The Life and Art
of Edith Wharton

A BACKWARD GLANCE. By Edith
Wharton. New York: D. Appleton-Cen-
tury Co. 1934. $3.

Reviewed by AMY LOVEMAN

MRS. WHARTON'S remembered yesterdays, despite the long agony of war which interrupted their even tenor, and for all that of recent years death has been levying its toll upon her friendships, are by and large the recollections of a singularly happy life. Born to wealth and position in the New York of the sixties, her existence was from the beginning laid in pleasant places. New York, Newport, Rome, parents who entertained and were entertained constantly and who upheld the standards of good manners, good education, and good speech insistently, friends blessed like herself by kind fortune, books, the country, and foreign travel: these filled her early years. At a tender age Edith Wharton might have been observed assiduously reading aloud—but reading aloud from a book held upside down and illegible to her ignorance the while she fluently made up stories never written on its pages. Only a few years more, and, in all the maturity of eleven, she had embarked upon her first novel, and had discovered the delights of her father's library. Already the future writer was born, and that passion for reading as well as writing which runs all through her book like a refrain was to the fore.

From out the pages of her volume start
a host of sharply drawn figures, her par-
ents and grandparents, her childhood
playmates, the companions of her youth
and her young married life, the friends
and acquaintances of the later years.

A goodly galaxy of the great and prom-
inent it is that sheds lustre on her chron-
icle. Here are the aged Thomas Hardy,
with little interest in any of the literary
movements of his day, "entirely enclosed
in his own creative dream," Henry James,
in the earlier days of a long and intimate
friendship, "the bearded Penseroso of
Sargent's delicate drawing," and in the
later grown to voluminous proportions,
exchanging spruceness of appearance for
comfort, and only spasmodically interested
in dress; George Moore, "who hated and

Garden," Mrs. Wharton sets forth the
processes of her art, "the growth and un-
folding of the plants in my secret garden
from the seed to the shrub-top." A fasci-
nating record it is—this of the characters
which spring full panoplied to her mind
clamoring for a story to bring them to
life. It is these sidelights on her art which
give to a volume of picturesque recollec-
tions a significance beyond the memories
they unfold.

envied James, and missed no
chance to belittle and sneer
at him"; Meredith, white-
haired, deaf, and cover-
ing up his deafness
by pouring out a
stream of conversa-
tion, the Comtesse
de Fitz-James,
who cared little
for literature and
knew less of it
and had the most
brilliant salon in
Paris; Howard
Sturgis, Geoffrey
Scott, Jusserand,
TheodoreOOSE-
velt, and many
others. It is Henry
James, however, who
holds the center of the
stage, Henry James, wel-
coming his friend to his
home, and going each time
on her arrival through the
ritual of kissing her twice when
they reached a certain rug in
the hall, Henry James on a

visit to America and the country home of
Mrs. Wharton in the Berkshires, so deser-
perately uncomfortable because of the
heat that the entire house party had per-
force to motor without ceasing from morn-
ing to night, Henry James discoursing on
literature and life, and finally Henry
James dying a slow and harrowing death.

Though personalities take up the
greater part of her chronicle, inevitably
much stress goes on the craft of writing
and Mrs. Wharton's own relation to her
work and her art. Woven into the very
warp and woof of her reminiscences is
the passion for creation. In one of the
most interesting, as it is from the literary
point of view, one of the most illuminat-
ing chapters in her book, "The Secret

EDITH WHARTON
IN 1884

Reminiscences of
an Active Career
by Mrs. Wharton

(Continued from page 1)

and yachting voyages in the Medi-
terranean and the Aegean. Ultimate-
ly, she made a permanent residence
in France. To that country she be-
came especially attached, and did
conspicuous service there during the
years of the war.

Within the spacious pattern of her
life, as her fame as novelist has in-
creased steadily, have sprung up
many fortunate friendships, and some
of the most fascinating pages of
*A Backward Glance* are those which
describe such notable people as Henry
James (one of Mrs. Wharton's closest
friends), Theodore Roosevelt, Paul
Bourget, Thomas Hardy, George
Meredith, and many others, among
them painters, dramatists, musicians,
and statesmen. Out of intimate
knowledge, revealing sidelights on
these highly interesting people are
given.

The volume, of course, deals in
much detail with Mrs. Wharton's
artistic career. Here she tells of how
she became absorbed in writing while
very young, of her early work, of the
influences of Henry James and Paul
Bourget, of how she wrote her
masterpieces—*The Age of Innocence*,
*Ethan Frome*, and *The House of
Mirth* — and of how her best
known characters were evolved.
Among other things, one learns that
*Ethan Frome* was begun as a copy
book exercise in French, that the au-
thor does not consider it her best
novel, and that her characters always
appear to her with their names and
that to change them often proves
fatal.

A *Backward Glance* will give the
reader a long-to-be-remembered ex-
perience. The years roll back upon
a worth-while world and upon an ac-
tive and enviable life. Out of the in-
numerable books being published to-
day, only a handful will endure. A
*Backward Glance*, it is safe to say,
will surely be one of these.

"We are treated to a delicious
series of intimate communications."—
William Soskin in the N. Y. American.

*A Backward Glance*. Reminiscences of Edith
Wharton. Illustrated. $3.00. Published April
27.

“A Gallant Lady”

"'A Backward Glance' by Edith Wharton is a life story absorbing and rich . . . A gallant lady."—New York American. "Contains the rich qualities of Mrs. Wharton's fiction, the deep substance of her introspective mind, the extensive reach of her outlook upon life."—Boston Transcript. "As rich in pictures as a novel of old New York. May be read with unalloyed pleasure."—New York World-Telegram. "A valuable social document."—New York Sun. "We find the expected poise and clarity of vision."—Philadelphia Inquirer.

“Charming”

"'A Backward Glance' by Edith Wharton is a charming book of reminiscences."—New York Times. "The sidelights on the author's art give to a volume of picturesque recollections a significance beyond the memories they unfold."—Saturday Review of Literature. "A book perfectly the author's own in its serenity, its charm, and its grace."—Chicago Tribune.