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rosielazar1's review against another edition
reflective
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
3.25
kmhst25's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
4.75
The Touchstone is a great story.
I would highly recommend the Harper Perennial 1991 edition (ISBN: 006097379X), because it includes a prologue and an epilogue that provide insightful context into the time and the author. It's often hard to find editions of the less well-known Wharton works with any sort of commentary, so I really appreciated that extra touch.
I would highly recommend the Harper Perennial 1991 edition (ISBN: 006097379X), because it includes a prologue and an epilogue that provide insightful context into the time and the author. It's often hard to find editions of the less well-known Wharton works with any sort of commentary, so I really appreciated that extra touch.
musicsaves's review against another edition
4.0
Tortured tale of paranoia, loss of self-esteem and the need for honesty and trust.
thejessman's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
If you like Wharton novellas, this should be on your list.
helgamharb's review against another edition
5.0
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.
In order to be able to marry the woman he loves, our protagonist Stephen Glennard anonymously sells the private letters written to him by another woman, a famous authoress now deceased.
After the deed is done and the letters are published, he has married his beloved and has become prosperous, an extreme sense of guilt, remorse and shame overwhelms him.
Will he be able to confess and clean his conscience and lighten the weight of guilt?
We can’t always tear down the temples we’ve built to the unclean gods, but we can put good spirits in the house of evil- the spirits of mercy and shame and understanding, that might never have come to us if we hadn’t been in such great need.
In order to be able to marry the woman he loves, our protagonist Stephen Glennard anonymously sells the private letters written to him by another woman, a famous authoress now deceased.
After the deed is done and the letters are published, he has married his beloved and has become prosperous, an extreme sense of guilt, remorse and shame overwhelms him.
Will he be able to confess and clean his conscience and lighten the weight of guilt?
We can’t always tear down the temples we’ve built to the unclean gods, but we can put good spirits in the house of evil- the spirits of mercy and shame and understanding, that might never have come to us if we hadn’t been in such great need.
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....
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....