We were fortunate years ago to tour the house. Magnificent! Henry James visited there. The gardens are marvelous. A trip to see the house and gardens is worth it if you are in the area. A slice of life preserved to perfection!
She died 84 years ago today and is still one of the greatest writers who ever wrote. Ethan Frome is my favorite of her novels. I love the way she writes about the New York Familes of the 19th and early 20th Century. They really ruled New York in every way. They in there way was the Mafia before the Mafia. Thank you Miss Wharton for all your books.
There was a time when everyone read Wharton's Ethan Frome in High School. It was mandatory for a well rounded education. We have lowered our standards in basic education.
That book, which I read in a high school English class, was my introduction to Edith Wharton some 50 years ago. I just reread it a couple of months ago and I reread "The House of Mirth" once a year. I read "Bunner Sisters" and "Summer" for the first time a few months ago. Wow! "Bunner Sisters" is a gem. Also enjoyed "Summer". So thankful for that high school English class and teacher who introduced me to Wharton. She's one of the best in my opinion.
@@tabithadorcas7763 Me too, English class 1970 . My teacher introduced us to the classics like Member of the Wedding , Great Gadsby and thankfully was a great teacher. ☺
@@colinhalliley111 "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter-tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther....And one fine morning- "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." Those words were beautiful to me back then and now even more so given years of living.
Colin 'I would say maybe through western world, standards have diminished, lots have natural lessons are not taught ,history's, arts,home economics etc etc I have felt its to smooth,and gradually to usher in' plan',and with the help and direction of all of these " movements"
Her Pulitzer The Age of Innocence captures a time 189~ she explains the wealthy life and the honor of a man’s word. Many call her a snob because it was always said the phrase Keeping Up With The Joneses was meant for Edith’s family.
THE AGE OF INNOCENCE…my favorite book. The movie…oh! The exquisite movie! Pfeiffer and Irons! When they touch hands! And at the end when his wife makes her statement to her son…I just melt.
@1:49, the authors description of Wharton's view on the American woman's position in society would be true of women everywhere at the time..today our freedoms to enjoy life on our own terms was fought for long and hard by those brave grandmothers of ours. It behooves us to honor their struggle, not by destroying ourselves in a modern society intent on destruction of all things feminine, but by building on them to achieve, attain and enjoy the life we have honorably.
"She wasn't meant to be happy" what a ridiculous statement. She was starved for love, tenderness and the emptiness was from not knowing how to, reconcile the abandonment of her as a person and the rejection of her capabilities also. However, as pathetic as her marriage was, had she married anyone else she may have been subjected to bullying, abuse and countless atrocities committed on women. So this meaningless marriage enabled her to grow intellectually.
I met Edith Wharton through Martin Scorsese and his movie The Age of Innocence. I remember vividly both the pleasure the film gave me and the joy I felt when I discovered that the book was even better. I knew nothing about the author but fell in love with her way of writing. Still am today. Thank you for this documentary, whose only fault is to doubt the importance of the House of Mirth 😉
Yes! In my opinion, "The House of Mirth" surpasses "The Age of Innocence". Also, I think that the film adaptation of "The House of Mirth", starring Gillian Anderson, is very fine.
@@marymary5494 Hear! Hear!:) By the way, have you read the novellas: "Bunner Sisters" and "Summer"? I did this past winter as well as reading Ethan Frome. I'd be interested to know what someone else thought of the first two mentioned.
Age Of Innocence showed how the slightest event was grounds for being canceled from " polite society ". When the man unbuttoned your glove and touched bare skin was a scandal.
I have always loved Edith Wharton. Not only for her writings but for her sensibilities. I have visited the Mount in Lenox Massachusetts and felt the esthetic grandeur of what she considered to be the correct assemblage of a home.
@@dharding5510 So true! I read it in college and liked it, but didn’t really resonate with it. In my 30’s it became truth, and in my 40’s gospel. It’s my 3rd favorite book of all time.
Unless you know in your heart that you are the beloved child of the Most High God. But hey, as the Bible says about the rich man, the camel and the eye of a needle. . .
Often USA women's history overlooked in UK but interesting ..Clivedon House UK is worth a visit. In 1893, the estate was purchased by an American millionaire, William Waldorf Astor (later 1st Viscount Astor), who made sweeping alterations to the gardens and the interior of the house, but lived at Cliveden as a recluse after the early death of his wife. He gave Cliveden to his son Waldorf (later 2nd Viscount Astor) on the occasion of his marriage to Nancy Langhorne in 1906 and moved to Hever Castle.
I am SO happy to see Irene Worths’ readings in this! I became very interested in EW in the 1990’s when Miss Worth was doing her one woman show of Mrs Wharton. I never got to see it. A scene from “the Age of Innocence”was filmed at a building I worked in and I’ve been hooked ever since. She’s perfect! This is a treat.
8:33-11:08 Irene Worth. Per Wikipedia, "In the mid-1990s, she devised and performed a two-hour monologue Portrait of Edith Wharton, based on Wharton's life and writings. Using no props, costumes or sets, she created characters entirely through vocal means."
Wish I’d seen that. I love Wharton’s novels and am only now discovering more about her life. Perhaps another actress will pick this up at some point again.
First read Ethan Frome un Jr. High. Was not impressed. Then found Roman Fever as freshman in college. Since then have re-read Ethan Frome and plowed through all herr writings over and over again. Marvelous Oddly can't find S Backward Glance Still haunting second hand bookstores....
Walter Berry should have married her. It reminds me of Barbara Pym, who had a brief affair and a lifelong friendship with a man she met when she was going to college at Oxford. He didn’t marry Ms. Pym either, he married someone else, but he was at Barbara’s deathbed. Men oftentimes think they are settling when they court someone whose looks don’t quite come up to snuff. They think the grass is greener somewhere else and so pass up spending their life with a soulmate and opt for the ornament of a pretty wife.
She suffered typhoid fever at age 8 and was affected by that illness into herb20's, according to another on lone documentary. This documentary is beautifully done.
Watching this now, in 2022, what strikes me most is the fact that the world seems to be becoming less intelligent as the years go on. People in the 90s were more intelligent than young people today and the people around 100 years ago were far more intelligent than people today.
There is something so wholesome and mature about this tale. It's a way of life and a point of view that have completely vanished, You could once upon a time, chase an echo of it at the end of an East coast dinner party - but it was a ghost. It's calming and most of all better viewed through a lens of the educated. Thank you.
Edith Wharton is still one of my most favorite writers. True American literature in every sense. Henry James could have learned a lot about readable writing style from her.
This show was so strange. It came to an abrupt end spending only a few minutes on what happened between her divorce and her death in 1937. I feel it it should have been a half hour longer at least. If you have an interest in Edith Wharton I highly recommend that you search for an article in the New Yorker on her and her letters from June of 2009. It turns out that although she was different from the other rich girls in the New York of her childhood, she was not alone and was not a socialite with a limited education who somehow became a great writer. No, it turns out she had a sympathetic governess who she remained in touch with who helped her learn multiple languages and with whom she discussed literature.
Yes, and there's not much detail about her life growing up in New York either. They talk a lot about the overall culture of New York socialites around the turn of the century but not much about Wharton's personal life that would be included in standard biographies. All in all, kind of a strange documentary.
@@lynnturman8157 I see what you are saying. But any program created after 2009 has to contend with the new information revealed by her governess's letters. The New Yorker article I mentioned above quoted from Wharton's writings in which she painted herself when young as utterly alone among the unknowing Philistines. Well, that may have been true when she was with friends and family but not when she was with her governess -- and there is evidence to show her adult recollections were incorrect.
I visited The Mount, her home in Lenox in the Berkshires. I have read a great deal of Edith Wharton and she was a wonderful writer, with a number of memorable novels - House of Mirth, Ethan Frome, The Custom of the Country. Oh, and The Age of Innocence, made into a memorable movie in the '90s. The 1990's.
I’ve visited The Mount too. Not only are the house and gardens lovely in their own right, they cast a lot of light on Wharton’s aesthetic philosophy of restrained elegance, leavened with modern conveniences (carefully concealed) and just a hint of wit.
The guy she was supposed to marry ended up dying a couple of years after their broken engagement from tuberculosis. His mother did not want them to marry and she ended up with his inheritance after his death.
Fancy judging and deciding 'she was a woman who wasn't meant to be happy' on a couple of photographs and the way she was 'rigidly' posing! One had to hold a shot in formal attire for that era anyway.
And cameras of that era required subjects hold perfectly still for seconds because of slow film exposure from those large format cameras. Hard to hold a smile or any posture perfectly still.
Sister Carrie, Ethan Fromm, and so many others i can't even name , had me captivated from the beginning. I fell in love with Ms. Edith Wharton from the beginning. I think I'll suggest to Santa Clause a collection of her books, kepp them, enjoy them and than pass them down if my neices ever outgrow their narcissism and can emphasize with someone else's position in life. Let us pray.🙏🙏🙏
I recall hearing Scorsese refered to The Age of Innocence as his most violent film it's probably my most favourite of his too not just for the performances including the great Daniel Day Lewis but for the truth of social expectations biases conformity the class system etc. The shame and slow character assassination a woman receives for divorce or daring to feel any love or passion inappropriately wearing the wrong clothes to the Opera etc.
She certainly did, in her writing, 'make something complex and wonderful' of the predicament in which she found herself - that of the highly intelligent woman whose perception and insight outstrip that of most people around her. The only sane refuge for such a woman is in understanding herself and observing the world she finds herself in, questing its mysteries and depths. Wharton was a master of this in her writing, never more so than in 'The House of Mirth', for me.
This documentary starts with Lily Lodge (a.o. actress) implying that Edith Wharton was a snob and was thus not forgiven by the New York elite of her time and age. I have read almost everything written by Edith Wharton and one thing she is not and that is a snob. In fact she very often ridicules the socalled high society of New York at the turning of the century.
Edith Wharton, one of the greatest American authors! House of Mirth, Age of Innocence, Ethan Frome, just for starters. But I suggest "The Custom of the Country," which is not as well-known. It's wonderful, both funny and tragic. The main character is an awful woman named Undine Spragg. The first line: "Undine, how could you?" basically summarizes the theme of the whole book - how could she have done so many awful things, all for the sake of fame and fortune.
Yes, I was shocked and offended by that statement. It is so presumptuous and wrong. It is for forcing Edith Wharton to fit into that woman's narrative for her that she thought up for Wharton to fulfill. But Edith Wharton is not a fictional character or a symbol, she was a real flesh and blood woman.
Yes a pretty shocking statement. I mean the woman won a Pulitzer. Surely, she derived some satisfaction from her success. Maybe if they would have said "unhappy in love," it still would have been more understandable since her ideals buttressed up against the times, but still. How could one do all this to elevate her then it one sentence undo all of that? Sheesh. As if photos of ppl during that time didn't all look generally the exact same--stiff, melancholy! Everyone knows that photos at that time required one to be absolutely motionless. Egads!
@@mjohnson1741 Yes. Hugh Auchincloss was the first cousin once removed of author Louis Auchincloss. (Specifically, Hugh A was the first cousin of Louis A’s father.) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_D._Auchincloss And that whole social stratum had a carefully tutored “mid-Atlantic” accent (similar to, but Heaven forbid, not the same as, the accent actors and radio presenters learned in the early 20th century, which we now hear in old newsreels, movies, and parodies).
Yes. He has a lot to say to us today. Some of his lesser known work can be startling; it could almost have been written today. I am thinking of What Maisie Knew, A London Life and The Reverberator. He is definitely worth a revisit. He, like Wharton, was from a rarified environment even in his own day. Some of his work is not for everyone. But it should be better known.
I can't find that film ANYWHERE, where did you? I LOVE that movie but I wanted to smack the heroine around at the end for repeatedly refusing help from the one man who truly loved her... Her consuming pride got her killed. I cried all day after seeing it when I was in New Orleans! 😓
To really learn more, read the book. A movie can mimic the story, but reading Edith's words, and her way with them, is very different. She's one of those rare people who put concepts into words so beautifully that you can sit and ponder a freshly read sentence and be amazed someone wrote what has only been an inarticulate pother within ones self.
Isn’t it heart-wrenching? But as another commenter said, if you enjoyed the movie the book will convey so much more. The description of Lily’s last day can make me tear up just thinking about it. And it is, quite precisely, a tragedy in the Greek sense, in that Lily has greatness of character - she’s not just some pretty little gold-digger or some meek, dull society miss; she’s bright, creative, and fastidious. But her own character flaws clash so fatally with the cruel and superficial society she wants to be part of.
Or even the 1970s. My oldest sister is in what was essentially an arranged marriage and the only ones of us who have done well have done so by marrying well.
@@alexcarter8807 and the 1980s-1990s. My grandmother expected me to give up my job, move in with her and be her domestic slave, just like my mother (her only child) had been. Needless to say, I quietly rebelled and stayed well away.
@@robinrinsmith I was just trying to illustrate that many things took longer to change for many of us. By rebelling from those lowly expectations, I have enjoyed many simple rights that were denied my mother: My own income and pension, pastimes and pleasures etc. No, feminism didn't happen in our household - I had to become a feminist far away from the family home!
Sometimes we just wish that life was about something… anything but these interpretations of what we might even half perceive to be truths… somebody save me….
"Greenlawn Cemetary, which is in the Bronx, north of New York." Excuse me, but I live in the Bronx, and it is very much New York. If you're going to be a Brit and do a doc about a NY writer, you might want to know what you're talking about.
Her books were horrifying to a young girl! It’s a testament to her writing that I could be so moved!” A lady does not write”because if she does her thoughts and feelings would tilt the society.
OK docu, the best Wharton doc, so far, on YT. ~~ Let's not be harsh on Morton Fullerton. He was a sexy playboy. Edith adored him. (Walter Berry was a snobby queen),
Controversial question, aren't modern women being trapped also? We are told that we have to go to university, have to work for a corporation, have to put off or even downright discouraged from marriage and having children and encouraged to participate in casual sex and abortion, we are encouraged to put what offspring we do have into care as quick as we can and get back to work. Some women put off their peak fertile years so that we have to pay for expensive fertility treatments that many can't afford. Many end up never pair bonded and very bitter. At the same time we are encouraged to berate, insult the intelligence, and deride our sisters that want a life where they like to cook and care for their families. I was from the 80-90s generation of feminism where they SAID they were about women making the choice that was right for them. I thought I would always be a career woman. I never anticipated having all of my assumptions upended after I had our first child and went back to work a few weeks later. I was absolutely miserable for the next 18 months. I wasn't neurotic and constantly calling the daycare. It was a lot of little things like her yeasty diaper rash and they wouldn't allow the doc's salve prepared by the pharmacy (which worked btw) because it wasn't an approved treatment. This was a military daycare, a military doctor and a military pharmacy that made it. I went through a lot from my female coworkers and in online mom's groups because I made a choice that was right for me and my family. I can't count how many times I was accused of "betraying ALL women", "giving in to the patriarchy", "internalized misogyny", "holding women back", or how many times I was told to just die, kill myself, and wishes that I would get divorced or that my family would hate me. This was all done by other women. How is the current woman's cage much different from back in Edith Wharton's day except it is almost entirely women demanding their way of being a woman is the only way? Unfortunately, modern women's cage often excludes the lasting joy and happiness because they really seem to hate men and even the thought of children. Just take a look at women's happiness and depression levels since the 60s, it's hard not to see something there.
You will have to tell us: How many times were you told to die, that your family would hate you, etc., etc.? I hope you got away from people like that. Women are still in cages, that is true. There is no replacement for a real mother. There is no replacement for a real father, either. These are home truths that we need to think about and acknowledge and act on.
@@joankonkle6972 are you questioning my lived experiences? How very dare you sir or Madame! Seriously though, do you honestly expect me to give you an exact number over more than 20 years to make you believe my experience is valid? Sorry, we didn't take screenshots then. If you want to know what it was like, just go on a feminist website (that still allows comments) and say I think I can raise my children better than daycare. Try it on Twitter. It's worse now than I got. You're missing the point of what I was saying, I was raised that women had a CHOICE. By the 90s there was no choice or you were shamed (by other women) as being akin to hillbillies and/or right winger evangelicals (nothing wrong with that, but it was considered an insult to left leaning people) for just wanting to be moms and wives. We were shamed for making the choice.
I agree with the majority you said, except with the part where you said that women seem to hate men and children. What I noticed is that most women would still like to have children but they just don’t have enough time for them as they need to work. The hating men thing is quite understandable i think but of course women don’t hate the man just like that but more the patriarchal society. (Hope that makes sense. English isn’t my first language)
I also bought into the feminist creed in the 1980s and made a professional choice based on that creed that was wrong for me. I grew up and learned where my true happiness lay. I followed my happiness. But what you say is mostly quite true, there was a lot of pressure, and many women bought into it.
@@lisapop5219 My mom stayed home with us when we were little, went back to work because we needed the income when I was in junior high. She worked in day care. Very progressive & collaborative. Those families needed day care & didn't put off having kids. Feminism is the belief that women are as important to society as men, and we are.
Warton's novels are a real portrayal of a gracious but brutal society that no longer exists in America and in some ways we are the worse without it I think. She was a Snob and many of her Views on society ect would land her in hot water today but I can respect a snob who is honest and open with there snobbery .
I was once dragged my mother and a friend of her's on a tour of the Newport "cottages." I can't recall now which house we were in when I'd finally had enough. We were being shown a linen "closet" nearly as big as my NYC apartment living room.. At the end of the lecture we were asked if we had any questions. No one spoke, so I raised my hand. "How many people died of black lung to build this "cottage"? My mother was appalled and made her opinion known to the whole group. I suspected at the time that there was at least one other woman in the group who'd thought of a similar question but hadn't dared to ask it. My mother had never read a nook by Edith Wharton, nor would she ever. She didn't know who Edith Wharton was.
thanks for sharing this great documentary Poor Professor R W B Lewis 1:56 who's badly fitting dentures forced him so swallow and slap and clack and sniff back phlegm and whistle like a canary it was hard to hear what he was saying the noise was so disgusting and distracting it made me realise how audio technology is so advanced today compared to when this was produced so distractions and repulsions can be easily edited off the soundtrack 🤣
As a young person, I tried my best to read her work, but found it all to be founded on one long everlasting gripe. Maybe I was TOO young for her. Yet I loved George Eliot and still do, possibly because her tragedies were leavened by humanity and hope.
I'm a huge fan of Ms. Wharton, but I find her life very limited in perspective if she felt like she had limited chances in life. Had she put on her walking coat and just walked south block after block for hours she'd have seen how her life drastically differed from other people on the island of Manhattan they shared and called home.
She left home through her imagination. For whatever reason though she herself wanted to stay within the orbit of the way of life she grew up with. Yes, she left Manhattan for the Mount and France but it seems that her outer, public life stayed conventional enough so that she would always be accepted by her own kind.
I wonder if Ms Wharton's concern for, and interest in, the "American Woman" ever extended to the lives of Black, Native, even immigrant women? Imagine the honour in which she would be held, today if only she had. Nevertheless, her historical place in American society and the glimpses she allows, through her writings, of an age long-dead, is fascinating.
And if she had written about any other class of women, you would have been outraged that a “white upper class woman” should dare to speak of their experience.
Women had to compete for their very identity. You were whom you married. Mrs so and so. You couldn't vote,drink,smoke,open bank account without a male signature. No credit except your husband's. Once married not to be working. Judged by how clean your house was, well behaved your children were and well tended flowers and garden were. ThankYou Father I was born in modern times!
Women don't get much of a deal from life according to this biography. But she wrote such wonderful, well plotted books! Her life sounds tragic, but her books are well worth reading today.
I think Edith shackled herself willingly to the harsh standards of her community even though it made her unhappy. She still chose it over frightening independence and being alone. She has been a top 5 author of mine for 35 years; what a gift for expression she had! But her CHOICE, like many women's, to do the safer, easier and socially acceptable conforming to stifling societal regulations is what made her miserable. Self imposed misery. Edith was the quintessential "poor little rich girl" and I can't bring myself to pity her. Personally, I've had a far more difficult life and tougher dilemmas than agonized self involvement and satisfying the judgment of high society.
We were fortunate years ago to tour the house. Magnificent! Henry James visited there.
The gardens are marvelous. A trip to see the house and gardens is worth it if you are in the area. A slice of life preserved to perfection!
One of the most beautifully produced entrees into a writer's life that I have seen. Lovely and engaging.
"Her marriage had been too concrete a misery to be surveyed philosophically."...ha! How true for many of us.
I couldn't agree more😢
She died 84 years ago today and is still one of the greatest writers who ever wrote. Ethan Frome is my favorite of her novels. I love the way she writes about the New York Familes of the 19th and early 20th Century. They really ruled New York in every way. They in there way was the Mafia before the Mafia. Thank you Miss Wharton for all your books.
A sensitive and hugely engaging documentary into this extraordinary woman's life. Thanks for the upload!
I love your comment dear and nice to meet you 🌹
Miss Wharton was my favorite author in youth... now81 I still rem her books with affection&admiration.
What was it about her and her books that you liked so much?
There was a time when everyone read Wharton's Ethan Frome in High School. It was mandatory for a well rounded education. We have lowered our standards in basic education.
That book, which I read in a high school English class, was my introduction to Edith Wharton some 50 years ago. I just reread it a couple of months ago and I reread "The House of Mirth" once a year. I read "Bunner Sisters" and "Summer" for the first time a few months ago. Wow! "Bunner Sisters" is a gem. Also enjoyed "Summer". So thankful for that high school English class and teacher who introduced me to Wharton. She's one of the best in my opinion.
@@tabithadorcas7763 Me too, English class 1970 . My teacher introduced us to the classics like Member of the Wedding , Great Gadsby and thankfully was a great teacher. ☺
@@colinhalliley111 "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter-tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther....And one fine morning- "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." Those words were beautiful to me back then and now even more so given years of living.
@@tabithadorcas7763 Exactly, nothing new under the sun. Just how we approach it.☺
Colin 'I would say maybe through western world, standards have diminished, lots have natural lessons are not taught ,history's, arts,home economics etc etc I have felt its to smooth,and gradually to usher in' plan',and with the help and direction of all of these " movements"
Her Pulitzer The Age of Innocence captures a time 189~ she explains the wealthy life and the honor of a man’s word. Many call her a snob because it was always said the phrase Keeping Up With The Joneses was meant for Edith’s family.
THE AGE OF INNOCENCE…my favorite book. The movie…oh! The exquisite movie! Pfeiffer and Irons! When they touch hands! And at the end when his wife makes her statement to her son…I just melt.
@1:49, the authors description of Wharton's view on the American woman's position in society would be true of women everywhere at the time..today our freedoms to enjoy life on our own terms was fought for long and hard by those brave grandmothers of ours. It behooves us to honor their struggle, not by destroying ourselves in a modern society intent on destruction of all things feminine, but by building on them to achieve, attain and enjoy the life we have honorably.
Well said 👏🏻
Behooves....
a word not used much of late methinks 🍷
"She wasn't meant to be happy" what a ridiculous statement. She was starved for love, tenderness and the emptiness was from not knowing how to, reconcile the abandonment of her as a person and the rejection of her capabilities also. However, as pathetic as her marriage was, had she married anyone else she may have been subjected to bullying, abuse and countless atrocities committed on women. So this meaningless marriage enabled her to grow intellectually.
Looking at positive side!
Totally agree with you, absolutely a ridiculous statement..
What a true and rare observation
I met Edith Wharton through Martin Scorsese and his movie The Age of Innocence. I remember vividly both the pleasure the film gave me and the joy I felt when I discovered that the book was even better. I knew nothing about the author but fell in love with her way of writing. Still am today.
Thank you for this documentary, whose only fault is to doubt the importance of the House of Mirth 😉
Yes! In my opinion, "The House of Mirth" surpasses "The Age of Innocence". Also, I think that the film adaptation of "The House of Mirth", starring Gillian Anderson, is very fine.
Me too. 😊
@@marymary5494 Hear! Hear!:) By the way, have you read the novellas: "Bunner Sisters" and "Summer"? I did this past winter as well as reading Ethan Frome. I'd be interested to know what someone else thought of the first two mentioned.
Age Of Innocence showed how the slightest event was grounds for being canceled from " polite society ". When the man unbuttoned your glove and touched bare skin was a scandal.
@@tabithadorcas7763 Bunner Sister’s is my favorite one of all . I haven’t read Summer yet.
She was my Grandma's idol Im 83 and still read her letters to my gdmother
They are treasures for sure!
Edith wrote to your Grandmother?
I have always loved Edith Wharton. Not only for her writings but for her sensibilities. I have visited the Mount in Lenox Massachusetts and felt the esthetic grandeur of what she considered to be the correct assemblage of a home.
"She excelled at the rare art of taking things for granted."
I love The Age of Innocence. It’s a must read
And worth re-reading at different stages in your life too!
@@dharding5510 So true! I read it in college and liked it, but didn’t really resonate with it. In my 30’s it became truth, and in my 40’s gospel. It’s my 3rd favorite book of all time.
Agreed - seems to get better every time. ❤️
My favorite book! I read it almost every summer!! Along with WAR AND PEACE.
@@michelleowenwest4249What are your first 2 favorite books?
One of my all time favourite authors!
The soul waits for a footstep that never comes. Wow
Unless you know in your heart that you are the beloved child of the Most High God. But hey, as the Bible says about the rich man, the camel and the eye of a needle. . .
@@Mrs.TJTaylor and that is why (in most things personal) I say only God and I know....and that is enough.
@@ironsnowflake1076 You are right.
I felt that
Often USA women's history overlooked in UK but interesting ..Clivedon House UK is worth a visit. In 1893, the estate was purchased by an American millionaire, William Waldorf Astor (later 1st Viscount Astor), who made sweeping alterations to the gardens and the interior of the house, but lived at Cliveden as a recluse after the early death of his wife. He gave Cliveden to his son Waldorf (later 2nd Viscount Astor) on the occasion of his marriage to Nancy Langhorne in 1906 and moved to Hever Castle.
I am SO happy to see Irene Worths’ readings in this! I became very interested in EW in the 1990’s when Miss Worth was doing her one woman show of Mrs Wharton. I never got to see it. A scene from “the Age of Innocence”was filmed at a building I worked in and I’ve been hooked ever since. She’s perfect! This is a treat.
I love your comment dear and nice to meet you 🌹
8:33-11:08 Irene Worth. Per Wikipedia, "In the mid-1990s, she devised and performed a two-hour monologue Portrait of Edith Wharton, based on Wharton's life and writings. Using no props, costumes or sets, she created characters entirely through vocal means."
Wish I’d seen that. I love Wharton’s novels and am only now discovering more about her life. Perhaps another actress will pick this up at some point again.
I love your comment dear and nice to meet you 🌹
She’s amazing! How can I not have heard of her before?! Thanks for the info.
The first time I read Edith Wharton was her short story "Roman Fever", in high school. Made such an impression on me. I hope she is resting in peace.
First read Ethan Frome un Jr. High. Was not impressed. Then found Roman Fever as freshman in college. Since then have re-read Ethan Frome and plowed through all herr writings over and over again. Marvelous
Oddly can't find S Backward Glance
Still haunting second hand bookstores....
Walter Berry should have married her. It reminds me of Barbara Pym, who had a brief affair and a lifelong friendship with a man she met when she was going to college at Oxford. He didn’t marry Ms. Pym either, he married someone else, but he was at Barbara’s deathbed. Men oftentimes think they are settling when they court someone whose looks don’t quite come up to snuff. They think the grass is greener somewhere else and so pass up spending their life with a soulmate and opt for the ornament of a pretty wife.
Excellent documentary. Thank you for the upload.
She suffered typhoid fever at age 8 and was affected by that illness into herb20's, according to another on lone documentary. This documentary is beautifully done.
Watching this now, in 2022, what strikes me most is the fact that the world seems to be becoming less intelligent as the years go on. People in the 90s were more intelligent than young people today and the people around 100 years ago were far more intelligent than people today.
A most interesting thought, that is hard to disagree with!
@@LEMANPRODUCTIONSARCHIVEnot more intelligent but certainly better educated.
Oh dear, this is an centennial complaint! I feel this sometimes, too, but am very strict with myself about this- first sign of senility 😉
There is something so wholesome and mature about this tale. It's a way of life and a point of view that have completely vanished, You could once upon a time, chase an echo of it at the end of an East coast dinner party - but it was a ghost. It's calming and most of all better viewed through a lens of the educated. Thank you.
Wholesome? Read Beatrice Palmato and get back to us.
She wrote my favorite novel the house of mirth...
And mine…THE AGE OF INNOCENCE…
Edith Wharton is still one of my most favorite writers. True American literature in every sense. Henry James could have learned a lot about readable writing style from her.
This show was so strange. It came to an abrupt end spending only a few minutes on what happened between her divorce and her death in 1937. I feel it it should have been a half hour longer at least.
If you have an interest in Edith Wharton I highly recommend that you search for an article in the New Yorker on her and her letters from June of 2009. It turns out that although she was different from the other rich girls in the New York of her childhood, she was not alone and was not a socialite with a limited education who somehow became a great writer. No, it turns out she had a sympathetic governess who she remained in touch with who helped her learn multiple languages and with whom she discussed literature.
Yes, and there's not much detail about her life growing up in New York either. They talk a lot about the overall culture of New York socialites around the turn of the century but not much about Wharton's personal life that would be included in standard biographies. All in all, kind of a strange documentary.
@@lynnturman8157 I see what you are saying. But any program created after 2009 has to contend with the new information revealed by her governess's letters. The New Yorker article I mentioned above quoted from Wharton's writings in which she painted herself when young as utterly alone among the unknowing Philistines. Well, that may have been true when she was with friends and family but not when she was with her governess -- and there is evidence to show her adult recollections were incorrect.
brilliant documentary 👍
I visited The Mount, her home in Lenox in the Berkshires. I have read a great deal of Edith Wharton and she was a wonderful writer, with a number of memorable novels - House of Mirth, Ethan Frome, The Custom of the Country. Oh, and The Age of Innocence, made into a memorable movie in the '90s. The 1990's.
There is also a version of The Age of Innocence made in the 1930’s. I believe Irene Dunne is in it.
@@patsymontana7670 I love Irene Dunne!
I’ve visited The Mount too. Not only are the house and gardens lovely in their own right, they cast a lot of light on Wharton’s aesthetic philosophy of restrained elegance, leavened with modern conveniences (carefully concealed) and just a hint of wit.
Very much enjoyed! Well Done. She, herself, is a great CHARACTER. 🙂!
The guy she was supposed to marry ended up dying a couple of years after their broken engagement from tuberculosis. His mother did not want them to marry and she ended up with his inheritance after his death.
So lovely. Thank you.
Thank you for sharing.
I love your comment dear and nice to meet you 🌹
I love Edith Wharton. I think I have written everything published by her, at least everything I've been able to find. Her writing is wonderful.
Thank you Edith for freeing me of all bondage including waiting for nothing
How is that?
😂
Fancy judging and deciding 'she was a woman who wasn't meant to be happy' on a couple of photographs and the way she was 'rigidly' posing! One had to hold a shot in formal attire for that era anyway.
And cameras of that era required subjects hold perfectly still for seconds because of slow film exposure from those large format cameras. Hard to hold a smile or any posture perfectly still.
@@personan0ngrata1 Thank you, it's what I meant, you were more expressive. Lol
Sister Carrie, Ethan Fromm, and so many others i can't even name , had me captivated from the beginning. I fell in love with Ms. Edith Wharton from the beginning. I think I'll suggest to Santa Clause a collection of her books, kepp them, enjoy them and than pass them down if my neices ever outgrow their narcissism and can emphasize with someone else's position in life. Let us pray.🙏🙏🙏
Sister Carrie (1900) is a novel by Theodore Dreiser, not Wharton
I recall hearing Scorsese refered to The Age of Innocence as his most violent film it's probably my most favourite of his too not just for the performances including the great Daniel Day Lewis but for the truth of social expectations biases conformity the class system etc. The shame and slow character assassination a woman receives for divorce or daring to feel any love or passion inappropriately wearing the wrong clothes to the Opera etc.
I've watched it many times.
I loved "the age of innocense." One of my most fave movies.
I love her writing
She certainly did, in her writing, 'make something complex and wonderful' of the predicament in which she found herself - that of the highly intelligent woman whose perception and insight outstrip that of most people around her. The only sane refuge for such a woman is in understanding herself and observing the world she finds herself in, questing its mysteries and depths. Wharton was a master of this in her writing, never more so than in 'The House of Mirth', for me.
Excellent biography that keeps you very interested, even if you thought you wouldn't be!
21:21 You're wrong: not learning anything about sex in the 1950s made my life vastly more difficult.
Normal sex doesn't exist anymore, ie spontaneous affection, every man expects planned porn now as the norm.
@@christinehall6441 unfortunately women have had a big hand in that as well, they have gone too far in many areas
Great documentary, thx ❤
Wonderful !!! Great video 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Many thanks
🤗 One of my very favorite female authors, along with Pearl Buck, Patricia Highsmith, and Marguerite Yourcenar.
This documentary starts with Lily Lodge (a.o. actress) implying that Edith Wharton was a snob and was thus not forgiven by the New York elite of her time and age. I have read almost everything written by Edith Wharton and one thing she is not and that is a snob. In fact she very often ridicules the socalled high society of New York at the turning of the century.
Wonderful 👍🌻
Thanks for the visit
Thank you for this wonderful video!
Edith Wharton, one of the greatest American authors! House of Mirth, Age of Innocence, Ethan Frome, just for starters. But I suggest "The Custom of the Country," which is not as well-known. It's wonderful, both funny and tragic. The main character is an awful woman named Undine Spragg. The first line: "Undine, how could you?" basically summarizes the theme of the whole book - how could she have done so many awful things, all for the sake of fame and fortune.
Very much enjoyed this documentary..
I love your comment dear and nice to meet you 🌹
What on earth do you mean, “she was never meant to be happy”? That’s a ridiculous statement.
Today yes but the role of a lady was looked at ver differently in that age.
Yes, I was shocked and offended by that statement. It is so presumptuous and wrong. It is for forcing Edith Wharton to fit into that woman's narrative for her that she thought up for Wharton to fulfill. But Edith Wharton is not a fictional character or a symbol, she was a real flesh and blood woman.
Yes a pretty shocking statement. I mean the woman won a Pulitzer. Surely, she derived some satisfaction from her success. Maybe if they would have said "unhappy in love," it still would have been more understandable since her ideals buttressed up against the times, but still. How could one do all this to elevate her then it one sentence undo all of that? Sheesh. As if photos of ppl during that time didn't all look generally the exact same--stiff, melancholy! Everyone knows that photos at that time required one to be absolutely motionless. Egads!
@@gina.1 A picture is just a moment in time! It does not proof anything. There is no validity to that statement. (Sorry for my English.)
Some of us are not meant to be happy no matter how much we wish to be. It happens. We learn to just be.
Or, as Lord Curzon was reported to have told his wife as he was enjoying his conjugal rights " Madame, ladies do not move "
😲 or 🙄 or 🤬🤬🤬. All three I suppose, to Curzon.
My favorite book in hs that I read was Ethen Frome...beautiful story...I read it straight through in 2 nights...
I love your comment dear and nice to meet you 🌹
The House of Mirth is a worthwhile read.
I like my snob 😂 😂 😂 😂. Oh I get got it, we got manners.
Interesting that Louis Auchincloss has the same American-British way of speaking as FDR!
I wonder if there's a relation to Jackie Kennedy's step father with the same last name?
@@mjohnson1741 Yes. Hugh Auchincloss was the first cousin once removed of author Louis Auchincloss. (Specifically, Hugh A was the first cousin of Louis A’s father.) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_D._Auchincloss And that whole social stratum had a carefully tutored “mid-Atlantic” accent (similar to, but Heaven forbid, not the same as, the accent actors and radio presenters learned in the early 20th century, which we now hear in old newsreels, movies, and parodies).
A brilliant woman. But so sad about her love life. Teddy and Morton were complete xxxxxxx
I love your comment dear and nice to meet you 🌹
As much I like Edith Wharton ,I Wish there is a BBC Documentary on Henry James .
Yes. He has a lot to say to us today. Some of his lesser known work can be startling; it could almost have been written today. I am thinking of What Maisie Knew, A London Life and The Reverberator. He is definitely worth a revisit. He, like Wharton, was from a rarified environment even in his own day. Some of his work is not for everyone. But it should be better known.
@@joankonkle6972 The Ambassadors! The Wings of the Dove! The Golden Bowl! Mad about the man!
@@foxycinnamon7307 my all time favorite film - based on HJ's Washington Square -- "The Heiress"
❤️😓😓😓❤️
@@foxycinnamon7307 Wings of the 🕊️ -- fabulous film! Venice canals, great performances, 3-hanky masterpiece!
@@foxycinnamon7307 Can't forget Portrait of a Lady.
I was just at The Mount last week. Beautiful estate.
Does Massachusetts own it now as a museum?
just watched the house of mirth directed by terence davies. goodness gracious what a beautiful tragedy. came here to learn more!
I can't find that film ANYWHERE, where did you? I LOVE that movie but I wanted to smack the heroine around at the end for repeatedly refusing help from the one man who truly loved her... Her consuming pride got her killed. I cried all day after seeing it when I was in New Orleans! 😓
@@hilakummins3104 i downloaded it!
To really learn more, read the book. A movie can mimic the story, but reading Edith's words, and her way with them, is very different. She's one of those rare people who put concepts into words so beautifully that you can sit and ponder a freshly read sentence and be amazed someone wrote what has only been an inarticulate pother within ones self.
Isn’t it heart-wrenching? But as another commenter said, if you enjoyed the movie the book will convey so much more. The description of Lily’s last day can make me tear up just thinking about it. And it is, quite precisely, a tragedy in the Greek sense, in that Lily has greatness of character - she’s not just some pretty little gold-digger or some meek, dull society miss; she’s bright, creative, and fastidious. But her own character flaws clash so fatally with the cruel and superficial society she wants to be part of.
20:00 The expectations for women in the 1890s sounds very much like the ones that were in place in the 1950s.
Or even the 1970s. My oldest sister is in what was essentially an arranged marriage and the only ones of us who have done well have done so by marrying well.
@@alexcarter8807 and the 1980s-1990s. My grandmother expected me to give up my job, move in with her and be her domestic slave, just like my mother (her only child) had been. Needless to say, I quietly rebelled and stayed well away.
@@HaFannyHa Maybe that was your experience but not everyone’s. You make it sound like feminism wasn’t a thing until the 2000’s.
@@robinrinsmith I was just trying to illustrate that many things took longer to change for many of us. By rebelling from those lowly expectations, I have enjoyed many simple rights that were denied my mother: My own income and pension, pastimes and pleasures etc. No, feminism didn't happen in our household - I had to become a feminist far away from the family home!
@@HaFannyHabut HaFanny, you did it! Brava!
Thoroughly enjoyed this.
Sometimes we just wish that life was about something… anything but these interpretations of what we might even half perceive to be truths… somebody save me….
I love House of Mirth!!
"Greenlawn Cemetary, which is in the Bronx, north of New York." Excuse me, but I live in the Bronx, and it is very much New York. If you're going to be a Brit and do a doc about a NY writer, you might want to know what you're talking about.
Her books were horrifying to a young girl! It’s a testament to her writing that I could be so moved!” A lady does not write”because if she does her thoughts and feelings would tilt the society.
OK docu, the best Wharton doc, so far, on YT. ~~ Let's not be harsh on Morton Fullerton. He was a sexy playboy. Edith adored him. (Walter Berry was a snobby queen),
This is actually a sad story. I dont know what to make of this except dont get married and pursue your dreams. ❤️
Or perhaps, just don’t get married.
Very interesting, life, especially that of Edith Wharton.....
Deeelightfull...
Ian Holmes Voice
Marvellous 💕
What is the piano piece at 17:44 please anyone? Thanks in advance.
Controversial question, aren't modern women being trapped also? We are told that we have to go to university, have to work for a corporation, have to put off or even downright discouraged from marriage and having children and encouraged to participate in casual sex and abortion, we are encouraged to put what offspring we do have into care as quick as we can and get back to work. Some women put off their peak fertile years so that we have to pay for expensive fertility treatments that many can't afford. Many end up never pair bonded and very bitter.
At the same time we are encouraged to berate, insult the intelligence, and deride our sisters that want a life where they like to cook and care for their families. I was from the 80-90s generation of feminism where they SAID they were about women making the choice that was right for them. I thought I would always be a career woman. I never anticipated having all of my assumptions upended after I had our first child and went back to work a few weeks later. I was absolutely miserable for the next 18 months. I wasn't neurotic and constantly calling the daycare. It was a lot of little things like her yeasty diaper rash and they wouldn't allow the doc's salve prepared by the pharmacy (which worked btw) because it wasn't an approved treatment. This was a military daycare, a military doctor and a military pharmacy that made it. I went through a lot from my female coworkers and in online mom's groups because I made a choice that was right for me and my family. I can't count how many times I was accused of "betraying ALL women", "giving in to the patriarchy", "internalized misogyny", "holding women back", or how many times I was told to just die, kill myself, and wishes that I would get divorced or that my family would hate me. This was all done by other women.
How is the current woman's cage much different from back in Edith Wharton's day except it is almost entirely women demanding their way of being a woman is the only way?
Unfortunately, modern women's cage often excludes the lasting joy and happiness because they really seem to hate men and even the thought of children. Just take a look at women's happiness and depression levels since the 60s, it's hard not to see something there.
You will have to tell us: How many times were you told to die, that your family would hate you, etc., etc.? I hope you got away from people like that. Women are still in cages, that is true. There is no replacement for a real mother. There is no replacement for a real father, either. These are home truths that we need to think about and acknowledge and act on.
@@joankonkle6972 are you questioning my lived experiences? How very dare you sir or Madame! Seriously though, do you honestly expect me to give you an exact number over more than 20 years to make you believe my experience is valid? Sorry, we didn't take screenshots then. If you want to know what it was like, just go on a feminist website (that still allows comments) and say I think I can raise my children better than daycare. Try it on Twitter. It's worse now than I got.
You're missing the point of what I was saying, I was raised that women had a CHOICE. By the 90s there was no choice or you were shamed (by other women) as being akin to hillbillies and/or right winger evangelicals (nothing wrong with that, but it was considered an insult to left leaning people) for just wanting to be moms and wives. We were shamed for making the choice.
I agree with the majority you said, except with the part where you said that women seem to hate men and children. What I noticed is that most women would still like to have children but they just don’t have enough time for them as they need to work. The hating men thing is quite understandable i think but of course women don’t hate the man just like that but more the patriarchal society. (Hope that makes sense. English isn’t my first language)
I also bought into the feminist creed in the 1980s and made a professional choice based on that creed that was wrong for me. I grew up and learned where my true happiness lay. I followed my happiness. But what you say is mostly quite true, there was a lot of pressure, and many women bought into it.
@@lisapop5219 My mom stayed home with us when we were little, went back to work because we needed the income when I was in junior high. She worked in day care. Very progressive & collaborative. Those families needed day care & didn't put off having kids. Feminism is the belief that women are as important to society as men, and we are.
Love EW and everything about her and everything she wrote.
Warton's novels are a real portrayal of a gracious but brutal society that no longer exists in America and in some ways we are the worse without it I think. She was a Snob and many of her Views on society ect would land her in hot water today but I can respect a snob who is honest and open with there snobbery .
'I can respect a snob who is honest and open with their snobbery'. Personally, I'd reserve judgement, especially after viewing this documentary! :)
her likening at the beginning can be transmuted into the houses of ones astrological birth chart
she had amazing gardens
I love your comment dear and nice to meet you 🌹
I ❤her writing
To write is to expose. The fear of the fake.
Ethan Fromm was my favorite of all her writings. What is yours?
Age of Innocence!!
The Reef
A lot of female writers used male names when they wrote.
Does anyone here know where I can get these books in large print? Thx ❤
Ultimately a sad story and a sad life. Kudos to Louis for his typically acerbic comments.
I think she created the life she wanted out of the confines of the life that was expected of her.
“How tedious”, she said, in her best highbrow voice.
I love your comment dear and nice to meet you 🌹
I was once dragged my mother and a friend of her's on a tour of the Newport "cottages."
I can't recall now which house we were in when I'd finally had enough. We were being shown a linen "closet" nearly as big as my NYC apartment living room.. At the end of the lecture we were asked if we had any questions.
No one spoke, so I raised my hand.
"How many people died of black lung to build this "cottage"?
My mother was appalled and made her opinion known to the whole group. I suspected at the time that there was at least one other woman in the group who'd thought of a similar question but hadn't dared to ask it.
My mother had never read a nook by Edith Wharton, nor would she ever. She didn't know who Edith Wharton was.
While this was fascinating I am left feeling that perhaps my love of her books was just a bit, a little bit, lessened for having watched this film.
Why do you think that was?
thanks for sharing this great documentary
Poor Professor R W B Lewis 1:56
who's badly fitting dentures forced him so swallow and slap and clack and sniff back phlegm and whistle like a canary it was hard to hear what he was saying the noise was so disgusting and distracting
it made me realise how audio technology is so advanced today compared to when this was produced so distractions and repulsions can be easily edited off the soundtrack 🤣
As a young person, I tried my best to read her work, but found it all to be founded on one long everlasting gripe. Maybe I was TOO young for her. Yet I loved George Eliot and still do, possibly because her tragedies were leavened by humanity and hope.
I'm a huge fan of Ms. Wharton, but I find her life very limited in perspective if she felt like she had limited chances in life. Had she put on her walking coat and just walked south block after block for hours she'd have seen how her life drastically differed from other people on the island of Manhattan they shared and called home.
She left home through her imagination. For whatever reason though she herself wanted to stay within the orbit of the way of life she grew up with. Yes, she left Manhattan for the Mount and France but it seems that her outer, public life stayed conventional enough so that she would always be accepted by her own kind.
Hear hear!
I had an ex like her own who used to ‘ yawn’ all the time. Just plain rude.
Wasn't there a Didi French film based on a book of hers, or was it another English author...?? (It was so good -- but depressing!)
*Judy -- and I just remembered it was Iris Murdoch, not Wharton... Nevermind! 😂
I wonder if Ms Wharton's concern for, and interest in, the "American Woman" ever extended to the lives of Black, Native, even immigrant women?
Imagine the honour in which she would be held, today if only she had. Nevertheless, her historical place in American society
and the glimpses she allows, through her writings, of an age long-dead, is fascinating.
So true, but I guess she could only write about that which she knew: upper class society at the turn of the century.
you judge her from our times eyes. is there any woman of her time who did what you ask?
And if she had written about any other class of women, you would have been outraged that a “white upper class woman” should dare to speak of their experience.
Women had to compete for their very identity. You were whom you married. Mrs so and so. You couldn't vote,drink,smoke,open bank account without a male signature. No credit except your husband's. Once married not to be working. Judged by how clean your house was, well behaved your children were and well tended flowers and garden were. ThankYou Father I was born in modern times!
Women don't get much of a deal from life according to this biography. But she wrote such wonderful, well plotted books! Her life sounds tragic, but her books are well worth reading today.
I concur with your sentiment.
Australia
I think Edith shackled herself willingly to the harsh standards of her community even though it made her unhappy. She still chose it over frightening independence and being alone. She has been a top 5 author of mine for 35 years; what a gift for expression she had! But her CHOICE, like many women's, to do the safer, easier and socially acceptable conforming to stifling societal regulations is what made her miserable. Self imposed misery. Edith was the quintessential "poor little rich girl" and I can't bring myself to pity her. Personally, I've had a far more difficult life and tougher dilemmas than agonized self involvement and satisfying the judgment of high society.
‘Her hips were too wide’ lol story of my life
I don’t understand why it was believed that a woman shouldn’t write but why I don’t get it?
💛
Women of The Gilded Age changed clothing an average of 12 times a day, donning appropriate costume for each codified ritual of it.
The men also had various clothing requirements per the activity. Dinner, shooting, golf, day, loungewear/smoking etc..