This collection of stories is a treasure for those who love the works of Edith Wharton. Her short stories are amazing and enlightning. This book does a wonderufl job of collecting some of the most well known and loved short stories of Edith Wharton...

A few years ago an Italian novelist wrote what was supposed to be a companion volume to Nabokov's "Lolita," written from the point of view of Lolita herself. Forget that; Margaret Kennedy did it in the twenties, years before "Lolita" was even written. This tale of a hapless pubescent girl, abandoned by an incompetent parent to the tender mercies of predatory adults who have everything but the child's best interests in mind, is a touching, perceptive and still timely morality tale.

Set in England in the late 1950's, Lewis Percy is a book one will never forget. When we first meet the protagonist of our story, Lewis Percy is a student of literature in Paris. He enjoys the company of an odd assortment of women in the boarding house in which he stays. Having grown up without the advantages of a father figure, he grew to admire women very much, obviously as a result from his deep attachment to his mother and her loyal, quiet encouragements. When she passes away he is lost in the world and his transformation from careless student to grieving man is a process for which he is not ready and has no tools. He has lived the isolated life of a man deep in study and high moral values. The usual enjoyments of young men his age did not cross his path and if they did he would not have known how to partake of them.

He is deep in depression when he comes across an agoraphobic young lady whom he decides he will save from her disablity while she saves him from his loneliness. His marriage to her gets off to a good start but soon lives up to it's innate destiny - he feels more lonely and she is again afraid to leave home. They divorce but she is never quite out of his heart. When he discovers she is about to have a child, he lives for his nightly visits to her, when he is begrudgingly allowed to read a bedtime story to his child.

Thus his life goes on with the routine of now working in a library and the one happiness he has of visiting his child. Until a surprising person comes his way and wakes up a passion long dormant in this thoughtful young man.

The book examines the internal dialogues of this man who is at once lonely but at the same time sees a potential for joy in the world. His only problem is that he doesn't quite know how to fit in and enjoy life like others seem to be able to do so freely. For this reason, one could admit that there is a little bit of Lewis Percy in all of us. Thus, he becomes such a compelling character and we find ourselves rooting for him up until the end.

The book is a bit hard to get into at first, but if one sticks with it one will find it a rewarding experience and this character will remain with you for a long time ever after.

Never before have I read a book that has spoken so deeply to my heart. It is a book about a lonely academic woman who longs for love. She is extremely successful in the world of academia, but cannot reconcile her intellectual life with her love life. She doesn't believe she can start her life until she has found a man to live with and she gets all self-worth from the affirmation of Maurice, the man she pines away for. She hates leaving work for an empty home everyday and all she wants is to be loved in such a way that even when parted from the other she would never be alone. After reading this book, a person is left to wonder about the plight of the single life. Many questions arise such as: Can a single person be happy, fulfilled? Can academia fill emotional voids? Where does a person get self-worth? "Providence" is a love story. It's about a love freely given, but clearly denied. What makes "Providence such a profound and intriguing book is that it mirrors the author's life. Anita Brookner sees her life as a disappointment, noting that she never had a family because she never left school. She was an only child with a Polish-Jewish background who grew up in London. This left her feeling alienated and alone. She noted herself as being one of the lonliest women in London. All of her life experiences carry over to "Providence," and because they do, the novel is frighteningly real. If you're looking for a good read, "Providence's" theme deals with what the whole human race longs for...love.

I must admit I cheated and saw the movie before I read this book. I've had the novel for so long, but never got around to it. The film was stunning and I was sobbing at the end. Now after the reading the book - I am pleased to say the film follows the book closely and Gillian Anderson really captures the moral complexities of Lily Bart. I love how Wharton was able to find the hypocrisy in nineteenth century high society. Not only did she expose its follies, she also unveiled its fragility. Lily could have easily maneuvered her way out of nearing poverty, but she possesses a kind of morality that her privileged, back-stabbing friends do not. It is only by turning their backs on the truth do her peers hold up their shameful facade. I do find it disturbing that Lily believes her only way out is death...that she has nothing else to offer the world. Wharton uses this tactic, though, to symbolically represent the rich snubbing the poor - how they exist without even seeing them.

However, the most intriguing part about this novel is Lily's relationship with Seldon. In the beginning, he seems to always remind her of her vain attempts at marrying rich men. She can't go through with her designs, though. He strings her along, all the while he's having this under-handed liason with one of the most pretentious women of their social circle. Lily never gets to tell him how much she really loves him. Her pride reverts to bravery as she realizes she must face her future without his companionship. Does she die for an empty purse or a broken heart? I choose the latter.

Prior to reading The House of Mirth, I had read both The Age of Innocence and Ethan Frome. The House of Mirth deals with moneyed New York families, as does The Age of Innocence, but The House of Mirth has a more serious tone and a more tragic storyline, in that the main character is a woman who is a victim of her times. Lily Bart lives in an era when to be poor is the worst punishment of New York society. The idea of having to work for a living is untenable. Her goal in life is to marry well, but she struggles with the idea of abandoning her goals for true happiness just to marry well. The story deals with her misadventures in society, and the sometimes painful price her relatives and friends extract from her in exchange for financial support. This is a very enjoyable, although sad, novel, and I recommend it particularly to those who have already read some Edith Wharton and wish to round out their selection of writing.

I stumbled upon a review of the recent film of THE HOUSE OF MIRTH in the TLS and, in order to have the novel firmly fixed in my mind (that is, before the lush, seductive images of film forever eradicated Wharton's novel from me) I dragged my copy off the shelf for a re-read. It had been 16 years since I last read of Lily Bart and her life, and I didn't realize how much I had missed her. For me, this is one of the great reading experiences, one of a handful that make reading a book the deeply moving and human exchange that it is. Despite the distance of wealth, property, time and manners, Wharton manages to make Lily's world and life palpable to anyone who will listen. The clash of money, morals, personality and circumstance is infinitely developed and played out in front of a never fading natural world. Once again, I was deeply moved by Lily Bart and at the end, felt I had lost someone myself.

I'm usually a fan, but this is a book in which nothing happens, and in which that nothing is truly surprising mainly for its predictability.

I read the British edition of this novel with a more appropriate title (as other reviewers have noted) and was transfixed. I've read almost all of her novels and rank this with her best, up there with Dolly (Original title in the UK: A Family Romance) and Family and Friends. Hotel du Lac (which won the Booker) is one of her weaker novels.

Brookner's style can take some getting used to -- she often presents her stories with a minimum of dialogue -- and she is certainly not the writer if you're looking for escapist fluff or happy endings. Herz is a memorable character and she delves into his psyche with laser-like precision. I especially enjoyed the depiction of Herz' relationship with his doctor, who pooh-poohs
Herz' outmoded Freudian ideas.

This novel is a good place to start for anyone new to Brookner.

I was also confused when Anita Brookner's brilliant book, The Next Big Thing was described under the title, Making Things Better. Julian Herz is a great character, but I doubt he had the stamina, at his age, for a sequel, something Ms. Brookner has never previously written.
I'm sure Americans will love this book, and that there are good reasons for changing the title.

Madame Bovary is a wonderfully tragic and passionate novel. Emma's passion for romance is portrayed candidly, realistically, with no sloppy sentimentalism. Her disillusionment and downfall are brought about by her own actions, fired by her own flaws. Flaubert is very frank in his portrayal of her affairs. He is truthful about their emptiness and their consequences. This is the quality that elevates the book from a supermarket romance novel to a classic. Flaubert is quite avant garde in his sympathy for the plight of women in Emma's time period. He recognizes their lack of freedom and the social restrictions placed on women that are not placed on men. Yet he does not excuse Emma because of this injustice. She is still held accountable for her actions. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good tragedy. It is easy to relate to Emma Bovary, for everyone knows what it is to have high ideals dashed. I found the story rather slow in the beginning, but as the pace of Emma's life quickens, so does that of the novel. If you enjoy action packed plots, you may not enjoy this book. Those who enjoy satire and dark humor would also like Madame Bovary. Flaubert has a wonderful dry, cynical wit. One notices this in his descriptions of characters, especially the minor ones. He is a dark Jane Austen. I am a student at Mercy High School in CT, and I read this novel as part of the Advanced Placement curriculum. I would recommend this book to other AP students; it is entertaining, and a valuable novel to be familiar with.

When I was teaching World Literature we began class each year reading Gustave Flaubert's "Madame Bovary." Unfortunately, this is the one novel that most needs to be read in its original language since Flaubert constructed each sentence of his book with the precision of a poet. As an example of the inherent problems of translation I would prepare a handout with four different versions of the opening paragraphs of "Madame Bovary." Each year my students would come to the same conclusion that I had already reached in selecting which version of the book they were to read: Lowell Bair's translation is the best of the lot. It is eminently readable, flowing much better than most of its competitors. Consequently, if you are reading "Madame Bovary" for pleasure or class, this is the translation you want to track down.

Flaubert's controversial novel is the first of the great "fallen women" novels that were written during the Realism period ("Anna Karenina" and "The Awakening" being two other classic examples). It is hard to appreciate that this was one of the first novels to offer an unadorned, unromantic portrayal of everyday life and people. For some people it is difficult to enjoy a novel in which they find the "heroine" to be such an unsympathetic figure; certainly the events in Emma Bovary's life have been done to death in soap operas. Still, along with Scarlett O'Hara, you have to consider Emma Bovary one of the archetypal female characters created in the last 200 years of literature. "Madame Bovary" is one of the greatest and most important novels, right up there with "Don Quixote" and "Ulysses." I just wish I was able to read in it French.

...that is to say : this is one the books that can't be translated, becauses it uses all potentialities of french language. Those who admire in this book the cruelty and truth of the psychological portraits mustn't forget that Flaubert's dream was to write a "book about nothing, that would be held only by the force of the style". The story didn't interest him and in his correspondance you see how he got bored while writing it. Personnaly I don't like this kind of "feminine life in the country and loss of illusions that is to entail" but the style is just amazing. Proust said that Flaubert had "a grammatical genius". That's why anyone who can read french might throw his english version. Also, don't be obsessed by the famous "Madame Bovary, c'est moi". Flaubert wrote this book to get rid of his romantic tendancies : hence this mix of sympathy and deep cruelty about the stupidity of his heroin. This cruelty is reinforced by the use of the "focalisation interne" (when the writer writes from the point of view of the character) and the perfect neutrality : we live from the inside Emma's dreams and feel how ridiculous they are, and then, from the outside, we see them being slowly destructed. Read this masterpiece, and focus your attention on the style, and the construction (otherwise the book has little interest!)

Edith Wharton is likely the best chronicler of life in the upper startum of early New York, and the CUSTOM OF THE COUNTRY joins her other classics in this realm, such as the HOUSE OF MIRTH and the AGE OF INNOCENCE. From the beginning, you can see where the book is headed, but the skill with which it's written keeps it from being a predictable read. The herione (?) is Undine Spragg, a social climber on the order of Lily Bart. Undine is a rather unlikeable protagonist, which leaves one's sympathies with the supporting characters, such as her first husband, Ralph Marvell. Fortunately, the book is filled with wonderful supporting characters, and the book's point-of-view often shifts between these characters. The ending is bittersweet, but gives one a great deal of insight into the emptiness of attaining everthying you want. Another terrific novel from Edith Wharton!

What a marvelous author Edith Wharton is! I like to copy passages from her books just to feel how beautifully she constructs her sentences and paragraphs. I've also read Ethan Frome, Summer, House of Mirth, and Age of Innocence; they are all terrific novels. But The Custom of the Country is her best. Could there be a worse mother, wife, or daughter than Undine? And yet, she is too pathetic to hate; she is so needy and dependent upon material things. She's perhaps the most unliberated woman in literature! Do read this novel; you will love it and learn from it.

A stunning, ruthless indictment of crass materialism and American disregard for the traditions and values of other countries. It's hard to believe this was written before WW1.

This book made me want to scream, or cry. The characters are beautifully rendered, and some of them are dispicable people. That's what made it so unenjoyable to read for me.

The heroine, Isabel Archer, begins her adventures with much vitality and promise, yearning to see life and the world and not to settle prematurely into marriage and domesticity. Although James shows she's not perfect -- she's naive and somewhat conceited -- it's still pretty easy to fall in love with her. You look forward to seeing what great things her life will bring.

And then it all falls apart. After 200 pages of building her up, James marries her to a scoundrel and spends the next 300 pages suffocating her, one liberty at a time. Others have described this book as "uplifting" and spoken of Isabel's strength and courage; I honestly can't see what they could mean. I found it genuinely painful to see such a beautiful character destroyed. With all credit to James's writing skills, this book made me miserable. I couldn't wish it on anyone.

The best thing about 19th century novels is that they take so long to unwind, you know that you are guaranteed a long and satisfying trip into a story. I initially bought this book after seeing the Jane Campion film, (which I actually wasn't too crazy about)but I always think it's a good idea to read the source material. After a few false starts (warning: one needs to devote all their attention to James in order to enjoy him)I finally got into this book, and couldn't put it down. From the great settings of the novel, to the variety of fascinating characters (the liberated Henrietta Stackpole, the sinister Madame Merle, the beloved Ralph Touchett, Ralph's eccentric mother, the flighty Countess Gemini, the deadly Gilbert Osmond, and of course, Isabel Archer herself... James gives characters great names as well) "Portrait" is a great novel not only of self discovery, but self deception. How many of us in this world have liked to have thought ourselevs as free to make our own chocies, and were excited by a future full of "possibility" only to allow something (or usually someone) to get in our way and make us realize just how quickly we can lose our freedom and be in a cage that we need to get out of. (Pardon my bad grammar.) Those of you looking fora Jane Austen type ending, this may not be the book for you, but I think this book is more of a spiritual cousin to Austen than we may think. It all comes down to making choices, and teh effects of those decisions. Throw off any reservations that you may have because this book was written over a century ago, it's as fresh, funny, tragic and riveting today as it was then. (And hey, buy the film soundtrack which perfectly captures the mood of the story for accompaniment..that was a plug!)

The novel Portrait of a Lady is a beautiful. It starts out with a girl named Isabel Archer who goes with her Aunt Touchett to England. Isabel is portrayed beautifully by James in the novel as a curious, independent, intelligent lady. She arrives in isolated Gardencourt where she meets her uncle and her cousin, Ralph Touchett. Soon, she is proposed to by Lord Warburten portrayed as a polite, wealthy, radical gentleman but rejects him because her curiousity expects another, better suiter. Caspar Goodward, her other lover, fallows her to England and is determined to marry her. The two men come in even further in the novel when intrigue and scandel take place. Isabel travels all through Europe but is eventually entrapped and decieved. Drama and intrigue take the stage then. By that time it may sound like some domb soup opera, but really he refines the situations and makes them realistic but still dramatic unlike most stupid soaps. Some parts may seem long and dull because he explains himself so explicitly with huge paragraphs about one subject but it's worth it when your finished. The characters are done superbly with wonderful description. There is much irony, too, but if you immiedietly think irony is funny like some people its not in this novel. Its as a whole a serious novel. The ending is very well done if you think about it. Though,it may seem odd it is as a whole witty and crafty.

In this stream-of-consciousness novel a modest, conventional man longs to have passion and spontaneity in his life. Although Alan, a lawyer, is often perceptive about other people's character and motives, when he is with them he prides himself on being inattentive -- the "trick of mental absence," he calls it -- in order to avoid being bored or inconvenienced.

Preoccupied with fantasies of the seductive Sarah, he ends up married to dull Angela, who turns out to be afraid of sex. Their domestic 'contract' wears thin very quickly. "I was sent out every morning like a schoolboy, while Angela set to with Hoovers and dusters...." (p. 95) Then Angela becomes pregnant, and takes to her bed. Alan gets tired of cajoling her and dashes to Paris hoping to spend a few hours with Sarah, who doesn't show up. Angela has a miscarriage and slides into a suicidal depression. After her death, Alan manages to see Sarah, but she has no interest in him. At that he gives up entirely, feeling that alienation and passivity must be his fate.

This book is rich in themes: old age, growing up, the extent of personal responsibility, the rigidity of social roles, what a real man or woman is -- and it is not hard to identify with Alan's wistful desire for love, happiness, and feeling truly alive. (Of course he goes about it all wrong.) "Altered States" is a witty and insightful book, filled with deft turns of phrase and flashes of dry humor, e.g. "For a moment I wondered what [my aunts] were doing at Angela's wedding, until I remembered that it was my wedding as well." (p. 104) or "...explanations for absence that were infinitely more mystifying than the truth would have been...." (p. 30)

Alan Sherwood, to the unknowing observer, would appear the typical, traditional bachelor- staid, set in his ways, a traditionalist....pompous, even! Yet Alan has loved, been briefly married and then widowed, and has been subject to a passion strong enough to have dominated and directed much of his life.
This is a book about human relationships...about the mother son relationship, about husband wife relationship, about friendship...and, of course, about romantic love. It is a story with no happy ending, for the characters, as in real life, firmly refuse to be puppets to an overall stringpuller, displaying a will and direction each to this own. Above all, this is a book about growing old, the stage of life each of us will reach, if we are lucky, if we are careful, and which each of us must decide how to handle.
I enjoy novels written in the first person, and I found Anita Brookner's decison to write from the male viewpoint a satisfying way to have this story told. I related to Alan, and to his mother,and to poor Angela, and to upright, so correct Aubrey and to desperate Jenny. even to the feckless, willful, soul-destroying Sara. In fact, I could identify them from among my aquaintances right now..or point them out in the street tomorrow.
I see that another reviewer complains that the story and characters are unresolved....but that is also the point of this tale.. the people in our lives don't always accept the roles we've assigned them...and often, if they do accept, they don't play their parts as well as we'd like....
But life's like that, isn't it....doesn't always `go by the book'....not like a a Mills & Boon, anyway...
But for a feel of the real thing, read `Altered States'. And read it slowly....it's too beautifully crafted a novel for skimming!

Robin Knight

I found Altered States a verypowerful and moving novel of love,loss and despair.It conveysan aura of melancholy in thethe way the characters in the bookaccept their lot in life. The book's tale of Allen Sherwood's unhappy marriage and his persual of the elusive Sarahis both engrossing and illuminating.The one drawback I found (as mentioned in a prior review on this board)is why Allenis so drawn to Sarah since she is so flighty and unsympathetic. The writing in the book is first rate with beautifully drawn passagesof loss and seperation.Thisnovel makes me eager to read more of Anita Brookner's work.