Reviews

The Touchstone by Edith Wharton

sidharthvardhan's review against another edition

5.0

Edith Wharton is probably one of best story tellers I have come across. Gilennard sells letters of a deceased author who once loved him to finance his way to marriage. The accrued guilt is a theme similar to that of Nostromo - but gets a much better treatment from author.

"“The sensation was part of the general strangeness that made him feel like a man waking from a long sleep to find himself in an unknown country among people of alien tongue. We live in our own souls as in an unmapped region, a few acres of which we have cleared for our habitation; while of the nature of those nearest us we know but the boundaries that march with ours. Of the points in his wife's character not in direct contact with his own, Glennard now discerned his ignorance; and the baffling sense of her remoteness was intensified by the discovery that, in one way, she was closer to him than ever before. As one may live for years in happy unconsciousness of the possession of a sensitive nerve, he had lived beside his wife unaware that her individuality had become a part of the texture of his life, ineradicable as some growth on a vital organ; and he now felt himself at once incapable of forecasting her judgment and powerless to evade its effects.”

mariafernandagama's review against another edition

3.0

I liked this very much. There are many similarities between it and "The house of mirth", that I have recently read, although I do think that "The house of mirth" is braver in its development and ending.
It's an interesting situation, the possibility of betraying somebody after they're dead and securing financial stability and a marriage to the one you love in the process. While it's easy to explain why that shouldn't be done, it's hard to imagine oneself in this scenario and know for sure which road would be chosen....

kismazsola's review against another edition

4.0

Bár években 2 évvel az első nagyregénye (1902) előtt jelent meg Whartonnak ez a kisregénye/novellája (1900), sokkal kiforrottabb szövegnek érzem. Vagy csak szimplán sokkal jobban érdekelt a téma, és/vagy a rövidebb terjedelemben jobban tudott íróilag működni Wharton – ki tudja.

Tisztán lélektani mű, ami közel áll hozzám. Végigkövethetjük Stephen Glennard útját, ahogyan a nagyobb jó érdekében eladja a lelkiismeretét, amibe aztán kicsit elkezd belecsavarodni, és rémeket látni

Spoiler

, míg végül saját magát buktatja le

. Nem ennyire tragikus, mint ahogy ebből az egy mondatból tűnik. Sőt, inkább szép.

Spoiler

Főleg a vége. Az egy szép gondolat volt, hogy az egyik legnagyobb érték egy nőnek, ha saját magához elvezetheti azt, akit szeret – még ha nem is értek vele egyet és kissé nyálas is volt.

Én lepődtem meg a legjobban, hogy mennyire tetszett. Elizabeth Klett pedig továbbra is az egyik legjobb a LibriVoxon, és az elkövetkezőkben sokat szándékszom hallgatni a narrálásait.

elena_lasko's review against another edition

"Glennard's God was a god of the living, of the immediate, the actual, the tangible; all his days he had lived in the presence of that god, heedless of the divinities who, below the surface of our deeds and passions, silently forge the fatal weapons of the dead." p.97

"We live in our souls as in an unmapped region, a few acres of which we have cleared for our habitation; while of the nature of those nearest us we know but the boundaries that march with ours." p.102

3camels's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

bibliotequeish's review against another edition

3.0

Stephen Glennard sells his private letters from his former lover (who died a famous writer) to a publisher to fund his marriage. He then feels the ramifications of his actions when his now wife finds out about his betrayal towards a woman who once loved him.

A fast read about betrayal and forgiveness.

kaileycool's review against another edition

5.0

Raised more questions than it answered, which is the best thing a book can do. Most notably for me, Wharton raises my favorite question asked by female writers of her period: is it better to realize our greatest desires or is true joy only possible outside of the move toward fulfillment? It brings to mind the dilemma at the background of most of Kate Chopin's work - the irreconcilable natures of the "life that is within and the life that is without."

ricefun's review against another edition

4.0

In my quest to immerse myself in Wharton in 2013, I was lucky to choose to read her earliest novel first in my marathon of Wharton works. I can see some of the literary stretching and testing that later turns into to Wharton's brilliantly full-bodied characters and stories. I was surprised to learn in the Epilogue of the copy I own that the story became shockingly autobiographical, because Wharton's only lover saved and sold for petty profit the letters she wrote to him. A sorry character, he did give contemporary readers the gift of having the opportunity to peer into Wharton's private thoughts.

boose's review against another edition

4.0

bunun wharton'ın ilk novellası olduğuna inanamadım, o kadar başarılı yazılmış ki. kankası henry james'in hikayelerindeki yazarların sırlarını ortaya çıkarmasından hoşlanmış diye yorumladımmmm

elizafiedler's review against another edition

emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0