Edith Wharton is an interesting author to me for an odd reason: she is a good writer but doesn’t seem to fall into either my “favorites” list or my “skip it” list. She just “is” and yet I’ve enjoyed the two books of hers that I have read: The Age of Innocence and Ethan Frome. I also have The House of Mirth on my reading list, so will revisit Edith at some point – maybe that will tip the scales!
The Age of Innocence. The story follows a few families in 1870s New York Society. These families are at once sad and amusing – their focus is on maintaining their upper-crustiness, as they gossip, shop, go to the opera and generally look down on others. Yet, none have particular skills, talents, aspirations or interests. They do what they do because it is expected of them. But, it all comes undone when Ellen Olenska comes to town! Actually it comes undone after WWI, but Ellen is a force for frustration and uncommonly passionate feelings.
I wish Ellen was the lens through which we looked at Society, but instead we get Newland Archer, a rather feckless young man who starts out loving May, a lovely young lady who follows the rules of Society, and ends up loving – or rather obsessing over cousin Ellen. Ellen and May are both interesting, each in their own way. Ellen is straightforward, doesn’t care about the dictates of Society, doesn’t want to return to her philandering husband (the Count), and has interests and opinions – she is compelling. May is sort of the dark horse of the story. She appears to be innocent and sweet, but she’s smarter than she appears, with flashes of awareness and manipulative behavior. I would like to have seen a bit more of that, but to do so would have required greater use of the secondary narrator who is detached from the story. Newland often missed these flashes in his wife, though I appreciated that he did love her to some extent … or at least grew accustomed to her.
The generations and the passage of time were interesting components. I enjoyed seeing the changes, though would like to have had them spread out a bit more – the last chapters covered a lot of ground. I found the ending sad, as Newland as an old man preferred his memories to potential real change in his life. I was reminded of a old TV movie called Love Among the Ruins with Katharine Hepburn and Laurence Oliver – they knew each other as young adults, she went on to marry someone else, he pined for her for 40 years and became her lawyer after her husband died. Of course they ended up together – it always makes me smile. I was hoping for something a little closer to that at the end of The Age of Innocence – maybe not quite as obvious and saccharine, but then Newland was more in love with his memory of Ellen and too risk averse to take a chance. Beautiful writing, very detailed and an interesting story.
Ethan Frome. These are characters living lives of quiet desperation – alternating between lamenting their plight and blaming each other. The writing is beautiful and evocative. I could feel the cold emanating from both the weather and the relationships. The book reminded me of Stoner by John Edward Williams and Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy in that there was such sadness surrounding the characters. In this story, that sadness underpins the relationships and poverty locks the characters in place. Ethan marries the woman who cared for his mother as she was ill, then she becomes the sickly one after his mother’s death. The problem is that she is not really all that sick – she uses this to control Ethan. She is not nice to Ethan. When a poor relative (Maddie) comes to live with them, Ethan experiences the love he has wanted all along.
Maddie and Ethan are sweet together and there is the realization that the oppressive feel of poverty would not be quite as bad if they were the married couple. As their feelings deepen, it’s hard not to root for them, even though Ethan is already married. That they can’t go on without the other is romantic to the point of melodrama, but I couldn’t help but smile. Of course, their plans were disrupted: plan A to run away together and plan B to be together “forever”. They ended up with plan C, which was a bitter pill, as both were changed people who were not able to enjoy each other.
Ethan’s wife was also changed, yet remained unhappy. No one got what they wanted and the family was poorer in money and spirit. Life is not fair – that’s an understatement in this story. Had Ethan been born at a different time and place, he may have gotten an education and had a completely different life. Unfortunately, that was not his lot. I couldn’t help but wonder how many people are in a similar situation – living in their own private hell. So sad – heartbreaking on so many levels.
ETA: I’ve never understood why this book is sometimes assigned to students in high school – maybe because it is short and the text not difficult. It is not a book for students, though. Few have the life experience to understand the emotions and limitations faced by the characters.
