Another great Christmas gift from my parents.

Just finished a few days ago. Lots of incredible detail (too much in fact) but surprisingly absent is much discussion about how Wharton actually became a professional writer. To me that's one of the most interesting questions. Still, as a Henry James fanatic, it's nice to get a richer sense of this very important person in his life. ( )

Edith Wharton is one of my favorite authors, so when I came across this biography in a used bookshop, I snapped it up. And then it sat on my shelves for over a decade. So much for my fan-girl enthusiasm. I decided 2022 was the year to right this wrong. With more than 700 pages of text I knew I would need to pace myself, and spread my reading out over the first three months of the year.

Hermione Lee has built a reputation for solid, well-researched biographies of literary figures, and this book is no exception. Wharton’s life story is divided into three parts: from her birth in 1861 to World War I, the war years, and the post-war period until her death in 1937. Wharton came of age in New York society, and is known for novels set in that milieu. But her early career was focused on the decorative arts, bringing European style to America before making her name in fiction with The House of Mirth, published in 1905. Wharton made a disastrous marriage, which she escaped by moving to Paris and becoming part of a learned and literary set (divorce came years later, and only after her husband exhibited serious mental health issues). Wharton threw herself into the war effort by founding and operating a number of charities. Post-war she remained in Europe, ultimately owning two homes in France.

Lee delves deep both into Wharton’s literary career, and her personal life and relationships. She comes across as simultaneously sympathetic and complicated and difficult, a product of her time and class. There is no debate about her literary genius, but even there Lee shows how her reputation grew and then, around the time of her death, began to decline. In the late 20th century, Wharton’s work experienced a resurgence thanks to the 1990s film adaptation of The Age of Innocence and feminist publishers like Virago Press.

I have just two quibbles about this book. First, its length, requiring a genuine interest in Wharton to even attempt it. And second, Lee assumes readers have a basic command of French. Not surprisingly, much of Wharton’s correspondence was in French. Sometimes these passages are translated, but far too often they are not. This makes additional work for the non-fluent reader, and I found the inconsistency annoying. That said, I really enjoyed this deep dive into a favorite author’s life and would recommend it highly to any Edith Wharton fan. ( )

It took me all summer to read this biography which is both magnificent and a bit of a slog. I liked Lee's biography of Virginia Woolf better, but this is deep, generous, and extremely thoughful about the work. It is perhaps more about Wharton than you ever wanted to know, but some chapters are just masterpieces, mini-essays on topics as varied as her relationship with Henry James, the gardens in her last two French houses, and her reaction to modernism in the 1920s.
Best of all, I will be reading her with a much more critical and understanding eye and I have a long list of things to read and reread - esp the ghost stories.

I do recommend this, but only if you have a lot of time to give over to it. ( )

Highly recommended for all lovers of Edith Wharton...so much about her and how she lived...Hermione Lee does a masterly job in connecting the dots of her life with her works...I had read two of her top novels before reading this book: House of Mirth and Age of Innocence...but I recommend any potential reader also read Ethan Frome and several of her popular short stories...especially enjoyed chapters and sections on Edith's library and reading...a truly remarkable person and writer...plan to read more of her work and reread this excellent bio again at a future date... ( )

Having read some of Edith Wharton's novels I had picked up a little bit of information about her life, but after reading this monumental biography I feel that I know a lot more. This exhaustive account of her life is a tough read, and took me a long time. The early part of the book is fascinating with it's descriptions of a privileged New York upbringing. It made me want to know more about the "Gilded Age" and the speed of change in late 19th Century Society.
Edith Wharton herself is both inspiring and a little terrifying. What strength of will, to overcome the limitations placed upon a women in her time and to emerge in her forties as a creative woman and competent manager of her own affairs.
The sheer breadth and depth of her interests commands our respect, while her indomitable will and formidable personality make this reader at least feel a little inadequate. I felt that there was a little too much detail about her Italian Garden period and also about her admirable charity work in World War One. Hermione Lee is a respected Professor of English, and is interesting on the novels, stories and other writings when she gets to them, but one has first to plough through a lot of sometimes wearying description of holidays, developing friendships and descriptions of homes . I was left with the wish to read more of Edith Wharton's work, particularly her short stories, so I feel that Ms Lee has been successful in sharing her enthusiasm for it. She also does her best to demolish the myth that the fiction is limited to stories of "Old New York", and points to the fact that much of Mrs Wharton's output is little read.
While groaning a bit at the effort I was glad that I persevered with this long book, but I agree with other reviewers who have found it rather academic in tone. The extensive notes bear this out, being mostly references to cited works and not adding much information . Not being a French speaker I was very irritated by the lack of translations for the many passages in that language. I can see myself making use of the very full bibliography though and hunting out other books on this amazing woman's life and times.