EdithWharton

#whartonbuddyread Yay! I finished book 1 ! It is called the children for a reason, there are many children in it!😁Looking forward to the discussion tomorrow. The is the bookstore sticker inside the back cover of this book.

Lcsmcat, Graywacke

LeahBergen Cool! 9h

Lcsmcat That is so cool! 6h

32 likes2 comments

Leftcoastzen

The Children | Edith Wharton

#whartonbuddyread Here I go! Hopefully will get through book one in time for discussion on the 27th.Found this lovely original edition at a cheap book sale!

Lcsmcat, Graywacke

LeahBergen So pretty! 3d

Graywacke Beautiful. 😍. And you have time 🙂 It‘s not a long section. 3d

Lcsmcat Wow, what a find! 2d

batsy Great find 🤩 2d

45 likes4 comments

LitsyEvents

The Children | Edith Wharton

Via @ Lcmscat

Quick reminder that discussions start next
Saturday! #Whartonbuddyread

40 likes

Lcsmcat

The Children | Edith Wharton

Quick reminder that discussions start next Saturday! #Whartonbuddyread

Graywacke, LitsyEvents

Lcsmcat @KathyWheeler @kspenmoll @Leftcoastzen @LitStephanie @llwheeler @Louise @rubyslippersreads @SamAnne @sarahbellum @Sparklemn @Suet624 @TheBookHippie 5d

Lcsmcat @mdm139 @graywacke @jewright @AllDebooks @amysisson @Ann_Reads @arubabookwoman @batsy @BookishTrish @CarolynM @catebutler @Catherine_Willoughby @Cathythoughts @Crazeedi @Currey @dabbe @emilyhaldi @IMASLOWREADER 5d

Graywacke Ok, ebook acquired. I‘ve started. 5d

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IMASLOWREADER oh cool 5d

CarolynM I‘ll try to join in, but I still haven‘t finished Twilight Sleep 😬 My reading is not what it should be. 5d

batsy I haven't started but will try my best! 5d

Currey @batsy @Lcsmcat Along with Betsy, I have not started but I did note that Book 1 is short. 4d

Lcsmcat @Currey It is short, but so far the characters are intriguing. 4d

TheBookHippie Free copy https://archive.org/details/children0000edit_d4r0 in case anyone needs it! 4d

Lcsmcat @TheBookHippie Thanks! I always forget about them for fiction. (I use them a lot for genealogy resources.) 4d

TheBookHippie @Lcsmcat 🙃 3d

Graywacke @Lcsmcat - please add @cindyash to the tag list. Thanks 3d

Lcsmcat @Graywacke @cindyash Absolutely! 3d

Graywacke @CarolynM i hope you‘re able to enjoy what you‘re reading. Twilight Sleep has a curious and maybe entertaining end. 3d

Currey @batsy Apologies for the autocorrect changing your name to Betsy. When I went to fix it Litsy went down and I gave up. 3d

batsy @Currey No worries at all, it's a username based on a silly nickname friends gave me in school 😆 3d

Graywacke @Lcsmcat hmm. My edition has a Book iv. Is it incorrect or do we need to adjust the schedule? Maybe add a week? 2d

Lcsmcat @Graywacke I‘ll take a look when I get home from work, but I can certainly add another week. 2d

Lcsmcat @Graywacke Yep. Don‘t know how I missed that, but we will add Book 4 on May 18. Good catch! 2d

Graywacke @Lcsmcat Good solution. And glad I‘m not crazy. 🙂 2d

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TheBookHippie

Twilight Sleep | Edith Wharton

pick

Finally finished my #WhartonBuddyRead

I enjoyed this one quite a bit and I hope she becomes a nun 💟.

I very much enjoyed the read and l like the ending non ending. I enjoy Wharton's prose very much, even when it's about vapid people...

I‘d have never read this without the group so thanks all! Sorry I fell so far behind!!

Graywacke

Graywacke Glad you finished and enjoyed it! I like your ending non-ending description (edited) 2w

TheBookHippie @Graywacke 🙃 2w

batsy Ha, yes! #NunLife all the way 😆 2w

TheBookHippie @batsy Revenge and peace all in one move. 2w

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Lcsmcat

The Children | Edith Wharton

Good morning #whartonbuddyread! Are we ready for the Children? (Is anyone ever really ready for children? 😂) This one‘s just under 300 pages and divided into 3 books. I‘m proposing starting April 27 for Book 1, May 4 and 11 for books 2 & 3. Does that work for everyone?

Graywacke

Lcsmcat @KathyWheeler @kspenmoll @Leftcoastzen @LitStephanie @llwheeler @Louise @rubyslippersreads @SamAnne @sarahbellum @Sparklemn @Suet624 @TheBookHippie 2w

arubabookwoman i'm looking forward to this one. It's typical Wharton in many ways, but a darker theme--how the children, of the rich adults we've seen so much of, fare, as they are dragged around the world, but basically ignored, with constantly changing step-parents and step siblings and half siblings. When I read it years ago there are parts that reminded me of Lolita, to the extent I wondered if Nabokov had it in mind. 2w

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batsy Looking forward to it. Things are a bit hectic atm but I'll try my best to join in and keep to the schedule! 2w

Lcsmcat @arubabookwoman Interesting thought. I‘ll keep that in the back of my mind as I read. 2w

Lcsmcat @batsy Same here. What‘s up with this spring? 2w

Graywacke Sounds good @Lcsmcat ! I‘ll likely be quiet May 4, traveling. But this schedule works for me. Wish you and @batsy RL breaks. 2w

TheBookHippie Crazy busy but yes. 😵‍💫🙃 2w

Currey Sounds okay to me. Thanks 2w

batsy @Graywacke Thanks 🙂 2w

Lcsmcat @Graywacke Thanks. Chime in when you can, and safe travels. 2w

Lcsmcat @TheBookHippie @Currey Great. 2w

Suet624 I keep missing out on reading these. 🥴😫 2w

Lcsmcat @Suet624 Join us this time! It‘s a shorter one. 2w

Suet624 @Lcsmcat my problem lies in finding the book! Hoopla has it but I literally have to wake up at 2 am to grab it before the daily collective quota allowed for the entire library system is hit. It‘s weird. I‘ll try though. 🤨 2w

Lcsmcat @Suet624 I have the entire works of Edith Wharton as an ebook that cost 1.99 (I think. It might have been .99) Or you could try Project Gutenberg. I‘m not sure if it‘s under copyright still or not. 2w

Suet624 Shoot. I always forget about Project Gutenberg. I‘ll check that out now. 2w

jewright I‘m in! 2w

jewright @Suet624–I bought the Kindle complete works. It was pretty inexpensive and has had everything. 2w

Suet624 @jewright Thanks! However, I don‘t use Kindle because it‘s owned by Amazon. I know…my little protest amounts to nothing really, but I try not to give amazon any money. 2w

Lcsmcat @jewright Great! 2w

CarolynM I will try to join in, but I was lagging behind on Twilight Sleep all the way and I still haven‘t finished, so I‘ll just have to see how I‘m going at the end of the month🙂 2w

Leftcoastzen I will try to keep up this time . 1w

Lcsmcat @Leftcoastzen 🙂 1w

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Graywacke

Twilight Sleep | Edith Wharton

pick

This finally comes across as a playful satire on 1920‘s NY moneyed culture, mocking supposed progress and 1920‘s shallowness, spiritual fads, bad parenting and human frailties. But there are real weighty elements here. The youthful 1920‘s are represented in Lita and Nona. Clear-sighted Lita wants to be admired, maybe a movie star, disowning responsibility for consequences. Nona quietly sacrifices herself to manage her family‘s failures.

Graywacke #whartonbuddyread 3w

batsy "manage her family's failures" is so accurate! (and bleak) 3w

45 likes2 comments

batsy

Twilight Sleep | Edith Wharton

pick

This was like a satirical Fitzgerald; depressing & amusing all at once. Characters that needed to be more thoughtful were a tad underdeveloped, as such (Nona). But I felt for her & almost wish there was a sequel where she gets her own version of a "happy ending". A 3-star pick because it didn't quite stick the landing as I expected it to, but it's astutely Whartonian in how it exposes the vacuousness of the capitalist elite. #WhartonBuddyRead

Yuki_Onna #coverlove 👏 3w

Graywacke Glad you gave it a pick. Not my favorite Wharton either, but I‘m certainly glad i read it. Maybe a different ending ties it better. 3w

batsy @Yuki_Onna It's so well-suited to the book 🙂 3w

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batsy @Graywacke I'm glad I read it, too. You can sense her discomfort with modern norms; it gives this book more of a cynical edge than her other works. 3w

Leftcoastzen It felt Fitzgerald-y to me as well. 1w

batsy @Leftcoastzen It's very interesting! Considering that Gatsby and this one were published within a few years of each other. 7d

88 likes6 comments

Graywacke

Twilight Sleep | Edith Wharton

Twilight Sleep was originally released in a series in Pictorial Review with this cover, before the book was released and temporarily became a bestseller.

So, what did you think? Did you understand the end? (If not, Wikipedia has it laid out in the plot summary.) Like The Glimpses of the Moon, I think this was a Wharton having a little fun with satire, but here also playing with perspectives. #whartonbuddread

Lcsmcat

Graywacke @AllDebooks @amysisson @Ann_Reads @arubabookwoman @batsy @BookishTrish @CarolynM @catebutler @Catherine_Willoughby @Cathythoughts @cindyash 3w

Graywacke @Crazeedi @Currey @dabbe @Daisey @emilyhaldi @IMASLOWREADER @IndoorDame @jewright @KathyWheeler @kspenmoll @Leftcoastzen @LitStephanie 3w

Graywacke @llwheeler @Louise @rubyslippersreads @SamAnne @sarahbellum @Sparklemn @Suet624 @Tamra @TheBookHippie @willaful 3w

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Currey @Graywacke I, more or less, understood the ending or certainly as much as Wharton wanted me to. Of course, it is ambiguous as to whether Nona went upstairs to the rescue or went up to confirm her own suspicions but her stepping in the way of the bullet or stumbling into the room at the right time leaves us with the same sense of “waste”. What I was surprised about was Lita traveling with her husband. I don‘t think she would have any remorse 3w

Lcsmcat I think their life was described well in this quote about Pauline: “Her whole life (if one chose to look at it from a certain angle) had been a long uninterrupted struggle against the encroachment of every form of pain.” 3w

Lcsmcat So perhaps, @currey Lits felt the need to get out of NYC and away from the pain of being involved in such a sordid situation as quickly as possible. Or perhaps they forced her because they didn‘t trust her to stick to the story. (edited) 3w

Lcsmcat Poor Nona. All the way through I felt for her. It was like she was born into the wrong family. 3w

Currey @Lcsmcat Wrong family and wrong era. 3w

Graywacke @Lcsmcat @Currey Nona was an unlikely hero, or “hero”. But maybe she should have let the bullet find its proper target… 3w

Graywacke @Currey on Lita and Jim: i think Lita was sent as far from Hollywood as possible. Assuming Pauline still lives in denial, and believing that money solves all human problems and pains, she is still working to solve the marriage problem and keep Lita away from movie stars or other men Lita might like. 3w

Currey @Graywacke @Lcsmcat well Dexter was truly guilty but it would have been Arthur who would be punished. I thought Wharton‘s depiction of quick thinking Bowden, the butler , was wonderful. Before anyone else had even grasped the situation, he had a solution to “how it looked”, and didn‘t think twice about who was guilty and who should be punished (edited) 3w

Graywacke @Currey yeah, he was clever (Powder in my edition ) Pauline‘s staff is fantastic. I had to like all of them. (edited) 3w

Graywacke @Lcsmcat i think that quote does sum up Pauline especially well. She‘s really intent on avoiding psychological pain. 3w

Currey @Graywacke oh, yes Powder, misremembered. 3w

Currey @Graywacke Lcsmcat regarding Pauline and psychological pain. It was very ironic that she had no idea of how much she was inflicting psychological pain on others 3w

Lcsmcat @Currey Yes, she pushed all of hers on to someone else. I think that was even made explicit when Nona was talking about visiting Maisie‘s mother in the hospital. I‘ll have to look for it. 3w

Lcsmcat @Graywacke I don‘t think Nona could have done anything but what she did. She seemed to spend her whole life taking care of other‘s issues. 3w

cindyash
@Ldsmcat and it was horrible how she didn't listen to anyone and totally ignore their feelins. esp poor masie and poor nona. And then thet just all go off as if nothing had happened

3w

Graywacke A long quote from an essay about TS. Should take several posts. Begins here: The rather disturbing reversal of roles in The Mother‘s Recompense - Anne Clephane‘s ‘mothering‘ of the woman who abandoned her at the age of three and Chris Fenno‘s desire to marry the daughter after having had an affair with the mother – becomes translated into obviously dysfunctional relationships in Twilight Sleep. Nona takes on the cares and responsibilities 👇 3w

Graywacke 👆 of her family, while her workaholic father seeks escape from the boredom of marriage in an affair with his stepson‘s wife, and her mother rushes from pillar to post pursuing the latest fads, unaware that her family is malfunctioning around her. To drive home her point about inadequate parenting, Wharton also presents Kitty Landish and Amalasuntha as predatory parental figures 👇 3w

Graywacke 👆 who hope to make a fortune, respectively, out of Lita‘s and Michelangelo‘s cinematic careers. 3w

Graywacke That quote is from Edith Wharton: Sex, Satire and the Older Woman by Avril Horner and Janet Beer @Lcsmcat @Currey @cindyash or others - any thoughts in that? 3w

batsy Yes, that quote really summed it up @Lcsmcat ! 3w

batsy I like Nona but wanted her to be more developed; more of her POV would have been nice. I keep thinking about Pauline's narcissism & how her parenting is actually damaging to Nona so that's a very interesting quote about "predatory parenting" @Graywacke Not to mention Dexter's total self-involvement. It's interesting that Wharton keeps mentioning the "Taylorized" wellness solutions; both Dexter and Pauline submitted themselves to automated lives. 3w

batsy And what's shown as the frivolousness of youth is actually a rejection of that rote life of productivity by both Nona and Lita in very different ways, because different characters. 3w

Lcsmcat @Graywacke I think the essay gets the role reversals right, but stops short in my mind. Why was Wharton focusing on near-incest, for lack of a better word? Is she trying to say that capital S Society is incestuous? I feel like I‘m missing something. 3w

Lcsmcat @batsy I agree that Lita and Nona are rebelling. I think Nona‘s is a more mature rebellion, but they are both a bit more reactive than proactive in their lives. 3w

Graywacke @batsy @Lcsmcat interesting to compare Nona and Lita as parallel rejectors, in a way. My instinct is to not to see Lita as immature, because she seems very clear about what she wants. She doesn‘t have genetic baggage, no ties to any moral codes. So she sets her own. Nona is, in a way, tied down by expectations of decency. But i‘ll have to think on that more. Not sure it holds up 3w

Graywacke @Lcsmcat so interesting, lovers pursuing parent and child in two successive novels. Did i say interesting? It‘s weird and disturbing. But…where did it come from? Clearly philandering was common in her world, but that this particular trait common? !! 3w

Lcsmcat @Graywacke My vision of Lita as immature is the way she doesn‘t care how her actions affect (and hurt) others. (Toddlers are usually clear about what they want in a given moment. 😂) Pauline is similar in this respect. As well as being hypocritical in thinking Lita getting a divorce is unthinkable, yet she‘s on her second marriage. (edited) 3w

Graywacke @Lcsmcat all true! But Lita is willfully indifferent of other people. They are there only to amuse and admire her. It‘s a developed skillset. 🙂😁 3w

jewright @Graywacke—Do you like Lita is having a bit of a midlife crisis? She got married and had a baby and then freaked out about missing out on fun. I mean honestly who wouldn‘t want a chance to star in movies? 3w

Graywacke @jewright i wouldn‘t want a Lita anywhere in my family. !! I wouldn‘t want to deal with her. Phew. But, you know, we have them anyway - in every family and elsewhere in life. 3w

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