| | 185 | Author: | Wharton review: Anonymous | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Note on Edith Wharton, in "Chronicle and Comment"  | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | If we were to single out one book from those that have been
published this season as exhibiting in the highest degree that rare
creative power called literary genius, we should name The
Greater Inclination, by Edith Wharton. The book has met with
a fair reception in the press, but it does not seem to us that
enough emphasis has been laid upon the originality of the work.
And not only has Mrs. Wharton brought to these stories a remarkable
power of insight and imagination, but the phase of life in America
which she has chosen for treatment may be said to be altogether new
in her hands. Her work is the more remarkable when we know that
the processes by which her results are reached have been gained
largely through intuition and sympathy. One would almost imagine
in reading these stories that the author must have suffered and
gone deep into life in order to bring up from its depths such
knowledge of the world as is disclosed in her pages. And yet this
is far from being the case. Mrs. Wharton was born little more than
thirty years ago in New York. On both sides she comes of old New
York stock, her mother being a Rhinelander. Most of her time has
been spent between New
Greyscale image of Edith Wharton with two dogs, one perched
on her right shoulder, the other in her left arm.
York and
Newport, and she has also lived abroad, especially in Italy, of
which country she is very fond. Her husband, Mr. Edward Wharton,
is a member of the Philadelphia family of that name, and was
married to Miss Edith Jones fully ten years ago. Both are
passionately fond of animals, and have been for years the moving
spirits in the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in
Rhode Island. The photograph which we present of Mrs. Wharton with
her two pet dogs is the only one that was available for
reproduction here, but it is very characteristic when we bear in
mind her love of animals. Her first stories began to appear in
Scribner's and the Century some years ago; one of
them especially, called "Mrs. Manstey's View," published in
Scribner's, attracted a great deal of attention at the time
of its appearance. She is also the author of a book on domestic
architecture and home decoration, published by the Messrs.
Scribner, which was reviewed in these pages a year ago last April.
A review of The Greater Inclination appears on another page. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 188 | Author: | Wilkins, Mary E. | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Squirrel. | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | THE Squirrel lived with his life-long mate near the farm-house. He
considered himself very rich, because he owned an English walnut
tree. Neither he nor his mate had the least doubt that it belonged
to them and not to the Farmer. There were not many like it in the
State or the whole country. It was a beautiful tree, with a mighty
spread of branches full of gnarled strength. Nearly every year
there was a goodly promise of nuts, which never came to anything,
so far as the people in the farm-house were concerned. Every
summer they looked hopefully at the laden branches, and said to
each other, "This year we shall have nuts," but there were never
any. They could not understand it. But they were old people; had
there been boys in the family it might have been different.
Probably they would have solved the mystery. It was simple enough.
The Squirrel and his mate considered the nuts as theirs, and
appropriated them. They loved nuts; they were their natural
sustenance; and through having an unquestioning, though unwitting,
belief in Providence, they considered that nuts which grew within
their reach were placed there for them as a matter of course.
There were the Squirrels, and there were the nuts. No nuts, no
Squirrels! The conclusion was obvious to such simple
intelligences. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 197 | Author: | Phillips, David Graham, 1867-1911 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise, Volume II | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | SUSAN'S impulse was toward the stage. It had become a
definite ambition with her, the stronger because Spenser's
jealousy and suspicion had forced her to keep it a secret, to
pretend to herself that she had no thought but going on
indefinitely as his obedient and devoted mistress. The
hardiest and best growths are the growths inward—where they
have sun and air from without. She had been at the theater
several times every week, and had studied the performances at
a point of view very different from that of the audience. It
was there to be amused; she was there to learn. Spenser and
such of his friends as he would let meet her talked plays and
acting most of the time. He had forbidden her to have women
friends. "Men don't demoralize women; women demoralize each
other," was one of his axioms. But such women as she had a
bowing acquaintance with were all on the stage—in comic
operas or musical farces. She was much alone; that meant many
hours every day which could not but be spent by a mind like
hers in reading and in thinking. Only those who have observed
the difference aloneness makes in mental development, where
there is a good mind, can appreciate how rapidly, how broadly,
Susan expanded. She read plays more than any other kind of
literature. She did not read them casually but was always
thinking how they would act. She was soon making in
imagination stage scenes out of dramatic chapters in novels as
she read. More and more clearly the characters of play and
novel took shape and substance before the eyes of her fancy.
But the stage was clearly out of the question. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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