Thanks so much Jane. Glad my review was all right … and glad for your link and your thoughts about the book. I thought yours were good. Wharton has become a favorite … although I have only read three of her books so far! I really liked Ethan Frome … and than this one … I wanted a bit more from her autobiography A Backward Glance but I’ll get to more of her novels later. Perhaps next will be The Age of Innocence and The Custom of the Country. Curious about The Buccaneers. I agree her writing is terrific! And her life quite interesting.
Happy March & reading.

I loved The Buccaneers, Wharton’s last and unfinished novel, as well as Ethan Fromme and Age of Innocence. I have a couple of collections of short stories that I’ve been meaning to read as well.

Your trip to Vancouver looks wonderful. Such great pictures–and sunny!

Happy March…come on Spring!

Glad you

Hi Lesley, I’m so sorry about your mother’s fall! Ugh. Sounds terrible. I hope she has stabilized and is not in a lot of pain. And that her hip will be able to heal. I will email you. I’m sure you’ve been all over the place since this.
I liked hearing about which Wharton books you’ve read. I probably will read another of her classics perhaps later in the year. I hadn’t taken a class in ages. It is interesting to think of Cather and Wharton and their similarities & differences being the two biggest female authors of their day. I guess Hermione Lee wrote biographies on both but her books are very long!
I hope you’re all right after your Mom’s fall. Hang in there. It’s difficult I know.

We watched quite a bit of the Olympics while hanging out in the hospital. Especially loved the figure skating. Glad you had a good time in Vancouver. I’ve only been once and all I remember is that it was cold. I think we headed up to Whistler on that same trip. But your photos make it look especially pretty this time of year. We’ve had buckets of rain here, but the sun returned today and should hang around for the next few days. Yay! Helps boost my mood, which has been all over the place…

It’s been years and years since I read Wuthering Heights. Not really sure if I’ll watch the film. Glad you enjoyed The House of Mirth so well. I do think I’ll try to re-read The Custom of the Country. (Thanks for the shout-out.) Always good to have a class to discuss the finer points of a classic. I loved my Great Plains Lit class for this reason. I fell in love with Willa Cather’s novels while taking that course as a non-tradition (read: old!) student. BTW, I tried to read Wharton’s final (unfinished) book, The Buccaneers, but couldn’t get interested. I also read The Age of Innocence (twice) and thought it was quite good.

Daffodils are blooming here, too. Seems so early!

Wow JoAnn, that’s good to know. Undine Sprague sounds like a firecracker of a character … and I look forward to her and reading that Wharton novel. We had a guest speaker in our last class — literary scholar Elaine Showalter — and she had good things to say about Undine Sprague … who wasn’t as passive as Lily Bart is … so I will add a couple more Wharton books to my TBR maybe for later in the year.
And the dogs survived our being away for 5 days … so that was a relief. We had a cold front that came through … so I was worried about old Stella … but she hung in there. Hope all is nice in Sanibel. Enjoy.

Hi Sam, Wow I didn’t realize The House of Mirth would be mentioned so much by other authors. I sort of thought it might have been forgotten and relegated to the dustbin of literary history — but that’s good to hear it wasn’t. Perhaps Wharton is having a resurgence of sorts these days. While reading the novel, it’s clear to me how women certainly had an unadmirable lot in life during the Gilded Age, yikes. I think Wharton’s books satirize high society life well. Sometime I want to read The Age of Innocence and The Custom of the Country. But I’ll take a Wharton break for now. See what you think when you get to it. Cheers.

I’ve read quite a few of Edith Wharton’s novels, but it’s been several years. Definitely agree that classics need to be reread after a decade or two and House of Mirth is on my list to reread, especially after your review. You’re in for a treat when you get to The Custom of the Country. It’s my favorite Wharton and Undine Sprague is one of the most unforgettable characters I’ve ever come across!

That’s good you found copies of the Wharton novels on the Kindle. I read a copy on Kindle as well and I like being able to highlight passages that way. I’d like to read The Age of Innocence maybe later this year. Some like that novel better. I found out that Wharton — in addition to 15 novels — wrote seven novellas and as many as 85 short stories! So you might opt for one of those. Apparently they include several that are ghost stories: “Pomegranate Seed” and “The Lady’s Maid’s Bell,” and “Afterward” …. are a few. Sort of interesting to find that out. Hmm. more reading, argh!

Yes, Robert, my husband says Danger Bay was good and it was about saving wildlife out of Vancouver. He also says Da Vinci’s Inquest was another Vancouver show (1998-2005) about a coroner’s cases. Now he thinks we should get these Ha … they’re dated shows but likely just fun to watch. I’d like to see the scenery. We found a copy of The House of Mirth movie from 2000 on YouTube with Gillian Anderson and Eric Stoltz and Laura Linney. It’s sometimes hard to find old TV shows and movies. But it’s good to see it after reading it.