Mini Reviews: Summer and Désirée’s Baby

Summer
by Edith Wharton
★★

When she was 5-years-old Charity Royall was rescued from a life of poverty with her prostitute mother when a wealthy man became her guardian. Instead of growing up in the mountain community with her mother she is raised in a life of privilege by Lawyer Royall and grows up to be a librarian. When we meet her she is a grown woman just beginning to stretch her wings. After turning down her guardians’ marriage proposal (eww) she is restless and discontent in her life. She soon finds momentary fulfillment in a clandestine relationship.

The material is a bit racy for its time period (which makes it tame by today’s standards.) It gives readers a tragic look at an ambitious girl who flouts the societal restraints imposed on her. It felt like a weak precursor to The House of Mirth, though it was published more than a decade later.

BOTTOM LINE: For me, the ending was deeply dissatisfying and disappointing. It felt more like a morality lesson for settling down as quickly as possible. I was frustrated that Charity was left with so few options, though I understand that’s a realistic view of the time period.  


I read this as part of Brona's Wharton Review.

Désirée’s Baby
by Kate Chopin
★★★

From the author of the famous feminist work The Awakening comes this collection of short stories set in the New Orleans bayou. Many of the stories blend together, lost in my memory only moments after finishing them. That’s something I always struggle with when it comes to short stories.

This collection does have a few stand outs, particularly the title story Désirée’s Baby. The horrifying little tale is about a happily married couple who have just had their first child. The child clearly isn’t completely white and because of that the husband throws the wife out of the house and disowns the child, saying she must have an African American in her background. But the truth is even more shocking.

The other stand out was “The Godmother,” a short piece about a woman whose grandson commits a murder. She does everything she can to protect him and hide the truth, but the guilt of the cover-up drives a wedge between them. The collection includes: Love on the Bon-Dieu, Désirée’s Baby, A Lady of Bayou St. John, The Unexpected, Fedora, The Story of an Hour, The Godmother and At the Cadian Ball

BOTTOM LINE: Start with Chopin’s other work, "The Awakening” and if you’re left wanting more then check these out.

Mini Reviews: The Master, New Year's Day and Round the Fire

The Master 

by Colm Toibin

★★★

This is a slightly fictionalized account of the later years of novelist Henry James’ solitary life. He struggles to balances his social life and his desire for solitude. He represses his sexuality, never allowing anyone to become too close. He lives in the sea of regrets and guilt, blaming himself for the unhappiness of so many others. He’s never happy with all the choices he has made or the number of successes and failures he’s had. He grieves the loss of friends and family members. He avoids conflict at any cost, often sacrifices his own comfort in life to avoid confrontation. The end result is a man that’s difficult to connect to.

It’s a very cold book. It reminded me a little bit of The Remains of the Day, in which an English butler reminisces about the past. But unlike that book, The Master lacked the beautiful language that made Remains so captivating. It’s a poignant reminder that refusing to live an honest life can make a person very lonely.

BOTTOM LINE: The book may be an accurate representation of how Henry James lived his life, but it’s hard for a reader to be drawn into the world of someone who keeps themselves completely separate.

** I think that having read a lot of James’ work would add to your appreciation of the book.

Old New York: New Years Day (the Seventies)

by Edith Wharton

★★★☆

This little novella is part of a series written by Wharton called Old New York. There are four pieces in the series, each set in one decade of the 1800s. I wish I’d known this before reading it, because I would have preferred to read them in order as a set. The copy I have includes only the final novella.

• False Dawn (The 'Forties)

• The Old Maid (The 'Fifties)

• The Spark (The 'Sixties)

• New Year's Day (The 'Seventies)

Society is scandalized by an assumed affair between a married woman, Lizzie, and a man named Henry. Wharton seems to specialize is creating women scorned by society. In The Age of Innocence we have Countess Ellen Olenska, in The House of Mirth it’s Lily Bart. Each woman is exiled from society for one reason or another and in New Year’s Day it’s Lizzie.

Yet society never really knows the details behind the scandals and Lizzie is unfairly judged. The double standard for men and women in these situations is particularly disturbing. We find out that Lizzie had her reasons for doing what she did. Her life may not have been a happy one, but she loved her husband very deeply and when she finds out he is ill she is willing to do anything to make his final years happy ones.

BOTTOM LINE: A potent little story of regret, but I would love to read the complete Old New York series.

“…they remained in town on the first of January, and marked the day by a family reunion, a kind of supplementary Christmas.”

“The truth was, of course, that it [her chief charm] lay in her sincerity; in her humble yet fearless estimate of her own qualities and short-comings.”

Round the Fire Stories

by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

★★★★

This collection reads a bit like Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, but without the infamous detective. Quite a few of the stories had a macabre style that reminded me more of Edgar Allan Poe than of Doyle’s other work. Pot of Caviar, The Sealed Room and The Brown Hand were a few of the darkest pieces.

Other tales were easily solved with some critical thinking, similar to the Holmes books, but always with fun twists along the way. One deals with a museum break-in (The Jew’s Breastplate), an unexpected death (The Black Doctor), a visit to an eccentric relative (The Brazilian Cat), and a disappearance on a train.

BOTTOM LINE: A great collection of mysteries and ghost stories for a dark night. I missed Sherlock Holmes, but it was a treat to read some of Doyle’s other work.

p.s. This would be a great book for the R.I.P. Challenge this fall!

The House of Mirth

The House of Mirth
by Edith Wharton
★★★★★

This turn-of-the-century novel tells the story of Lily Bart, a beautiful woman caught between what her heart wants and she thinks she should want. When Lily is orphaned as a young woman, an aunt provides for her, leaving her cared for, but never wealthy. At age 29, Lily is still hoping to marry well, despite her financial problems. Yet every time she seems close to making a match, something causes her to withdraw a bit from her pursuit.

I’ve read Wharton’s The Age of Innocence and Ethan Frome and with each books I was impressed with the writing and restrained portrayals of the characters, but never more so than with this book. For me, The House of Mirth made me love Wharton, instead of just appreciating her.

Wharton finds the most eloquent way to say things, but still manages to keep it simple and not overly-flowery. It’s not like Dickens, who I do love in a different way, but the man was wordy! She’s not writing to fit more words in each paragraph, instead it feels like things have been pared down until what’s left is only what is necessary to tell the compelling story.

I read it slowly, savoring each line instead of barreling ahead. I didn’t want to miss anything and I found myself highlighting so many lines that I connected to. It felt like she had chosen each word so carefully and so in turn I wanted to make sure I gave each word its due as I read it.

Lily Bart is a character so caught up in trying to attain what society tells her is the perfect life, that she completely denies her true feelings. She ignores what makes her happy and focuses all of her intelligence and planning into finding a wealthy husband of the right social standing. At a young age, her mother taught her that this was what was important in life and Lily never quite let go of that mindset.

Lily has been raised to believe she needs a life of riches to be happy, but when she’s put in a position where those things might not be available to her anymore she doesn’t know what to do. She’s desperate and believes that her only choice is to sacrifice the life she thinks she loves or her happiness. It’s Madame Bovary without the selfish abandon in decision making.

This is the quote that sums it all up for me…
“…sometimes I think it’s because, at heart, she despises the things she’s trying for. And it’s the difficulty of deciding that makes her such an interesting study.” –Mrs. Fisher

The scenes between Lily and her friend Seldon are electric. They are sprinkled throughout the book and so each time you stumble upon one it breathes new life into the story, just as it does in Lily’s own life. Their chemistry radiates off the page. There are so many men who want Lily and yet Seldon is the only one that makes her feel alive. She refuses to acknowledge even to herself, that she feels anything for him.

“She knew herself by heart too, and was sick of the old story. There were moments when she longed blindly for anything different, anything strange, remote and untried; but the utmost reach of her imagination did not go beyond picturing her usual life in a new setting.”

The few moments when she is truly happy are tucked away in her memory. She never allows herself to dwell on those moments of joy. Instead she focuses on whatever problem is at hand, financial or social. She believes her problems don’t exist if she escapes to another setting, so she’s constantly trying to run away from them. The transition that she goes through from the beginning of the novel to the end is startling. She’s so carefree and hopefully at the start. Her playful nature begins to drain away as her circumstances become direr.

I loved the fact that despite having no idea how to achieve happiness in her life, she’s not helpless. She plans and schemes, often at her own expense, to solve her problems. She doesn’t wait around for someone to fix everything. She doesn’t make excuses for herself or allow herself to wallow in self-pity. She accepts the consequences of her actions, even if they sometimes seem unfair and I respect that. She’s proactive in her life and when she runs out of options, she’s willing to do whatever it takes to survive.

I loved the character of Lily and the story grew on me as I read it. By the end I didn’t want to put it down and I know I’ll be returning to it in the future.

“What Lily craved was the darkness made by enfolding arms, the silence which is not solitude, but compassion holding its breath.”

“It had always seemed to Seldon that experience offered a great deal besides the sentimental adventure, yet he could vividly conceive of a love which should broaden and deepen till it became the central fact of life.”