I have tried (I don’t think successfully) to read this is the past, but it is brilliant.
The themes are all Henry James, but the cultural and sociological contrast between America, east coast particularly and Europe in the late 19th century has a friction that doesn’t really exist anymore (well there was an Anglo-American (west coast bride) royal wedding as I read this yesterday, and some of those are being discussed on the radio as I type this).
The European character in this book is in fact an American who married into Europe and is now separated and a conventional New Yorker who falls in love with her, despite his betrothal to a very typical New York bride. What is very clever is how New York society combines to frustrate his intentions and at the end of the book one is wondering who exactly is innocent.
Very good and worth re-reading and also finding some more Edith Wharton, there aren’t many available on kindle.
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