Edith Wharton: American Author Challenge

^ "Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was born into a tightly controlled society known as “Old New York” at a time when women were discouraged from achieving anything beyond a proper marriage.

Wharton broke through these strictures to become one of America’s greatest writers. Author of The Age of Innocence, Ethan Frome, and The House of Mirth, she wrote over 40 books in 40 years, including authoritative works on architecture, gardens, interior design, and travel. Essentially self-educated, she was the first woman awarded:

the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
an honorary Doctorate of Letters from Yale University
full membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters."

**This is part of our American Author Challenge 2014. This author will be read in October. The general discussion thread can be found right here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/162960

I've added this to the group wiki. Also, one of Wharton's short story collections has shown up on the Halloween reading list...

I'm so excited about this month! Ms. Wharton is one of my favorite authors, and I've got several titles here to choose from. I think I'm going to start with Cruise of the Vanadis.

I was hoping to read The Age of Innocence in October, but I will likely only be able to do Summer on audio. It's going to be a crazy month....

If anyone is looking for recommendations, Ethan Frome is one of my favorites but it's pretty bleak...

I have read The Age of Innocence, The House of Mirth & Ethan Frome. All 3 were excellent. My choice for the AAC ,will be The Custom of the Country, which I was not even familiar with. I can't remember who suggested this one: RD? Donna? I still have to get my copy from the library but at least I know they have it on shelf.

>3 drneutron: Thanks, Jim!

>4 LauraBrook: I have not heard of Cruise of the Vanadis. Well, she did author 40 books. I'll be watching for your thoughts, Laura.

>5 katiekrug: Summer was high on my list too, Katie! And I, 2nd your rec on Ethan Frome. It's a slim read but packs a punch.

Time to order Age of Innocence from the library!

I've read tons of Wharton so I'll likely just cheer you all on from the sidelines.

>6 msf59: Mark, The Custom of the Country is one of my all-time favorite books. I predict you'll love it!

>1 msf59: and >5 katiekrug: - Thank you both for bringing Ethan Frome to my attention as a Wharton read. I was going to by-pass this month but I think I can squeeze a small read in to fit this challenge.

>9 lkernagh: - Lori, Summer is also a short read, but I can't vouch for it (yet) :-)

I will 'stay tuned' then! ;-)

I read Ethan Frome decades ago and I recall liking it a lot. I might try to reread it as I believe it's pretty short (it may even qualify as a short story). I know I have something else on my shelf at work -- whatever it is, that is what I'll read. :-|

I haven't been able to join in here since January but I have finished my 2014 Category Challenge and I will be able to fit Custom of the Country in as my Edith Wharton read this month. Looking forward to discovering this author.

>12 EBT1002: I may join in that re-read.

Oh my sakes alive! I found that our little library had Age of Innocence so I snapped it up. So looking forward to reading some Edith Wharton along with all y'all!

Yah, for mhmr!! It is a great book.

I was planning on reading The Age of Innocence but I have a copy of The New York Stories of Edith Wharton I'm going to read instead. This way I can dip in and out of the book all month long.

Read to chapter 24 of Age of Innocence yesterday and into the night. Just 10 chapters to go. It's a book that doesn't want to be put down.

>17 luvamystery65: That's a great plan! I have a book of her ghost stories that I'm planning on doing the same thing with. :)

>18 mhmr: You're so right, mhmr, it's an excellent book. Make sure to watch the wonderful Martin Scorsese adaptation too, he really got the feel of the book, IMHO.

I'm so far behind in my AAC reading that I need a recommendation for a short/quick Wharton. Help?

Ethan Frome is 128 pages.

Ethan Fromme it is. Ha!

ETA: DailyLit has it so I'll get it in daily email installments. Yay!

>22 Morphidae: I've added it to TIOLI #4 (older than me) if you want to do a shared read.

Ethan Frome is the one I'll be reading, too.

I came to Edith Wharton rather late, only in 2011 with The House of Mirth, but she won me over from the first, and I've read several of her novels and a collection of short stories since then. I'll be picking up The Custom of the Country this month.

I haven't done the AAC in awhile but I'm hoping to read Edith Wharton's Summer this month.

I have Ethan Frome planned for this month as well. I did read it years ago, but all I remember is that there is sledding in it. Or do I have it confused with something else?

I'm currently reading A Motor-Flight Through France and I hope to get to The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton later this month.

>27 banjo123: You are correct- there is sledding in it.

>27 banjo123:, >29 LoisB: Sledding indeed! I can see why you remember it.

Ethan Frome was very well done. Hard to believe it's the same author as Age of Innocence. Poor Ethan and Mattie!

My short review of Ethan Frome is here, along with a couple of others: http://www.librarything.com/topic/180853#4875805

I wound up reading Age of Innocence in two sessions with a few hours of sleep only between reading bouts. I think this was only my second book of Wharton's but know I will go on to read more now.

I do like this American Authors Challenge and hope it's not the last one.

I'm about a quarter of the way through The Cruise of the Vanadis, and so far it's boooooring. Very "list-y", only a little descriptive in parts, and whatever photos that are supposed to be corresponding with the text, they show up at the end of the chapter, before they move onto the next island/stop. Maybe not a great setup for the book, but it's sort of interesting anyways.

I have finished my read of The Custom of the Country and it was quite the book! In Undine Spragg, I think I have met the most detestable character that I have loved to read about. She is quite the piece of work but she is also fascinating. I really enjoyed this book.

Yah, for The Custom of the Country! I plan on starting my copy in a few days.

>33 LauraBrook: Sorry, your Wharton didn't pan out, Laura. I am not familiar with that particular title.

>35 msf59: No worries, Mark, I'll still finish it up, only with lowered expectations this time. Eh, what're you gonna do? It's something that she never intended to publish, just her personal journal of her boat tour around the Mediterranean over a couple of months. Sounds more interesting there than it is to read it, I'm afraid.

I still have hope that it'll pick up steam the more I read it.

I just finished Ethan Frome. I ended up liking it overall, but I don't think Wharton will ever be a favorite. I did feel sorry for Ethan, but Mattie is so boring, it's hard to care about her.

“Undine was fiercely independent and yet passionately imitative. She wanted to surprise every one by her dash and originality, but she could not help modelling herself on the last person she met.”

"Words were flashing like brilliant birds through the boughs overhead."

^^Yes I am enjoying The Custom of the Country. 130 pages in. Wharton is such a smart and intuitive writer. She might just be my favorite female American author.

" She's a monstrously perfect result of the system: the completest proof of its triumph."

- The Custom of the Country

^Well, I think that sums up Undine rather well, don't you? I am at the 200 page mark, just shy of halfway.

How is everyone else doing? Making progress?

I completely forgot to post here that I finished Ethan Frome. A good book to test the Wharton waters and I will consider reading more of her books now that I have had a glimpse into her writing style, which works for me quite nicely.

I finished The Age of Innocence on audio, and really enjoyed it. Thanks again, Mark, for the inspiration! Here's my review:

"Newland! Do shut the window. You’ll catch your death.”
He pulled the sash down and turned back. “Catch my death!” he echoed; and he felt like adding: “But I’ve caught it already. I am dead—I’ve been dead for months and months.”

Edith Wharton is a masterful writer, wielding a pen she sharpens to a scalpel-sharp point on 1870s New York society. The book is framed by performances of the opera Faust. At the first, Newland Archer is happily and somewhat smugly anticipating his marriage to the young, innocent May Welland, whose every thought and opinion he is looking forward to shaping, if not outright providing. He is somewhat scandalized when May's family hosts the Countess Ellen Olenska in their box -- this cousin is separated from her husband, a Polish count, and is seeking refuge in New York.

The countess's European sensibilities and unconventionality make her an uncomfortable puzzle for her family: she treats a servant familiarly, visits and befriends social climbers and outcasts, and does not care to live in the "right" neighborhoods. Newland is attracted like a moth. As Newland falls in love with the countess, he comes to perceive the smallness and rigidity of their New York world, and is powerless in the face of it. Ellen is determined to preserve her independence, to live life as she chooses, and as Newland realizes this, he understands that his future with May is one of convention, propriety, and suffocation. May in her turn is smooth and pleasant on the surface, and deftly manipulative underneath. Near the book's end, Newland attends another performance of Faust, reflecting how he has utterly changed, yet sentenced to a life of stifling sameness. This book made me deeply uncomfortable -- it is pervasively sad, and utterly fascinating.

I'm in the middle of Age of Innocence but won't finish tonight. Too much life intervening- not much reading this month. will still enjoy it and it can fit in the TIOLI Leftover category.

My Edith Wharton for October was The Age of Innocence.

It looks like I am the only one reading The Children by EW. I was very interested to see how a childless woman wrote about children. I am enjoying it very much and hopefully will finish it in the next day or two so I can get on track with a John Updike book!

I read The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton and part of A Motor-Flight Through France. The ghost stories were OK, and apparently she was more interested in architecture than people on her motor-flight.

I read Ethan Frome and found it to be fantastic. I look forward to exploring her work further.

Finally finished The Age of Innocence - I was slow, but enjoyed it. Her humor is subtle by today's standards, and her pokes at NY society seem spot on.