Edith Wharton: Ambassador Book Awards

I was first introduced to Hermione Lee when I stumbled upon and read her outstanding biography of Virginia Woolf. With so much already written by and about Woolf, I could not imagine an author coming up with enough fresh material, or old material written freshly, to justify reading such a huge book. But I did, and I was very, very impressed. So, when I entered my "Edith Wharton phase" and began looking for a biography of Wharton before reading her works, I was more than pleasantly surprised to find that Hermione Lee had written a similarly huge biography of Edith Wharton. Unlike Woolf, Wharton left almost nothing behind for her biographers, except her works: she left none of the letters others sent her (there may be rare exceptions) and there are very few letters that she wrote others that have survived. But despite this Lee has written another outstanding biography. This is why I like it: 1) the numerous references throughout the book to other classic literary works, from Goethe to Bronte; 2) the extensive research on Henry James; 3) reading about Edith Wharton's appreciation (or lack thereof) of the modernist movement, specifically that of Virginia Woolf, the Bloomsbury Group, and James Joyce; 4) Wharton's thoughts on love, marriage, and divorce; 5) the candid, but balanced look at Wharton's affairs; 6) the meshing of Wharton's life with her novels; and, 7) the way she ends the book, and the vignette of Lee's personal visit to Wharton's grave in Paris. I have the hard cover; this, review, I believe will be on the softcover.

Learn about the woman behind the novels, poetry, and ghost stories. You'll also gain insight into Wharton's inspirations for her work.

At 880 pages, with illustrations,this weighty tome is in my opinion the best biography of Edith Wharton. Hermione Lee who also gave us "Virginia Woolf" [another wonderful biography] is dedicated to research and detail, and manages to thoroughly flesh out her subjects. Given the complex life and character of Edith Wharton, the task of dissecting her life and accomplishments seems like a herculean task that Ms Lee does excellently. We learn of Ms Wharton's accomplishments not only as a great writer, having authored novels that have tackled the delicate issues of human frailty and desires [Custom of the Country, House of Mirth, and Age of Innocence, among others], but also her talents in designing, gardening & her philanthropical pursuits. Ms Wharton was also a prolific traveler, and this biography truly showcases her many talents besides writing. We learn of Ms Wharton's early marriage to a much older man, a union that was not successful and led to a divorce many years later. We also discover Ms Wharton's late blooming as an author [she was almost 40] and her affair with an American journalist and close friendships [mainly with the opposite sex]. The biography also gives us insight into Wharton's inspiration for her writing [drawn heavily from events in her own life], and all in all, it is a laudable effort at giving us tremendous insight into the life of a talented and complicated author.

This massive, nearly 900 page biography of Edith Wharton will be considered the definitive account of her life. Ms. Lee performed extensive research to flesh out this writer of conventional social graces and of the inner emotional life (see "The Age of Innocence"). Of interested is the thwarted life of Edith Wharton, trapped in a loveless marriage and embarking upon a mid-life affair with a confused American. A writer of short stories, poems and novels, she wrote of ghost stories, decorating, social satires of New York, and war correspondence from the Great War. Edith Wharton was a woman of many talents who will keep the reader entralled long after the biography ends.

Edith Wharton truly hasn't been given the respect and noteworthiness that is so deserved, but hopefully some of that will change with Professor Hermione Lee's new biography. As wonderfully detailed as her previous biography for Virginia Woolf, it's inspired me to set my own Wharton works in order for a re-reading just as soon as I complete this book.