Focused on the “bright, young things” whose frantic pursuits of pleasure led to constant and ever more frivolous parties in the years leading up to World War II, Vile Bodies offers a satiric look at every aspect of upper class British society. From the hilarious opening chapter, in which an assortment of British travelers is crossing the Channel from France during especially rough weather, through innumerable parties, dances, weekend visits to country houses, automobile races, airplane trips, a movie set, and ultimately, “the biggest battlefield in the history of the world,” Waugh skewers his characters and their values (or lack of values) and, in the process casts a jaundiced eye on society as a whole. Though the characters are superficial and their behavior even more so, as one would expect in a satire, Waugh manages to keep the reader’s interest high through his rapid changes of focus and scene and his keen observations of society in the years just prior to the war. (To read the entire review, click on the title.)
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Posted in Classic Novel, Literary, US Regional on Jan 10th, 2011
“Miss Lonelyhearts” is the 26-year-old son of a Baptist preacher, working in New York in 1933 as the writer of a gossip column. A sensitive person, he reads thirty or so traumatic letters from readers every day, ranging from women with too many children and abusive husbands, to people who have no idea where their next meal will come from, and he must offer some sort of hope to each one. Shrike, a features editor, is his antithesis, a nihilist who mocks Miss Lonelyhearts’s Christian faith, every other philosophy which might offer hope, and Miss Lonelyhearts’s every attempt to escape from the sadness of his life. Extremely emotional and filled with cynicism and despair, the novel is the consummate example of Depression literature, firmly establishing the attitudes and philosophies that prevailed as people tried to deal with events so overwhelming that no philosophy, other than nihilism, could fully explain them. West’s focus on themes and philosophies and the symbols which illuminate them prevents this brilliant but often heart-rending novel from descending into melodrama and pathos.
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Posted in Classic Novel, Literary, US Regional on Jan 10th, 2011
Newland Archer, the protagonist of this ironically entitled novel set in the late nineteenth century, is a proper New York gentleman, and part of a society which adheres to strict social codes, subordinating all aspects of life to doing what is expected, which is synonymous with doing what it right. As the author remarks early in the novel, “Few things were more awful than an offense against Taste.” Newland meets and marries May Welland, an unimaginative, shallow young woman whose upbringing has made her the perfect, inoffensive wife, one who knows how to behave and how to adhere to the “rules” of the society in which they live. When Newland is reintroduced to May’s cousin, Countess Ellen Olenska, who has left her husband in Europe and now wants a divorce, he finds himself utterly captivated by her freedom and her willingness to risk all, socially, by flouting convention. Both Ellen and Newland, however, are products of their upbringing and their culture, and they dutifully resist their feelings because of their separate social obligations.
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Posted in Classic Novel, Literary, US Regional on Jan 10th, 2011
Set in the aftermath of World War I, this study of 1920s society, with its elements of social comedy and satire, follows Nick Lansing and his wife Susy, through the highest levels of European society. Though they have the credentials to be accepted, they are financially limited, always unsure where their next funds will come from. Nick and Susy have married for love, with the understanding that if either of them finds a more financially stable suitor with a long-term future, that each is free to dissolve the marriage. They spend their honeymoon year living in the empty European homes of their more affluent friends.
When they stay in the palazzo of Ellie Vanderlyn in Venice, early in the novel, Susy receives a note from Ellie asking her to mail four letters, one each week, to Ellie’s absent husband Nelson, so that he will not know she is away. (To see the complete review, click on the title.)
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Posted in Classic Novel, Literary, US Regional on Jan 10th, 2011
Published in 1905, The House of Mirth offers a blistering social commentary on the lifestyles and behavior of super-rich American society. Having grown up in this society, author Edith Wharton evaluates it here as an insider, and her trenchant observations give this early novel a liveliness and verisimilitude not characteristic of “aristocratic” novels written by outsiders. Set at a time in which the old, moneyed aristocracy was being forced to admit newcomers who had made their recent fortunes through industry, the novel shows moneyed society in flux, the old guard ensuring their exclusivity against parvenus who are not the “right type,” at the same time that their sons and daughters were often securing large fortunes through marriage into some of these new families. Lily Bart, a beautiful young woman of good family whose father lost everything when she was only nineteen, is left dependent on wealthy relatives in this society until she can charm a financially secure suitor into marriage. (To see the full review, click on the title.)
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