Luminous. There doesn't seem a better way to describe tis book. A lambency seeps over the events, the narrative, the characters, their quiet joys and sorrows and theie love.
Briefly-the year is 1870 . The place - upper crust new york. Newland Archer is engaged to May Welland. Then he meets her exotic cousin, the countess Ellen Olenski. Needless to say, Archer falls in love with the cousin and is torn by the social codes and his love.
Wharton writes with a sharp pen; she chooses carefully the moments when she removes the veneer off her characters to reveal their motives and true nature. And we learn that the characters are not as innocent, not as noble or not as brave as they same.
The whole mood of the novel is gentle- the joys, the sorrows, the love , the sacrifices and their triumphs. Even after you close the last page, the novel still holds you in a gentle yet lingering grip that is not so easily shaken off.
Read it. This is a Pulitzer well deserved.
