A Great Book and Spring Flowers

Old New York in the Gilded Age -- the setting for "The Custom of the Country" by Edith Wharton
Photo via here

Last week, as winter was giving way to spring and wisteria and camellias were blooming all over Los Angeles, I found myself staying in on Wednesday in order to finish The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton.  Have you read it?  If you haven't, stop what you are doing right now and get your hands on a copy of this book.  Trust me, you are in for a treat.  The heroine, or anti-heroine of the book, Undine Spragg is one of the most deliciously evil characters you will ever read about.  She is the ultimate social climber and the extent of her scheming selfishness is so vast as to be fascinating.  The story of her rise from a small-town Midwestern girl to a French countess will make your jaw drop.   This tale of old New York society clashing with the upstart American middle class is one of Wharton's very best books. Undine is one of the "bad girls" of literature who, like Becky Sharp and Emma Bovary, has no conscience and doesn't care whose life she destroys on her way to the top.  This is a compulsive read -- a great book and a thoroughly enjoyable one.   Reading it is a reminder of Edith Wharton's impressive talent -- she was a masterful storyteller, insightful chronicler of American society, and a supremely gifted writer.

Edith Wharton

Undine Spragg is an American beauty from the Midwest who is determined to move up in the world.  She convinces her parents to take her to New York where she plans to seek her fortune.  She is a force of nature and a manipulator, a beautiful woman who knows the power of her beauty and how to use it.  She somehow manages to get everyone to bend to her will.  Men fall in love with her.  But New York is a hard nut to crack and unlike Lily Bart and Newland Archer, the protagonists of The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence who are born into society, Undine is an outsider.  She is searching for a way into New York's upper echelons and it takes her a while to figure out how to gain entree into this new world.

She sets her sights on the aristocratic, young Ralph Marvell who is from an old and respectable New York family.  His family is horrified when Ralph falls under the spell of Undine's beauty and marries her.  Because she is unsophisticated and naive, Undine thinks that marriage to Ralph will be the key to her success.  But she has no understanding of the intricacies and unspoken rules of the world she has married into and doesn't realize that Ralph is cash-poor.  Although he has a law degree, he has no desire to work and is content to spend his days reading and writing poetry.  Like most men of his class, he is without a profession and dislikes the subject of making money.  They have a son, but motherhood brings Undine no happiness and she begins to look around for a better life.

And so begins her endless pursuit of wealth and position in the world, by making one strategic marriage after another. Only later will Ralph find out that Undine had previously been married before she married him;  he is devastated not only because this discovery is a symbol of Undine's dishonesty to him throughout their marriage, but also because divorce was a social stigma in New York society.  As it turns out, divorce will be a way of life for Undine as she endlessly searches for happiness throughout the years.  Her trajectory will take her to Paris and the inner circles of French aristocracy.  You will be surprised to see who she winds up with by the book's end.   Because she equates happiness with material possessions, she will never be happy.  But this is a lesson she never learns, as she is one of Wharton's most unenlightened heroines.   

You will love this novel about one of the great female villains in literature and enjoy watching her make her way in the world --  lying, cheating, and charming her way to the top.  Undine Spragg is one of literature's most memorable characters and "The Custom of the Country" is one of Wharton's most enjoyable and unforgettable books.  Don't you love it when you find a book that you can't put down?

********

The first day of spring is on Wednesday.  Here are some flowers from Hollyflora to get you in the mood...

And camellias from the garden!

A Library to Love

Edith Wharton's library at The Mount

Photo via here

There has been a lot of news about Edith Wharton lately.  Have you noticed how much attention she is getting?  There are several new books about her and a glamorous photo spread in Vogue magazine (the September issue!).  The attention is not surprising considering that this year is the 150th anniversary of her birth.  And now her home in western Massachusetts is the subject of a new book. Edith Wharton's beautiful library (above) at the Mount, the home she designed and lived in during the early part of the twentieth-century, is featured in a new book that has just been published -- "Edith Wharton at Home: Life at the Mount" by Richard Guy Wilson.

Photo via here

Wharton was as passionate and knowledgeable about architecture and interior design as she was about writing novels. In fact, her first book was "The Decoration of Houses" which she wrote with the architect Ogden Codman, Jr.  It was a book that was critical of Victorian design excesses and promoted a return to classical principles like symmetry. Anyone who is a fan of Edith Wharton's fiction knows that descriptions of her characters' homes and environments are a big part of her books.  We sink contentedly into these environments as we become engrossed in her books.  I love the description of Lawrence Selden's library in "The House of Mirth" when Lily Bart makes her unwise and unchaperoned visit to the bachelor's home.  I feel as if I could walk right into that room, which is how I often feel in my favorite books by Wharton.

"He ushered her into a slip of a hall hung with old prints.  She noticed the letters and notes heaped on the table among his gloves and sticks;  then she found herself in a small library, dark but cheerful, with its walls of books, a pleasantly faded Turkey rug, a littered desk, and, as he had foretold, a tea-tray on a low table near the window.  A breeze had sprung up, swaying inward the muslin curtains, and bringing a fresh scent of mignonette and petunias from the flower-box on the balcony."

That is the kind of library I want.  But Edith Wharton's library at the Mount is a much grander room than Lawrence Selden's cozy library in "The House of Mirth."  It is a beautiful space with bookshelves made out of oak and two doors opening up to the terrace.  And it needed to be grand for it was the room where Wharton would entertain her guests -- which included her good friend the writer Henry James, Theodore Roosevelt, the diplomat Walter Berry, writer and painter Maxfield Parrish and landscape designer Beatrix Farrand --  for drinks and conversation before and after dinner. And when you consider that it now contains Edith Wharton's personal collection of books which were returned to the Mount from Europe in 2006, it is a very special room.

Photo via here

Do you enjoy visiting writers' houses?  It is one of my favorite things to do when I am traveling.  A trip to the Berkshires for me has to include a visit to Edith Wharton's home.  In fact, the first time I was there was about fifteen years ago when the house was not yet fully restored and was the home for a theatrical group that staged Henry James' novella "The Turn of the Screw."  Seeing this ghost story  performed in Wharton's home around Halloween was an amazing experience!

The best writers' houses are autobiographical, giving us insight into the person.  The Mount is such a house.  It reveals so much about Edith Wharton.    Every aspect of the estate -- including its gardens, architecture, and interior design -- reflects her spirit.  We sense her presence as we walk through the rooms.   This is where she lived, wrote, and entertained her circle of friends which included some of the most prominent writers and artists of the day.  It contains the bedroom where she wrote "The House of Mirth," writing the book in bed each morning and tossing the pages onto the floor for her assistant to pick up and type.

********

The library at the Mount, as it was recently photographed for Vogue magazine

And what about Edith Wharton's recent "star" turn in Vogue magazine?  Did you see it?  Wharton and the Mount (with a great scene shot in the library) were featured in the September issue of Vogue magazine.  This gorgeous article and photo spread photographed by Annie Leibovitz and styled by Vogue's art director Grace Coddington on the grounds of the Mount has created a huge buzz.  The article (written by Colm Toibin) tells the story of Edith's love affair with Morton Fullerton, the American expatriate journalist.  Wharton's good friend Henry James was also in love with him. The photos form a gorgeous visual accompaniment illustrating the literary life and love story of Edith Wharton. Everyone who read it was thrilled that the photos featured writers, actors, and artists of today playing Edith's inner circle of friends, including writer Jeffrey Eugenides as Henry James and writer Jonathan Safran Foers as architect Ogden Codman.  One of the scenes was shot in the library (photo above) with actor Jack Huston (from HBO's "Boardwalk Empire") playing Morton Fullerton, model Natalia Vodianova as  Wharton, and Jeffrey Eugenides as Henry James.  Go here to read more.

********

Photo via here

There is also a new novel about Edith Wharton's life written by Jennie Fields.  In "The Age of Desire" Fields tells the story of Wharton's life through two points of view:  Wharton's own and that of her literary secretary and confidante Anna Bahlmann.  The book recreates Wharton's turn of the century world which consisted of Paris, her country estate in western Massachusetts, and Henry James home in Rye, New York.  I just picked up a copy of this book and can't wait to immerse myself in Edith Wharton's world, as well as read about her love affair with Morton Fullerton and her relationship with Anna Bahlmann.  Apparently, when she was with Fullerton, Wharton revealed a side of herself -- vulnerable and passionate -- that she didn't show to most people.  Henry James, despite his conflicted feelings regarding Fullerton, encouraged her to have the affair.  The story sounds as intriguing as any of her novels.

By the way, now that we are all becoming more familiar with Edith Wharton's life through the new books and articles about her, I wonder if someone will make a movie out of it.  What do you think?  Vogue magazine may have gotten the ball rolling with its luscious reimagining of Wharton's life at the Mount.  It had the feel of a small costume drama. Hmmm...who could play Edith Wharton?  Maybe two actresses, one playing Wharton as a young woman in her twenties, and one playing her later in life, perhaps in her forties.  Rebecca Hall and Emma Thompson?   Just a thought...the casting would be so much fun!

Edith Wharton in Vogue Magazine

The September Issue of Vogue Magazine has just hit the stands and it includes a fascinating essay on Edith Wharton written by Colm Toibin and a gorgeous photo spread by Annie Leibovitz shot at The Mount, Edith Wharton's home in Lenox, Massachusetts. This really is Edith Wharton's year!  It is the 150th anniversary of her birth, there are celebrations all over the country, especially at The Mount, and now she's in Vogue.   Shot on the grounds of the beautiful Berkshire retreat that Wharton designed and lived in from 1903 until 1908, these photos taken by photographer Annie Leibovitz and styled by Vogue's creative director Grace Coddington capture the gracious beauty of this autobiographical home and its grounds.  It is truly one of this country's historical and literary treasures.  President Theodore Roosevelt, diplomat Water Berry, writer Henry James, and sculptor Daniel Chester French were all part of Wharton's inner circle and came to stay with her there.  If you get a chance to visit this area of western Massachusetts (a great destination with Tanglewood nearby and the Williamstown Theatre Festival not faraway), be sure to visit The Mount.  The house and the gardens are magnificent and it is where Edith Wharton wrote her masterpiece "The House of Mirth."

Natalia Vodianova plays Edith Wharton and actress Juno Temple plays Edith's secretary Anna Bahlmann

This story in Vogue is a beautiful and creative piece and one of the best magazine layouts I have seen in a long time. The art direction and styling are simply brilliant.  Entitled "Custom of the Country," it recreates Edith Wharton's inner circle by casting writers, artists and actors of today such as Jeffrey Eugenides, Elijah Wood, Jack Huston, Mamie Gummer, and Juno Temple to play Wharton's friends and colleagues who would have spent time with her at the Mount. These romantic and evocative vignettes include vintage cars, costumes, and even current Edwardian fashions off the runway.  I am wondering if "Downton Abbey" influenced some of the designers this year.

Writer Jeffrey Eugenides plays Henry James; actor Elijah Wood plays Wharton's chauffeur; and actor Jack Huston plays Morton Fullerton, the man whom Wharton loved

Near the Mount is Chesterwood, the home and studio of sculptor Daniel Chester French, played here by artist Nate Lowman

This scene recreates a picnic between Henry James, Morton Fullerton and Wharton

Wharton's niece landscape designer Beatrix Farrand, played here by actress Mamie Gummer; diplomat Walter Barry, played by writer Junot Diaz; architect Ogden Codman Jr., played by writer Jonathan Safran Foer; and painter Maxfield Parrish, played by actor Max Minghella

********

Pick up this issue -- if you are a fan of Edith Wharton you will love the way her life at the Mount has been reimagined by Annie Leibovitz and Grace Coddington in the pages of Vogue.