Table Of Content
Gathering upher skirts, she drew aside with an impatient gesture; and as she did soshe had the odd sensation of having already found herself in the samesituation but in different surroundings. It seemed to her that she wasagain descending the staircase from Selden’s rooms; and looking down toremonstrate with the dispenser of the soapy flood, she found herself metby a lifted stare which had once before confronted her under similarcircumstances. It was the char-woman of the Benedick who, resting oncrimson elbows, examined her with the same unflinching curiosity, thesame apparent reluctance to let her pass. ” He had slipped insensibly intothe use of her Christian name, and she had never found the right momentto correct him. Besides, in her set all the men and women called eachother by their Christian names; it was only on Trenor’s lips that thefamiliar address had an unpleasant significance. She looked so plaintively lovely as she proffered the request, sotrustfully sure of his sympathy and understanding, that Trenor felthimself wishing that his wife could see how other women treated him—notbattered wire-pullers like Mrs. Fisher, but a girl that most men wouldhave given their boots to get such a look from.
A Rooting Interest - The New Yorker
A Rooting Interest.
Posted: Sun, 05 Feb 2012 08:00:00 GMT [source]
A love letter to LACMA’s entrance plaza
The story concerns the tragic fate of the beautiful and well-connected but penniless Lily Bart, who at age 29 lacks a husband to secure her position in society. Maneuvering to correct this situation, she encounters both Simon Rosedale, a rich man outside her class, and Lawrence Selden, who is personally appealing and socially acceptable but not wealthy. She becomes indebted to an unscrupulous man, has her reputation sullied by a promiscuous acquaintance, and slides into genteel poverty. Unable or unwilling to ally herself with either Rosedale or Selden, she finally despairs and takes an overdose of sleeping pills.
Watch a time lapse video of the Broad museum construction
Mrs. Peniston again paused, but this time her scrutiny addressed itself,not to the furniture, but to her niece. Mrs. Peniston rose abruptly, and, advancing to the ormolu clocksurmounted by a helmeted Minerva, which throned on the chimney-piecebetween two malachite vases, passed her lace handkerchief between thehelmet and its visor. Lily stood motionless, keeping between herself and the char-woman thegreatest distance compatible with the need of speaking in low tones. Theidea of bargaining for the letters was intolerable to her, but she knewthat, if she appeared to weaken, Mrs. Haffen would at once increase heroriginal demand. She applied the corner of her shawl to her eyes, and murmured through itthat no good came of bearing too hard on the poor, but that for her partshe had never been mixed up in such a business before, and that on herhonour as a Christian all she and Haffen had thought of was that theletters mustn’t go any farther. The first two weeks after her return represented to Mrs. Peniston thedomestic equivalent of a religious retreat.
Notes
It was impossible to believe that she had herself ever been a focusof activities. The most vivid thing about her was the fact that hergrandmother had been a Van Alstyne. This connection with the well-fed andindustrious stock of early New York revealed itself in the glacialneatness of Mrs. Peniston’s drawing-room and in the excellence of hercuisine. She belonged to the class of old New Yorkers who have alwayslived well, dressed expensively, and done little else; and to theseinherited obligations Mrs. Peniston faithfully conformed. She had alwaysbeen a looker-on at life, and her mind resembled one of those littlemirrors which her Dutch ancestors were accustomed to affix to their upperwindows, so that from the depths of an impenetrable domesticity theymight see what was happening in the street.
“The House of Mirth” remains my favorite of Davies’ films for many reasons, from its air of tragic futility and inevitability to the spare, ghostly beauty of its mise-en-scène, which resists Merchant-Ivory sumptuousness at every turn. It is hard to watch that sequence now without weeping anew, for both Sassoon and the director who memorialized him. Davies died on Saturday at the age of 77, and to say that “Benediction” is an apt (and aptly titled) final work is an accurate yet painfully inadequate response to his passing.
Let's keep in touch!
It was a small group still, with heterogeneous figures suspendedin large unpeopled spaces; but Lily did not take long to learn that itsregulation was no longer in Mr. Stancy’s hands. As often happens, thepupil had outstripped the teacher, and Mrs. Hatch was already aware ofheights of elegance as well as depths of luxury beyond the world of theEmporium. This discovery at once produced in her a craving for higherguidance, for the adroit feminine hand which should give the right turnto her correspondence, the right “look” to her hats, the right successionto the items of her MENUS. It was, in short, as the regulator of agerminating social life that Miss Bart’s guidance was required; herostensible duties as secretary being restricted by the fact that Mrs.Hatch, as yet, knew hardly any one to write to. She leaned back for a moment, closing her eyes, and as she sat there, herpale lips slightly parted, and the lids dropped above her faggedbrilliant gaze, Gerty had a startled perception of the change in herface—of the way in which an ashen daylight seemed suddenly to extinguishits artificial brightness. It was one of those still November days when the air is haunted with thelight of summer, and something in the lines of the landscape, and in thegolden haze which bathed them, recalled to Miss Bart the Septemberafternoon when she had climbed the slopes of Bellomont with Selden.
Emma Stone would like to be called by her real name, if you don’t mind
Later, she scolds herself for potentially ruining her reputation by being seen with Selden and for rebuking Rosedale, who might one day reach a position of social prominence. She also reflects on the injustice of being an unmarried woman, since men and married women have infinitely more freedom than her, and can live independent lives without constantly worrying about preserving a reputation of chastity. Meanwhile, Simon reappears in her life and tries to rescue her, but Lily is unwilling to meet his terms. Simon wants Lily to use the love letters that she bought from Selden's servant to expose the love affair between Lawrence and Bertha, thus crushing a potential rival and allowing him to further ascend up the social ladder. For the sake of Selden's reputation, Lily does not act upon Rosedale's request and secretly burns the letters when she visits Selden one last time. In order to divert the attention and suspicion of their social circle away from her, Bertha insinuates that Lily is carrying on a romantic and sexual liaison with George by instructing her not to sleep on the yacht in front of their friends at the close of a dinner the Brys held for the Duchess in Monte Carlo.
Where To Start Reading With Edith Wharton, Beyond Age of Innocence - Book Riot
Where To Start Reading With Edith Wharton, Beyond Age of Innocence.
Posted: Mon, 09 Mar 2015 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Lily’s taste of beneficence had wakened in her a momentary appetitefor well-doing. Her visit to the Girls’ Club had first brought her incontact with the dramatic contrasts of life. She had always accepted withphilosophic calm the fact that such existences as hers were pedestalledon foundations of obscure humanity. The dreary limbo of dinginess lay allaround and beneath that little illuminated circle in which life reachedits finest efflorescence, as the mud and sleet of a winter night enclosea hot-house filled with tropical flowers. All this was in the naturalorder of things, and the orchid basking in its artificially createdatmosphere could round the delicate curves of its petals undisturbed bythe ice on the panes.
Setting
This view of the Gryceincident chimed too well with Selden’s mood not to be instantly adoptedby him, with a flash of retrospective contempt for what had once seemedthe obvious solution. If rejection there had been—and he wondered nowthat he had ever doubted it! —then he held the key to the secret, and thehillsides of Bellomont were lit up, not with sunset, but with dawn. Itwas he who had wavered and disowned the face of opportunity—and the joynow warming his breast might have been a familiar inmate if he hadcaptured it in its first flight.
So frank an appeal for participation—so outspoken arecognition of the holiday vein in human nature—struck refreshingly on amind jaded by prolonged hard work in surroundings made for the disciplineof the senses. The door opened, and Gerty, dressed and hatted, entered with a cup oftea. Her face looked sallow and swollen in the dreary light, and her dullhair shaded imperceptibly into the tones of her skin. There’s music afterward; Ibelieve I had a card from her.” He glanced at the foolish pink-facedclock that was drumming out this hideous hour. You look tired—I’ve rambled on and bored you.”And in the unwonted overflow of his feelings, he left a cousinly kissupon her cheek.
The revelation of thissuddenly-established intimacy effectually chilled his desire to see her.If, at a moment when her whole life seemed to be breaking up, she couldcheerfully commit its reconstruction to the Gormers, there was no reasonwhy such accidents should ever strike her as irreparable. Every step shetook seemed in fact to carry her farther from the region where, once ortwice, he and she had met for an illumined moment; and the recognition ofthis fact, when its first pang had been surmounted, produced in him asense of negative relief. It was much simpler for him to judge Miss Bartby her habitual conduct than by the rare deviations from it which hadthrown her so disturbingly in his way; and every act of hers which madethe recurrence of such deviations more unlikely, confirmed the sense ofrelief with which he returned to the conventional view of her.
The faint disdain ofher smile seemed to lift her high above her antagonist’s reach, and itwas not till she had given Mrs. Dorset the full measure of the distancebetween them that she turned and extended her hand to her hostess. Lily, going to bed early, had left the couple to themselves; and itseemed part of the general mystery in which she moved that more than anhour should elapse before she heard Bertha walk down the silent passageand regain her room. The morrow, rising on an apparent continuance of thesame conditions, revealed nothing of what had occurred between theconfronted pair. One fact alone outwardly proclaimed the change they wereall conspiring to ignore; and that was the non-appearance of NedSilverton. No one referred to it, and this tacit avoidance of the subjectkept it in the immediate foreground of consciousness.
Nettie is now married and has a baby girl, and she invites Lily to her apartment to work as a nursemaid for her daughter.
No comments:
Post a Comment