Review: "Bound by customs and conventions"
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 09 14, 2013
After slogging through way too many poorly edited ebooks of late, it was time to turn to classic literature.Edith Wharton is the mistress of social commentary; her delightful powers of observation regarding every nuance of behavior are shared with the reader; and each turn of phrase sets the scene as thoroughly as if we were there.We are faced with dilemmas of the human soul and the taboos of "good" society amidst its conventions. "Old New York" was almost a character in its own right,so much of a role was it assigned. Family and position = tribal bondsWe are drawn into the fray via the appeal of Countess Olenska and the shock her actions engender in polite society. The "triangle" is carefully established, and there is an ineffable sadness about her person.The familiar is the safest...Americans come across as staid, set in their ways and boring compared to Europeans.I enjoyed the mildly humorous observations on things like the limitations obesity put upon Mrs. Mingott.Some of my favorites of Ms. Whaton's observations are: "Fierce spinsters who said `No' on principle before they knew what they were going to be asked"... "The innocence that seals the mind against imagination and the heart against experience."