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3.89 AVERAGE
3.89 AVERAGE
Uf estoy entre las 3 y 4 estrellas porque este libro no fue del todo "para mí" pero gracias a la discusión que tuvimos con el club pude sacarle "provecho" y observar situaciones que me habían pasado por alto.
challenging
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
I was able to finish it in a couple of days. The characters were so developed along with the setting I could see it all and I felt I was there. I was often getting so angry at the book that I would talk aloud to it! I found it intriguing that the book pits the hero not only against society but against himself. I loved reading about the societal responsibilities and boundaries of that era, "Old New York."
Although I had a great deal of difficulty getting through this book, I appreciated the thought-provoking discussion that it brought to my book club!
Ah! What a love story. And the ending. *tears* that ending is perfect. Now I know why Edith Wharton was the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. Loved.
This was my first Edith Wharton novel and wow! Let’s just say I’ll definitely be reading more. My gosh, this book has so many facets and layers! When I finished reading it, I realized that it is really deeper than I first thought, and certainly a book worth rereading at some point.
The characters are so well written and the setting of Old New York in the late nineteenth century, on the cusp of social revolt, so well crafted. It’s a story of the struggle between desire and destiny. Set against the backdrop of a society both sophisticated and primitive in its rigid social conventions, the story follows Newland Archer, a rich young lawyer and heir to the fortune of a wealthy family. His predetermined future with his fiancée, May Welland, a beautiful young socialite from an equally rich and prominent New York family, is threatened by the arrival of May's worldly cousin, Countess Ellen Olenska, who arrives in America after fleeing an abusive marriage. Newland and Ellen are drawn to each other and in spite of the Old New York “tribal rules,” Newland must choose between a life of (what he considers) dull domesticity with his charming fiancée, May, or passion with her unconventional, unsuitable cousin.
That ending is one I’ll not soon forget… A richly nuanced, bittersweet love story—poignant, tragic, and lovely—it’s easy to see why this one is a classic work of literature.
The characters are so well written and the setting of Old New York in the late nineteenth century, on the cusp of social revolt, so well crafted. It’s a story of the struggle between desire and destiny. Set against the backdrop of a society both sophisticated and primitive in its rigid social conventions, the story follows Newland Archer, a rich young lawyer and heir to the fortune of a wealthy family. His predetermined future with his fiancée, May Welland, a beautiful young socialite from an equally rich and prominent New York family, is threatened by the arrival of May's worldly cousin, Countess Ellen Olenska, who arrives in America after fleeing an abusive marriage. Newland and Ellen are drawn to each other and in spite of the Old New York “tribal rules,” Newland must choose between a life of (what he considers) dull domesticity with his charming fiancée, May, or passion with her unconventional, unsuitable cousin.
That ending is one I’ll not soon forget… A richly nuanced, bittersweet love story—poignant, tragic, and lovely—it’s easy to see why this one is a classic work of literature.
I just struggled through Portrait of a Lady. Honestly, I skimmed this one which I rarely do. I know the book is important, but to my 21st century sensibilities, it is very slow. At least this book is not too long. I get the importance of the themes--breaking away from tradition vs. sticking with the old, the perceived social pressures, the repressive treatment of women, narrow-mindedness of pre 20th century values.
My Recommendation: This is probably one of the best novels/classics I have ever read and I don't say that lightly. Wharton's mastery of her characters and their society pulled me in and invested me to a level I didn't expect. It's no wonder she won the Pulitzer Prize for this, she was also the first woman to win, and I'm not at all surprised when I now look at lists like the "1001 Books to Read Before You Die," "100 Greatest Novels Written in English," or the "Modern American Library: 100 Best Novels." I'm now actually looking forward to re-reading Ethan Frome (even though I have no recollection of it) and will maybe even check out some of her other 23 novels and novellas.
My Response: We moved last month and I had to shuffle books around and needed to pull one of a certain size off my shelf and this one was it so I figured might as well read it and I'm glad I did! I honestly thought this was on my Classics Club list, but apparently it wasn't when I went to document it on my lists.
Apparently, I picked it up as part of my re-read books from high school that you didn't like to see how they/I have changed after attending a panel at the 2012 Boston Book Festival. Although I didn't read this one in high school, I read Ethan Frome, which of course I was disgruntled about because it wasn't Star Wars or fantasy. Now I am again interested in the retelling that I mention, so who knows I might revisit this sooner than I think.
Continue reading on my book blog at geoffwhaley.com.
My Response: We moved last month and I had to shuffle books around and needed to pull one of a certain size off my shelf and this one was it so I figured might as well read it and I'm glad I did! I honestly thought this was on my Classics Club list, but apparently it wasn't when I went to document it on my lists.
Apparently, I picked it up as part of my re-read books from high school that you didn't like to see how they/I have changed after attending a panel at the 2012 Boston Book Festival. Although I didn't read this one in high school, I read Ethan Frome, which of course I was disgruntled about because it wasn't Star Wars or fantasy. Now I am again interested in the retelling that I mention, so who knows I might revisit this sooner than I think.
Continue reading on my book blog at geoffwhaley.com.
At the time this book was written, I can see why it was a popular expose of sorts. Wharton does a good job illustrating a very constrained world of New York society. The downside of this is that the world she explains is boring, in my opinion. I enjoyed reading it but stopped a little over halfway through, because there was no real action moving the story forward. Instead, the whole book felt like a portrait of an uptight time and place that I didn't care to know more about. It just wasn't worth more of my time.