Edith Wharton
(2007) by Hermione Lee
The
House of Mirth, Ethan Frome, The Age of Innocence...these
are the novels that drew many of us permanently to Edith Wharton.
After all, such crystal-clear, expressive, and careful prose demands
attention and awe.
Lee, however, dives beneath the self-consciously dignified, correct
narrative mask to show us Edith Wharton, The Flesh-and-Blood Woman.
She was proper, she was proud, she had an adulterous affair, she
gossiped, she raged, she badgered her publishers and editors.
Nevertheless, she was a remarkable person, educating herself in the
things she loved most: interior decoration, landscaping, gardening,
Italy, France, and most of all, the craft of writing.
It's as if Wharton's life had two beginnings: the first, when she was
actually born, up until her divorce from Teddy Wharton; and the
second, post-divorce, when she finally identified herself as a
Writer, moved to France, and surrounded herself with like-minded
literary friends like Henry James. From the time she was young,
Wharton felt stories building up in her mind, demanding to get out.
She wrote fiction that critiqued and sometimes mocked the world of
late-19th century Old New York from which she had emerged. In these
novels, Wharton strips away the veneer of lavish wealth and social
prestige to reveal the real goings-on: girls raised solely for the
"marriage market," men stuck in social and intellectual
ruts, marriage and love having little to do with one another.
Lily, Newland, Undine: none of these characters quite "fits"
into the role that's been supplied for them. Their attempts to find
happiness only mystify or anger the people around them. Only a mind
like Wharton's, having thrown off it's shackles of expectation and
the status quo, could have brought these characters to life so
vividly.
Lee
offers us Wharton's story in an engaging, comprehensive biography
that never loses sight of its subject. And except for it's sideswipe
at the writer Frank Norris, Edith
Wharton
was a pleasure to read.
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