284. Glimpses of the Moon

Glimpses of the Moon
Edith Wharton
1922
Around 275 pages

We have reached the last Edith Wharton novel on the List. We are definitely entering a new era of fiction, which promises to be a little less stuffy than the period we are leaving behind. I'll be interested to see how the next generation of writers shakes things up, even if I have to clutch my pearls while I'm reading.

Nick Lansing and Susy Branch are socialites who are low on funds. They devise a scheme to marry each other, and spend the next year or so in an extended honeymoon period, staying in villas and mooching off of their wealthy friends. If either of them meets somebody who would offer social mobility, they are free to dissolve the marriage. It quickly becomes apparent that neither Susy or Nick are as cool-headed about the arrangement as they pretend to be.

I can't believe this hasn't been adapted more, although I guess many writers of romantic comedies have been inspired by Wharton's clever machinations and characters. Wharton always explores the relationship between marriage and social status in her work, and if it's truly possible for an unmarried woman to exist comfortably in high society. I think it's interesting that she explores both sides of the equation and how much men can hate women for playing by their rules.

 So I'll miss you Edith, it was nice having a consistent female presence on the List. Now back to the stag party.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Made into a silent movie in 1923, but the film is now considered lost.

Official Wharton ranking. Strange that her most well known book came in dead last for me, but it's just because her other books were so good:

1. The House of Mirth

2. The Bunner Sisters

3. Glimpses of the Moon

4. Ethan Frome

5. Summer

6. The Age of Innocence 

UP NEXT: Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. Another novel deemed essential in my school to the upbringing of teenagers.

283. The Life and Death of Harriet Frean

The Life and Death of Harriet Frean

May Sinclair
1922

Around 170 pages

Something about this book seemed very familiar to me. Maybe I read it when I was younger and forgot (even though I pride myself that I never forget a conquest). I think it may actually be because this novel is so similar in theme to The Bunner Sisters, another List book I read recently. By the way, I'm not complaining. This is one of the best books I've read in awhile.

Harriet Frean is determined to behave. She is a dutiful daughter and a dutiful friend. When she falls in love with her best friend's fiance, she is content to suffer in silence and reap joy from her moral integrity. In doing so, she condemns all three members of the love triangle to misery. In other words, she's the perfect Victorian era woman. And what a waste of a life it is.

Harriet Frean is a fascinating character; I felt like I knew her inside and out, even though the book was fairly short. I think it's safe to say that personal happiness and fulfillment wasn't high on the list of priorities for people in the past. It will be interesting to see that shift during the twentieth century. I just felt sorry for Harriet, and I didn't even want her to have any disquieting realizations. Poor thing.

I wish May Sinclair had ended up writing more novels, but I'll take what I can get.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Only Sinclair novel still in print.

UP NEXT: The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton

282. The Last Days of Humanity

The Last Days of Humanity 

Karl Kraus

1918
Around 300 pages

I had taken a break from my husbandly duties with the List to read A Song of Ice and Fire series. It was a fun gentleman's intermission, but now I am ready to meekly return to my duty. And unfortunately, my duty was to read an expressionist play. 

First of all, what gives? If the List permits plays among its entries, it's made some gut-wrenching snubs over the past 1600 years. I suppose the List doesn't consider this a truly a play, because it's not the sort of thing you could ever imagine being performed. But do the author's intentions dictate how a text should be consumed, even if the form tells quite a different story? I'm not sure, but I am grateful that nobody's taken a stab at adapting this creature yet.

Much of the content of the play is drawn from documentary sources. Often, he has two characters, The Optimist and The Grumbler, converse with each other and draw the predicted conclusions. Krause expressed dismay that Austria, and the rest of the world, was hurtling toward self-destruction. This is in sharp contrast to many other works being peddled at the time, which conveyed patriotic fervor or dutiful resignation. So in that sense, it was rather interesting. 

Still, that wasn't enough to make me reconcile with the style and while his pessimism is well founded, it does get a bit wearing after awhile. 

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Kraus was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature three times.

UP NEXT: Life and Death of Harriet Frean by May Sinclair. Haven't heard of this one before.