#105 The Other Two- Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton was the first female novelist to win the
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, writing the Age of Innocence in 1921. I was
introduced to her, like many people my age were, from reading Ethan Frome in
High School.
Alice has just married her third husband, Mr. Waythorn. She
is a twice divorced mother of Lily. Lily has become ill and they must cut their
honeymoon trip short. Her divorces are a scandalous thing at the time and her
husband will come to get very insecure about them.
Lily’s father has one-day-a-week custody rights and has to
come visit their house when Lily is sick. Mr. Waythorn feels sick about it:
“As his door closed behind him he reflected that before he
opened it again it would have admitted another man who had as much right to
enter it as himself, and the thought filled him with a physical repugnance.”
The loves of the newlyweds and the “Other Two” former
husbands become entwines as life often happens that way. Insecurity, jealousy,
intrigue…its all here.
Wharton was fully entrenched in high society, and her
writing is steeped in that world, and is a little on the stuffy side for my
taste. Her historic significance aside, I’d rather read some of her
contemporaries like D.H Lawrance, Joseph Conrad, or F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Thankfully, there is enough literature for everyone’s taste.
Word of the Day: Propinquity- the state of being physically
close to someone, proximity.
No comments:
Post a Comment