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
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.
[Description: Greyscale image of Edith Wharton with two dogs, one perched
on her right shoulder, the other in her left arm.]