Edith Wharton was not a pretty girl.
Three Novels of New York by Edith Wharton is available at National Bookstores for Php895.
Are her looks relevant to our understanding of her work? Yes, said Jonathan Franzen in his New Yorker essay on the occasion of Edith Wharton’s 150th birthday. The statement that triggered the debate: “Wharton did have one potentially redeeming disadvantage: she wasn’t pretty.”
I don’t give a shit what she looked like, countered Victoria Patterson in the L.A. Review of Books.
Like it or not, her looks do shed light on her work, Laura Miller chimes in.
To mark Edith Wharton’s 150th birthday Penguin Classics has released a Deluxe Edition of her Three Novels of New York: The House of Mirth, The Custom of the Country, and The Age of Innocence. Jonathan Franzen’s controversial essay is the introduction; the Goreyesque cover art is by Richard Gray. Whether or not you’ve seen Martin Scorsese’s seriously underrated adaptation starring Day-Lewis, Pfeiffer and Ryder, or Terence Davies’s little-seen adaptation of The House of Mirth starring the brilliant Gillian Anderson (Yes, Scully), you have to read this.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
March 18th, 2012 at 14:32
I never knew that fighting among literary critics could be very interesting.
Literature professors will definitely include these essays as part of the required reading when discussing Edith’s work.
March 18th, 2012 at 17:56
I was so tempted to buy the Three Novels of New York this afternoon, but I had to hold off until I finish all of my deadlines in the next two weeks. (Same arguments I had in my head when I saw a novel by Julian Fellowes in the bargain bin. So many books to want, so little time to read.)
Also, I’m still trying to look for a copy of The Reef. One of these days…
March 19th, 2012 at 09:40
Hmmm The Reef. She wrote several novels but they’re not up to the standard of the three.
March 20th, 2012 at 10:25
I think, in a way, it was a factor why she chose what she chose, why she wrote what she wrote. Laura Miller is correct for pointing out the huge role beauty play in the life of a woman.
Besides, Sartre once said that it is due to our own realization that we are not “angels” that leads us to seek to justify our existence through philosophy.
March 21st, 2012 at 14:03
Thanks for the rec, Jessica. Novels of New York it is, then, especially since a friend of mine is reading House of Mirth right now.