Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die discussion

Edith is my homegirl. :-)

I discovered her short stories first -- there's a wit in her stories that doesn't always come through in her novels. She also sometimes got way more experimental with her short stories (some ghost stories, some supernatural stuff...different from her novel-length works).

I also have a bit of a bias towards her short story Xingu, which is a DELICIOUSLY witty story about how the black-sheep member of an upper-class ladies' book club gets her comeuppance against the other members. The first time I read the story, I fell so much in love with it that I ended up adapting it for the stage -- it got a small production in 2003 here in New York. I've wanted to figure out what more to do with it, because it's IDEAL for small local theater companies (plays that have good roles for 8 women, all ages 30 and over, are very few and far between).

Thanks for the tip. I rally like Wharton's novels, so I'm looking forward to reading her short stories, particularly Xingu

I also absolutely love Wharton's short stories, especially the Dilettante. I sometimes listen to them. There are a few on librivox.org that you can download for free.

I'm currently reading The Age of Innocence, I'm really into it.

Ms Wharton is known to be the "Mother of Interior Design," by interior design schools. It's because of her interest and descriptions of interiors in her novels and stories. I love her wonderful attention to fine details in that and her characters, especially in their innuendoes...
I'm reading some of her short stories at the moment. I've read all of her novels, which I adore!

I need to check out some of her short stories. The only one I have read (which not even qualify as a short story), was "Ethan Frome" which I did not like as much as I had hoped.

I would recommend "Custom of the Country" to any Wharton fans that haven't yet read this delight. It is by far my favorite novel by Wharton. I do love her descriptions of the characters and settings...such a charming world filled with such ridiculous people.

I always mentally compare her to Theodore Dreiser as they both wrote extended social realism. There are considerable differences in focus, despite the similarity in the construction of their novels. Wharton is more concerned about proper moral conduct, social graces from a women´s perspective, and how an absence of these exclude one from one´s rightful place in high society. There is almost obsessive quality to her characters maintaining a scandal free history to maintain the appearance of sobriety, chastity, and purity.
Dreiser, on the other hand, has characters with a more mercenary disposition. His novels are more about the high finance business world and how they are able to purchase respectability with their wealth, only to lose it with their moral transgressions.

Geoffrey wrote: "I always mentally compare her to Theodore Dreiser as they both wrote extended social realism. There are considerable differences in focus, despite the similarity in the construction of their novels..."

Any Dreiser novels you would recommend in particular? I haven't heard of him, but his work sounds interesting...

Sister Carrie.

Geoffrey wrote: "Sister Carrie."

Thanks!

I read the ever popular Age of Innocence and Ethan Frome, but her more obscure ones Summer and A Mother's Recompense are equally good.

I love Edith Wharton and have read Ethan Frome and Summer. I love them both and they stand out alot.

I am so glad I've discovered this Wharton fan group! I love Edith Wharton, particularly [The House of Mirth:]. The tragedy of Lily Bart's life and the mystery of her motivation really draw me in. I often find myself returning to Wharton in my blog about books.

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Yes, I agree with your comments, Leslie about being drawn into Lily Bart´s life. I was so angry with her I could have entered the story and slapped her to reality and told her to get a life, that the people who were important to her were real jerks.

It's unfortunate that at that time, it was not acceptable for her to find a vocation - a true vocation - beyond marriage as a cold, calculating "profession." I get the sense from Lily's artistic tastes, that she could have been happy as an artist or in some art-related profession. Wharton herself was much happier once she separated from her husband (a womanizing alcoholic) and wrote for a living. She came into her own as a writer!

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I have recently been reading Shanghai Girls and the first few chapters remind me of The House of Mirth. Although the geographical locales are entirely different, the two authors share the same loving attention to the details of setting, manner and dress, and the themes of the novels are somewhat similar. Both novels centre on the heroines' drastic reversal of fortune after the father has lost all the family's money, forcing the girls to marry for money....

Leslie
www.the-reading-list.com