ricefun's review against another edition
5.0
In Wharton's autobiography she reveals herself to be a woman of letters, stories, books and relationships. She makes no pretext about saying that the great love of her life is her writing and traveling. While her romantic and married life remains in the shadows, only to be revealed later by scholars and sensationalists, her literary life takes center stage of this work. Her resources and connections shape her experience, but also hamper her passion, as women of New York society are not meant to write. The memories of her childhood, travel, and friendships are her most treasured 'resources' and she encourages her readers to build their own trove of memories. The entire work is tinged with melancholy as her life draws nearer its end and she watches the lives of her friends pass away one by one.
deanna_1963's review against another edition
4.0
This is a well-written autobiography, but I it can be hard to follow as Edith Wharton drops names and places and adds foreign phrases that need to be deciphered. Her life appears to have been a whirlwind of parties and socials and things out of place in today's world. I feel I can better understand her novels, having spent some time with her life.
indecisivespice's review against another edition
4.0
I thoroughly enjoyed this and now want to visit The Mount even more than before. Even if I didn't enjoy this as a whole, the chapter on Henry James alone would've been worth the read.
sabaileyreads's review against another edition
good to know more details about one of my fave classic authors -- especially her really sweet friendship/mentorship with Henry James -- but not nearly as enjoyable as her fiction. My favorires are Age of Innocence and House or Mirth. Check those out!!
robyn_m's review against another edition
3.0
If you had to choose one hundred people from your life to include in a memoir, whom would you choose? What would you write about each person? Such is the essence of A Backward Glance. Key details of Wharton's own life are often glossed over or excluded.
ratthew86's review against another edition
1.0
Really found this tedious. As much as I love Wharton’s fiction, I do not want to read nearly 400 pages of how much fun her and her rich friends had yachting across Europe.
kstephens22's review against another edition
4.0
“The world is a welter and has always been one; but though all the cranks and the theorists cannot master the old floundering monster, or force it for long into any of their neat plans of readjustment, here and there a saint or a genius suddenly sends a little ray through the fog, and helps humanity to stumble on, and perhaps up.
The welter is always there, and the present generation hears close underfoot the growling of the volcano on which ours danced so long; but in our individual lives, though the years are sad, the days have a way of being jubilant. Life is the saddest thing there is, next to death; yet there are always new countries to see, new books to read (and, I hope, to write), a thousand little daily wonders to marvel at and rejoice in, and those magical moments when the mere discovery that ‘the woodspurge has a cup of three’ brings not despair but delight. The visible world is a daily miracle for those who have eyes and ears; and I still warm my hands thankfully at the old fire, though every year it is fed with the dry wood of more old memories.”
The welter is always there, and the present generation hears close underfoot the growling of the volcano on which ours danced so long; but in our individual lives, though the years are sad, the days have a way of being jubilant. Life is the saddest thing there is, next to death; yet there are always new countries to see, new books to read (and, I hope, to write), a thousand little daily wonders to marvel at and rejoice in, and those magical moments when the mere discovery that ‘the woodspurge has a cup of three’ brings not despair but delight. The visible world is a daily miracle for those who have eyes and ears; and I still warm my hands thankfully at the old fire, though every year it is fed with the dry wood of more old memories.”
franschulman9's review against another edition
5.0
Edith Wharton was a remarkable woman. In this book, she writes about the highlights of her life. The beginning focuses on her privileged childhood and how her love of books developed, leading to her becoming a successful writer. Throughout the book, she describes in depth, the people who were influential in her life. She captures the gilded era that ended with World War I which she experienced first hand, living in Europe and volunteering to help refugees in Paris. I highly recommend to those who enjoy her novels, as well as those who are interested in the lives of literary people and the upper class during the late 19th and early 20th century.
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