Working-class people as seen by Edith Wharton, seem real, but different to me than people of today. (Or is that to-day?)
Less impulsive and with so many less things- it seems to me every house has too much stuff in it, and poverty today is not evidenced by a lack of things- only one shirt, no gloves- having to sell a cashmere scarf- but the quality of the things one has.
The poorest person I see- one or another person walking along with a shopping cart- has bags full of stuff.
Was this a time, in Wharton's world, where people really had nothing, when they had nothing?
I'm cleaning out my Mom's house as I've done with mine- a little. And that means getting rid of 40 books, and keeping that many. When did people in the US get used to having so much stuff and why do we think people with food, and shelter, and tv can be poor?
I notice she hyphenated lemon-pie. She named many types of flowers; and I wonder if the first audience tended to know most of those names.
The Introduction, by Hermione Lee, calls the work an example of "compassionate realism" and I think that's a great way to put it. Bunner Sisters was originally in a work called Xingu- a collection of stories.
I wonder what would have happened if Ann Eliza had given in. I can picture happy days for them; but it's doubtful.
Once again, I am left wondering about the characters- why did they do that? What would have happened if something else had taken place? - rather than what I think many times- Why did the writer write it that way. That's stupid.
It's the suspension of disbelief, and the "not looking behind the curtain" that makes me continue to want to read everything Edith Wharton wrote.
No comments:
Post a Comment