| | 1 | Author: | Wharton review: Trueblood, Charles K. | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Edith Wharton  | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | MADAME de Treymes' way of expressing her predilection for Durham
was to say that he was extremely clever; and casting about to find
terms of appreciation for the distinguished persons the reader
discovers in Mrs. Wharton's pages, one can probably find none more
fit than the dictum that whatever else they may be they are
extremely clever. Unqualified, such a remark is slight enough.
The characters of any novelist who tends to psychology are likely
to be clever, for considerable cleverness in the subject is
necessary to psychological interest and some cleverness necessary
to any interest. And cleverness must be an elastic term to cover
such diverse qualities as the clairvoyance of Mrs. Ansell, or the
fastidiousness of Justine Brent, or the polished and brittle
worldliness of Mr. Langhope. Again, not all of these persons are
extremely clever: Gerty Farish was not clever at all, and Undine
Spragg was only clever enough to be extremely fashionable; though
here it should be remembered that Gerty Farish was rather
patronized by the narrator of her history, and Undine Spragg flayed
with satire. Moreover, one cannot take the measure of an author's
qualities, say the last word about his work, in a word; even if it
were possible, cleverness would probably not be the only
discoverable last word about the qualities of Mrs. Wharton. But it
is at least an allusion, and as a first word cannot be
unserviceable. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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