| | 1 | Author: | Wharton review: Sedgwick, Henry Dwight. | Add | | | Title: | The Novels of Mrs. Wharton  | | | | Published: | 1995 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | WHEN Mrs. Wharton's stories first appeared, in that early
period which, as we have now learned, was merely a period of
apprenticeship, everybody said, "How clever!" "How wonderfully
clever!" And the criticism—to adopt a generic term for
indiscriminate adjectives—was apt, for the most conspicuous
trait
in the stories was cleverness. They were astonishingly clever;
and
their cleverness, as an ostensible quality will, caught and held
the attention. And yet, though undoubtedly correct, the term
owes
its correctness, in part at least, to its ready-to-wear quality,
to
its negative merit of vague amplitude, behind which the most
diverse gifts and capacities may lie concealed. No readers of
Mrs.
Wharton, after the first shock of bewildered admiration, rest
content with it, but grope about to lift the cloaking surtout of
cleverness and to see as best they may how and by what methods
her
preternaturally nimble wits are playing their game,—for it is a
game that Mrs. Wharton plays, pitting herself against a situation
to see how much she can score. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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