According to Edith Wharton in the News, it was on this day in 1921 that Edith Wharton became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her novel The Age of Innocence.
If you’d like to read it online, it’s available here:
Edith Wharton
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That’s one of my favourite books. I think I’ll read it again next month. I’ve been reading some modern writers and they just don’t take relationships seriously enough.
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Hi Joseph,
It’s one of my favs, too. I like reading classics, I think a lot of them were much more poetic than the somewhat clipped, sardonic prose we’ve become accustomed to. People weren’t constantly rushing everywhere and I think that’s reflected in the writing styles.
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I agree on the take on classics with both of you. There was more attention to plot development, subtlty in building up characters over time, and thus painted a more complete picture than most modern novels do. I read somewhere that the novel as we knew it before is dead for good. It’s a pity because the novel as we knew it, like classic paintings, showed a level of talent and understanding of human nature that should never become outmoded.
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For those of you who look for the subtlety in character and plot development, I recommend Toni Morrison’s latest, “A Mercy” – it just came out in paperback. It’s a little book – almost a novella, really, but it’s dazzling, the width and breadth of character and plot she packs into less than 200 pages.
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Hear-hear, Venus! Readers seem to expect all books, no matter what genre or subject to move at the pace of a spy thriller.
MJ, I will definitely pick up Morrison’s latest, thanks!
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I can’t wait to discuss it with you – Rosie’s reading my copy as we speak. It may wind up being the first entry in the MJB College of Knowledge syllabus, b/c I want to wait till August, when summers school’s over, to start The Odyssey.
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I’m glad professor MJB is holding off on The Odyssey a bit b/c I have so many tasty books landing in my lap now that poor Odysseus keeps journeying to the bottom of the pile. My biggest problem is what to start next as I can’t seem to master the art of reading more than 1 book at a time. But then again, maybe I’m just an old-fashioned that way.
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Hi Rosie,
I think one at a time is the best anyway. I can’t do more than one at a time either, or I just don’t get through them. What I need is to take a speed-reading class! I’m so slow, and it doesn’t help that I usually only read before I go to sleep at night, meaning if I get through 5 pages before falling asleep it was a good night. 😦 It’s very frustrating.
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A good book should be savored and you don’t get that by reading multiple books at a time. One at a time is the best although more time to read would be nice. I remember reading books in one sitting, staying up all night if needed, when I was in school. That has not happened since I started working.
I will check out Mercy as well. Thanks for the recommendation.
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Hi Venus,
I completely agree. A good book tastes time to digest. I can’t finish one and immediately start another if the first one really touched me in some way. I need a few days to process it, let it swirl in my mind. I call it a “book hangover.”
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I almost never read more than one book at a time – only if it’s for work or some kind of research. It’s too distracting, like having the radio & TV on @ the same time – I can’t stand that either. Don’t forget, Rosie, these are all fundamentals of our self-help book on “uni-tasking.”
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