author - "Edith Wharton"
m, andjudged them with the contemptuous lucidity of nearly twentyyears of dependence. But at the present moment her animositywas diminished not only by the softening effect of love but bythe fact that she had got out of those very people more--yes,ever so much more--than she and Nick, in their hours of mostreckless planning, had ever dared to hope for.
"After all, we owe them this!" she mused.
Her husband, lost in the drowsy beatitude of the hour, had notrepeated his question; but she was still on the trail of thethought he had started. A year--yes, she was sure now thatwith a little management they could have a whole year of it!"It" was their marriage, their being together, and away frombores and bothers, in a comradeship of which both of them hadlong ago guessed the immediate pleasure, but she at least hadnever imagined the deeper harmony.
It was at one of their earliest meetings--at one of theheterogeneous dinners that the Fred Gillows tried to think"literary"--that the young man
his saggingpocket. At intervals, however, the post-master would hand him anenvelope addressed to Mrs. Zenobia-or Mrs. Zeena-Frome, and usuallybearing conspicuously in the upper left-hand corner the address ofsome manufacturer of patent medicine and the name of his specific.These documents my neighbour would also pocket without a glance, asif too much used to them to wonder at their number and variety, andwould then turn away with a silent nod to the post-master.
Every one in Starkfield knew him and gave him a greeting tempered tohis own grave mien; but his taciturnity was respected and it wasonly on rare occasions that one of the older men of the placedetained him for a word. When this happened he would listen quietly,his blue eyes on the speaker's face, and answer in so low a tonethat his words never reached me; then he would climb stiffly intohis buggy, gather up the reins in his left hand and drive slowlyaway in the direction of his farm.
"It was a pretty bad smash-up?" I questioned Har
beneath the rose-trees; and here and there a daisy grafted on a rose-branch flowered with a luxuriance prophetic of Mr.Luther Burbank's far-off prodigies.
In the centre of this enchanted garden MadameNilsson, in white cashmere slashed with pale blue satin,a reticule dangling from a blue girdle, and large yellowbraids carefully disposed on each side of her muslinchemisette, listened with downcast eyes to M. Capoul'simpassioned wooing, and affected a guileless incomprehensionof his designs whenever, by word or glance, hepersuasively indicated the ground floor window of theneat brick villa projecting obliquely from the right wing.
"The darling!" thought Newland Archer, his glanceflitting back to the young girl with the lilies-of-the-valley. "She doesn't even guess what it's all about."And he contemplated her absorbed young face with athrill of possessorship in which pride in his own masculineinitiation was mingled with a tender reverence forher abysmal purity. "We'll read Faust together
Description
The House of Mirth is Edith Wharton’s biting critique of New York’s upper classes around the end of the 19th century. The novel follows socialite Lily Bart as she struggles to maintain a precarious position among her wealthy friends in the face of her own diminished finances and fading youth. Lily has resolved to gain social and financial security by marrying into wealth, but callous rivals and her own second thoughts undermine Lily’s plans.
Wharton’s insights into high society were largely built on her own experiences growing up among the upper crust, and her confident portrayal of a morally lax aristocracy found an eager audience. The novel sold over a hundred thousand copies within a few months of its release and became her first great success as a published author.
Description
Edith Wharton’s controversial novel Summer is the story of Charity Royall, an ambitious young woman trapped in a stifling small town by both her gender and her social class. When a visiting stranger arrives in town, Charity is awakened to a wider world of possibilities and to the realities that constrain her.
Published in 1917, the novel was both attacked and ignored for openly acknowledging female sexuality and its many inequities. Later generations of critics have come to regard the book as an important turning point in Wharton’s work and a spiritual companion to her classic novel, Ethan Frome.
m, andjudged them with the contemptuous lucidity of nearly twentyyears of dependence. But at the present moment her animositywas diminished not only by the softening effect of love but bythe fact that she had got out of those very people more--yes,ever so much more--than she and Nick, in their hours of mostreckless planning, had ever dared to hope for.
"After all, we owe them this!" she mused.
Her husband, lost in the drowsy beatitude of the hour, had notrepeated his question; but she was still on the trail of thethought he had started. A year--yes, she was sure now thatwith a little management they could have a whole year of it!"It" was their marriage, their being together, and away frombores and bothers, in a comradeship of which both of them hadlong ago guessed the immediate pleasure, but she at least hadnever imagined the deeper harmony.
It was at one of their earliest meetings--at one of theheterogeneous dinners that the Fred Gillows tried to think"literary"--that the young man
his saggingpocket. At intervals, however, the post-master would hand him anenvelope addressed to Mrs. Zenobia-or Mrs. Zeena-Frome, and usuallybearing conspicuously in the upper left-hand corner the address ofsome manufacturer of patent medicine and the name of his specific.These documents my neighbour would also pocket without a glance, asif too much used to them to wonder at their number and variety, andwould then turn away with a silent nod to the post-master.
Every one in Starkfield knew him and gave him a greeting tempered tohis own grave mien; but his taciturnity was respected and it wasonly on rare occasions that one of the older men of the placedetained him for a word. When this happened he would listen quietly,his blue eyes on the speaker's face, and answer in so low a tonethat his words never reached me; then he would climb stiffly intohis buggy, gather up the reins in his left hand and drive slowlyaway in the direction of his farm.
"It was a pretty bad smash-up?" I questioned Har
beneath the rose-trees; and here and there a daisy grafted on a rose-branch flowered with a luxuriance prophetic of Mr.Luther Burbank's far-off prodigies.
In the centre of this enchanted garden MadameNilsson, in white cashmere slashed with pale blue satin,a reticule dangling from a blue girdle, and large yellowbraids carefully disposed on each side of her muslinchemisette, listened with downcast eyes to M. Capoul'simpassioned wooing, and affected a guileless incomprehensionof his designs whenever, by word or glance, hepersuasively indicated the ground floor window of theneat brick villa projecting obliquely from the right wing.
"The darling!" thought Newland Archer, his glanceflitting back to the young girl with the lilies-of-the-valley. "She doesn't even guess what it's all about."And he contemplated her absorbed young face with athrill of possessorship in which pride in his own masculineinitiation was mingled with a tender reverence forher abysmal purity. "We'll read Faust together
Description
The House of Mirth is Edith Wharton’s biting critique of New York’s upper classes around the end of the 19th century. The novel follows socialite Lily Bart as she struggles to maintain a precarious position among her wealthy friends in the face of her own diminished finances and fading youth. Lily has resolved to gain social and financial security by marrying into wealth, but callous rivals and her own second thoughts undermine Lily’s plans.
Wharton’s insights into high society were largely built on her own experiences growing up among the upper crust, and her confident portrayal of a morally lax aristocracy found an eager audience. The novel sold over a hundred thousand copies within a few months of its release and became her first great success as a published author.
Description
Edith Wharton’s controversial novel Summer is the story of Charity Royall, an ambitious young woman trapped in a stifling small town by both her gender and her social class. When a visiting stranger arrives in town, Charity is awakened to a wider world of possibilities and to the realities that constrain her.
Published in 1917, the novel was both attacked and ignored for openly acknowledging female sexuality and its many inequities. Later generations of critics have come to regard the book as an important turning point in Wharton’s work and a spiritual companion to her classic novel, Ethan Frome.