The Glimpses of the Moon

Susy and her beau Nick have both grown up around rich people though their own families have lost their fortunes. Susy makes her way in the world flitting from invitation to invitation acting as an unpaid but rewarded assistant to her rich friends. Nick has dreams of making a living by his writing. They meet and fall in love but one rich matron from Susy's circle tells her, in effect, hands off of Nick because she has designs on him. Susy tells Nick they have to part and why but by then they've fallen too deeply for one another. They decide take a risk and get married with the caveat that if either of them has a chance to form a more remunerative partnership the other would agree to a divorce. By the 1920's divorce has become somewhat common place in their set. First though they promise one another a lovely wedding and at least a year of one another's company. They set out on their European honeymoon staying in first one rich friend's palazzo and then another's chateau having an exquisite time spending their wedding cheques. As their mutual feelings deepen they both want to give the other more. But they can't. In her trying, Susy begins to seem grasping and amoral to Nick and he in turn feels ashamed he can't give her more either. He hates seeing her manipulate situations and people to try and get the best for him. Things completely fall apart when he catches her obligingly covering up their hostess's illicit affair. He means to leave for a few days to clear his head but in the mean time they both hear rumors about one another, add 2 and 2 and get 19. (Too bad they couldn't do this type of math with their fortunes!) I don't want to give too much away so I'll stop here. I love how Wharton keeps you guessing the outcome right up to the end. If, like me, you've never heard of this title it's a shame because Wharton did a LOT of lovely writing beyond her better known classics such as "Age of Innocence", "House of Mirth", and "Ethan Fromm". In fact this and others of her books, "A Mother's Recompense" comes to mind, are even subtler and I want to even say more adult than her better known works.

This story is much lighter and faster paced than The Age of Innocence. Nick and Susy are attractive, stylish, and interesting; but alas, they are poor. They meet and are instantly attracted to one another. Each has been used to living from friend to friend, receiving lodging and gifts in exchange for their elegant company, but now what will they do?They hatch a plan to get married, enjoy each other under the condoning blanket of matrimony, and live off wedding gifts of money and loaned honeymoon villas for a year or so. Or until either one got a better offer.Then, oops! They fall in love, create a misunderstanding, part ways for a while, each thinking miserably that they must be apart from the other; then the satisfying and inevitable happens...but you'll have to read it for yourself.A delightful romp through 1920's society!

having read the other edith wharton tearjerkers, this light comedy of a romance is a very nice surprise indeed. light it may be, but it is by no means trivial. what i like about wharton is that her words resound with wisdom and true feeling. this is a book i return to time and again, rather like visiting an old friend. read it, you might just like it...

Set in the 1920s, THE GLIMPSES OF THE MOION details the romance misadventures of Nick Lansing and Susy Branch, a couple with the right connectsion but not much in the way of funds. They devise a shrewd bargain: they'll marry and spend a year or so sponging off their wealthy friends, honeymooning in their mansions and villas. As susy explains, "We should really, in a way, help more than we should hamper each other. We bothe know the ropes so well; what one of us didn't see the other might-- in the way of oppertunites, I mean. And then we should be a novelty as married people. We're both rather unusually popluar--why not be frank?-- and it's such a blessing for dinner-givers to be able to count on a couple of whom neither one is blank." The other part of the plan is that if either one of them meets someone who can advance them socially, they're free to dissolve the marriage. How their plans unfold is a comedy or eros that will charm all fans of Wharton's work.

I never cried so hard over a book as I did at the end of this one. I can't figure out why high schools make students read Ethan Frome when this book is out there.