Many years ago, I was a big fan of Edith Wharton.  I have several of her books, and one of them has the date  June 1995 written in it; meaning I probably read that one while pregnant with my oldest son ( born in September 1995).   Some of the Wharton novels I own are still unread.  I planned to read them, but got distracted with having a baby (and then later, more babies).  For a time, most of my reading efforts concentrated on parenting and baby magazines and books.  When I was able to gradually become a more diverse and frequent reader again, other books entered my life– and the unread Whartons have been waiting since.

So, when The Classics Circuit  announced this month would feature Edith Wharton, I jumped at the chance to participate, so that I’d be motivated to read one of my unread books by her.  The book I’m featuring for this blog tour is ”The Glimpses of the Moon”.

After my long hiatus from Edith Wharton, was this book worth reading?  Yes and no.  Yes, because it  reminded me of what a good writer and story-teller Wharton can be.  No, because in my opinion,  “The Glimpses of the Moon” is not one of her stronger books.  However, this 1922  book, written two years after the Pulitzer Prize winning ”The Age of Innocence” , was an “international bestseller” at the time of publication.

The basic plot of this book seems familiar to me–   although I really can’t recall where I’ve heard it before (Another book?  A movie?):  a young man and woman agree to marry in order to live off their rich friends’ wedding gifts and generosity for as long as they can.  Actually, the newlyweds, Susy and Nick Lansing, have also agreed that if either of them meets someone who can advance them financially and socially, then one will let the other go.  But is it really going to be that simple?

As with some of Wharton’s other works, her cynicism about love and marriage shows through in this book.  For example, when Susy is talking with the young daughter (who is only about 8 years old) of a rich friend, the girl asks Susy shortly after Susy’s marriage whether she is getting divorced.  Susy says:

“Going to be divorced?  Of course not!  What in the world made you think so?”

“Because you look so awfully happy,” said Clarissa Vanderlyn simply.

Soon after Nick and Susy are married, he has second thoughts of the terms under which they are to take advantage of their rich friends.  Nick finds that Susy had aided a female friend in covering up her affair.   Even though Susy had been uncomfortable helping her, Nick becomes very angry.  As Nick says to Susy:

“By God, but it is [wrong],” he exclaimed, flushing.  “And that’s the difference — the fundamental difference…..Between you and me.  I’ve never in my life done people’s dirty work for them– least of all for favours in return.  I suppose you guessed it, or you wouldn’t have hidden this beastly business from me”.

However, Susy isn’t exactly a calculating, hard-headed woman: 

“But how could she tell him that under his influence her standard had become stricter too, and that it was as much to hide her humiliation from herself as to escape his anger that she had held her tongue?”

 Nick leaves Susy to go on a long cruise with yet other rich friends–they have a daughter that Nick becomes attracted to.   Meanwhile, Susy finds solace with a (rich, also!) friend who has always carried a torch for her.  She hangs out with this guy more and more often.  Yet, Nick and Susy just can’t get over each other.

Will Nick and Susy be able to overcome the moral dilemmas they realize they will often have to face with their wealthy friends?  Will they be able to reconcile?  And, if so, on what terms will it be — will they try to live on the modest salary he plans on making from writing books?  The book does answer all that, but I don’t want to provide spoilers .

As in many of Wharton’s other books, here she tears down “society”, which means wealthy, upper-class people of the era.  According to Wharton, it seems impossible to be both rich and happy.   She was considered ground-breaking and controversial; having written at a time when people strived to be rich and successful at whatever costs — even entering in planned and potentially unhappy marriages.   Not that this social-climbing doesn’t still happen today; but this was a time where women felt they had no choice but to try to marry well (a common theme in other classic works; see Jane Austen for example).

Even with these similar themes running through most of Wharton’s works, I feel compelled to read (maybe this year sometime) the other books of hers that I haven’t yet read — especially the ones I already own: “The Reef” and “The Gods Arrive”.  I also would like to re-read some of her books eventually!

I have enjoyed reading thoughts by participants in the Wharton Classics Circuit (see entire tour schedule here), even though sometimes I had to do quick read-throughs without always commenting, due to being pressed for time.  

Thanks for stopping by on the tour!

Disclosure:  “The Glimpes of the Moon” was purchased many years ago; my copy is a 1994 edition published by Collier Books. 

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 24th, 2010 at 7:00 AM and is filed under The Classics Circuit, blog tours, book review, books, classics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.