The Literary Spectator

Where the need-to-know get their knowledge: THE LITERARY SPECTATOR

MR ADNEY’S March 2012 Issue No. One Room 1144 CONTACT INFO [email protected]

Society lady shocks literary world, becomes adept, proliﬁc author Scan for the works of Edith Wharton EDITH NEWBOLD JONES WHARTON’S LIFE FILLED WITH UPS AND DOWNS

AN EARLY LIFE OF PRIVILEGE Edith Newbold Jones Wharton was born on January 24, 1862, in high-society New York to upper-class parents, George Frederic Jones and Lucretia Stevens Rhinelander Jones. Continued on Page 2

A TERRIBLE MARRIAGE Edith married wealthy Bostonian Edward (Teddy) Wharton, twenty years her senior, in 1885. Their marriage had been rocky from the beginning; they did not share many interests and Edward himself did little to encourage his wife's gifts of intellect and creativity. Continued on Page 2 A young Edith Wharton

“In any really THE WORK OF A LIFE good subject, one Wharton found comfort and friendship in has only to probe writing and in Henry James, who advised her deep enough to on her writing. Her ﬁrst book, The Decoration of Houses (1897), focused on the architecture come to tears.” and design of European homes. Continued on Page 2

The Literary Spectator by Mr. Adney, Edith Wharton Edition THE LITERARY SPECTATOR! PAGE2

CONT. AN EARLY LIFE OF PRIVILEGE Greater Inclination (1899). After the unfinished until her friend finished the As a child and adolescent, Edith was publication of her first book, Wharton end. She died in her villa in France on educated at home by private teachers. focused on her literary career. Edith August 11, 1937. Having eagerly perused her family's published a number of novels library, she enjoyed literature and had throughout her literary career: The Today, Wharton remains one of the always been interested in writing. She House of Mirth (1905), Ethan Frome most prolific authors of the 20th- also accompanied her parents to (1911), The Reef (1912), The Custom of century. She feared that the attitude of various trips across the European the Country (1913), The Age of Innocence 1920's America would fall prey to the continent: England, France, Italy and (1920), The Glimpses of the Moon (1922), 1870's and 1880's - superficial, crude, Germany. As a member of the old New Old New York (1924), and The and lost - and was able to write about York upper-class, Edith led a luxurious Mother's Recompense (1925). She New York society with a satirical eye. life, entering society at the age of published her own autobiography, A Best known for her depiction of Old seventeen. Backward Glance in 1934. New York in all of its social hypocrisy, CONT. A TERRIBLE MARRIAGE Wharton portrayed New York's Not only did Edward embezzle Edith's Wharton, living in France by this time, acceptance or defiance of traditional trust funds to pay off his debts, he remained in Paris during World War I standards. Wharton's novels show the abused her trust by committing to do relief work. She was awarded the moral disintegration and unguided adultery (although Edith herself had an Cross of the Legion of Honour for her convention prevalent of the late 19th- affair with Morgan Fullerton, who was work in WWI. Then she earned an century. "Given her love of literature, a friend of hers and of her dear friend honorary D. Litt. from Yale and later her strength of character, and her Henry James, lasting about three the Gold Medal of the National creative power, she was able to make years). Her marriage to Edward drove Institute of Arts and Letters. The Age the most of her opportunities for self- Edith to depression and even led her of Innocence won her the prestigious cultivation and later to contemplate, straight to an asylum. She would later Pulitzer Prize in 1921. understand, and describe ironically an divorce Edward Wharton in 1912. isolated civilization in decline and CONT. THE WORK OF A LIFE Edith Wharton continued writing up transformation: As wife and hostess, Then her publishing company, until the time of her death. Her last she belonged to Society." (Walton 22). Scribners, published her first fiction, a work, The Buccaneers (1938), was left collection of short stories called The

Wharton’s home, The Mount. First edition of Ethan Frome

The Collector, 1234 Main Street, Any Town, State ZIP | 123-456-7890 | www.apple.com/iwork ETHAN FROME

Prologue Questions ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS IN A SHORT RESPONSE

1. Find some examples of what the name Starkﬁeld suggests about the setting.

2. What does Herman Gow say that reinforces this image of the town?

3. What is the stereotype of an engineer and how does it ﬁt the narrator?

4. Does the interest the narrator has in Ethan Frome ﬁt the stereotype and why?

5. How are we as the readers going to ﬁnd out the story of Ethan Frome?

6. List the characters and write what you expect their perspective and bias to be.

7. What does the narrator learn about Frome from other characters? What effect does this knowledge have on the narrator?

8. How do you expect the perspective of the narrator who is piecing together his vision to affect the story?

9. Why do you think there is a missing EL part of the house and why does the narrator think it is important?