out finding somebody to hire you. A hardscrabble farmer and mill owner would have had to become pretty adept at basic engineering skills since they couldn't afford to pay people to fix every bit of machinery that broke or make improvements when needed to their equipment or buildings. So in his case, yes, I think if he had really wanted to pursue engineering and was willing to make the commitment of time and energy, he would have been able to.
Adelle wrote: "I came across these sentences which I thought so well-crafted...and telling:"Her nearest relations...ungrudgingly acquitted themselves of the Christian duty of returning good for evil [Mattie's father had after all lost their money] by giving his daughter all the advice at their disposal" (36). "
I also chuckled at those sentences, though wryly because they contain so much truth about human nature.
MadgeUK wrote: "Rochelle wrote: "MadgeUK wrote: "I don''t agree Rochelle - there is plenty of other se..."I was replying specifically to pickles, donuts and blueberries, unless someone wants to research their sy..."
Yes I agree. while one the one hand there is always the risk of getting into the mood of over analyzing things. For in the words of Freud sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
At the same time, as Madge has already stated, at a time when authors could not openly speak about such physical intimacies and writing had to have a certain degree of chasteness food was used to say that which could not be said.
Food symbolism is very significant in conveying the desires, intentions, intimacies es between characters and this is an imperative moment between Mattie and Ethan, thier first meal together alone in the house with this pent up sexual tension between them. I do not think it is remiss to look at the imagery Wharton gives us here.
Mod
I was replying specifically to pickles, donuts and blueberries, unless someone wants to..."
Excellent set of observations, Silver. You and Madge have reminded me of many of the literary techniques and symbols that Victorian authors used to deal with sexual intimacy. Our prior reads of Hardy's "Far From the Madding Crowd" and Eliot's "Adam Bede" certainly come to mind.
By the bye, I love the Freud quote! ;-)
Everyman wrote: "Adelle wrote: "I came across these sentences which I thought so well-crafted...and telling:
"Her nearest relations...ungrudgingly acquitted themselves of the Christian duty of returning good for e..."
My first Wharton, but, yes, some very well-crafted sentences....and an insight into her fellow man, or woman.
"Her nearest relations...ungrudgingly acquitted themselves of the Christian duty of returning good for e..."
My first Wharton, but, yes, some very well-crafted sentences....and an insight into her fellow man, or woman.
Mod
"Her nearest relations...ungrudgingly acquitted themselves of the Christian duty of r..."
Oh, are you ever going to have fun reading some of her other works! Please, please don't forget about her short stories too. She is a brilliant author!
Actually, Adelle wrote sheepishly, I just recently read my first Flannery O'Conner (spelling? can't check. the cat is sitting on my arm.)
F O'C can can write a well-worded sentence or two, too.
(I read Good Country People)
F O'C can can write a well-worded sentence or two, too.
(I read Good Country People)
Silver wrote: "at a time when authors could not openly speak about such physical intimacies and writing had to have a certain degree of chasteness food was used to say that which could not be said. ."Also flowers.
The Readers Review: Literature from 1714 to 1910
Books mentioned in this topic
Thérèse Raquin (other topics)Summer (other topics)
Ethan Frome (other topics)
Summer (other topics)
The Awakening (other topics)
More...
What seems more controversial is the intertwining of creator and created. When does or should an author's reputation impact the value of a writing? When is the value of a fragment from a "great" writer more valuable than the masterpiece of a "minor" author? And so on, with such hypothetical and real life possibilities.
Bottom line here for me relative to Ethan Frome: as a first time reader of the story, I want to respond to it on its own merits as a story and with relatively little regard for whom its author is, American or otherwise, male or otherwise,.... Yet, being aware of whom is its author and knowing a bit of her personal story is offering some insights and possibilities that would not otherwise be available to me.
As Everyman wrote: "...it is to suggest that one of the characteristics of a good novel is that it is perfectly capable of being read and appreciated without knowing anything at all about the author's life."