adamrichardson

Almost 20 years after reading the depressing "Ethan Frome," did I realize that Edith Wharton is not just a good author of classic literature but that she's really perceptive and funny. Her wit is at the very least on par with Jane Austen -- though she takes a decidedly sharper, less empathetic approach to her characters than Jane. The first couple of chapters have a lot of zingers - for example: "... an unalterable and unquestioned law of the musical world required that the German text of French operas sung by Swedish artists should be translated into Italian for the clearer understanding of English- speaking audiences." And then a description of Mrs Mingott starts off as "The immense accretion of flesh which had descended on her in middle life like a flood of lava on a doomed city had changed her from a plump active little woman with a neatly-turned foot and ankle into something as vast and august as a natural phenomenon." Doomed city? Oh, that's hilarious! Right? Edith Wharton creates complex and very human characters who aren't always conscious of just how silly their lives might seem. They seem to take these things all very seriously. Newland holds the conflicting beliefs that women are equals and should be able to do things but continues to support the very heteronormative sex roles ascribed to women in marriage, blind even to his fiancees perceptiveness, emotional control and cleverness. There are some very strong women in this story - and yet they seem to stay more or less stuck within the confines of social convention. Countess Olenska leaves her husband - who refuses to grant her a divorce - but doesn't want to give up her lifestyle (or her money, which he will keep if they divorce anyway). Even Mrs Mingott defies conventions -- she's created a body that permits her to step outside of conventions (having her bedroom on the first floor and receiving guests there, not going to opera but sending family representatives instead, having her house in a less fashionable area and making people go to visit her there) -- proving that there is some fluidity but keeping appearances "proper" is key to avoiding scandal that will result in the kind of rapid, spiraling downward mobility such as that experienced by the protagonist of "The House of Mirth." May Welland knows how to play the game - very well - she is a sharp cookie, and she gets her marriage to the "right" man - getting him to give up what might have been his one true love, and establishing such a powerful sense of duty and obligation that even after her death, while he's still young enough to marry again - he refuses to even visit Ellen. Even as social conventions were changing in a whirl all around him, Newland was unable to pursue his happiness to do the right thing, upon which the happiness of many others was contingent. Whether it was weakness or strength that Newland abandoned any thought of leaving May and went through with the wedding, marriage and family - in the end, does it matter? Even in "Women in Love" - it seems like despite the characters' ability to choose what they would, they didn't find happiness. Truly, it makes me wonder whether any of what passes for "love" in any of these late 19th/early 20th c novels is actually love or just a strong drive to defy one's environment, conventions and try on something different - if just for a little while - before settling into what is expected.

2020-12-24 15:41