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The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton

" The greatest pleasure," wrote Gracian- is to read a book every day "even with the risk, complete the sentence, that this reading we find it boring , as is the case discussed today " The House of Mirth " novel by Edith Wharton, author of the above anything we had read and which is likely not return to read anything more in the future .

Edith Wharton (1862-1937), U.S. writer and designer, had a hectic love life. Married at twenty years, with Edgar Robbins Wharton, frequent infidelities of her husband led her to keep an affair with a journalist from the newspaper "The Times , William Morton Fullerton, who was bisexual and alternated this relationship with a Indian rajah. At the same time, Edith was also bisexual and was known romances with other famous women of her time, including the English-American poet Mercedes de Acosta had numerous lovers, the most famous Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich. Women

world, seated on the good society and an extensive knowledge of European culture-crossed the Atlantic sixty-six times, in 1907 settled in France, where she met Henry James, who is said was the most eminent his literary successors.

During World War I traveled on motorcycles all the front lines, describing that experience in a series of articles. Also developed a comprehensive social work recognized by the French Government the Legion of Honor. He died on December 11, 1937 in Saint-Brice sous Forêt small French town of Ile-de-France near Paris, where he lived from 1919

His most famous novel, maybe not the best, is " The Age of Innocence " ( The Age of Innocence) awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1921, of which there have been several theatrical and film adaptations, the latest version directed by Martin Scorsese in 1993, with Michelle Pfeiffer and Winona Ryder in the main female roles, the film that won an Oscar for her costume .

" The House of Mirth " (The house of mirth ) is his first major novel, written in 1905. Was published in installments, a very normal at the time, in the magazine Scribner's Magazine, January to November 1905. That same year, and as a book published by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 1.

The novel's title is taken from Ecclesiastes, 7:4 " The heart of the wise inhabits the house of mourning, but the crazy inhabits House of Mirth", although it seems that she refused to include this quote on the cover of the first edition of his book and wanted the authors.

We said at the beginning of this post that we had tired of reading this book and it is not because it is misspelled. By contrast, the painting of environments and characters is achieved, especially the protagonist, Miss Lily Bert, a beautiful and ambitious young man, who, lacking property, plan to participate in New York society of rich and famous lover fun and relaxed and luxurious environment.

This is the first impression your love Lawrence Selden receives it, when incidentally found in Grand Central Station:

"The shape of the delicate ear, curly hair up - do a little polishing by artificial means? - the thick curtain of black lashes and straight ... everything in it was at once vigorous and exquisite, strong and weak. Selden had a confused idea that it must have been very expensive, many people ugly and poor had to be killed in some mysterious way to create . "

To Miss Bert, perhaps a transcript of someone close to the author herself, " liked to think of her beauty as a power for good, as something that would give the opportunity to reach a position from which they could exert some influence on a vague diffusion of refinement and good taste. He liked the pictures, flowers and sentimental novels and could not avoid the idea that possession of such things ennobled his desire worldly advantages. "

Lily is not easy to enter this world of luxury and elegance, as apart from maintaining a behavior according to social conventions, this kind of life is high costs, " single woman is paid in tips and playing letters, going to the best dressmakers, wearing the appropriate dress for each occasion and being always fresh, delicious and fun . "

I will not reveal which are the problems to be faced by the protagonist and what is the end of this classic American novel not to disturb potential readers. The truth is you do not fully understand just what are the differences between him and his admirer, Selden, a thoughtful man and little decided. Perhaps its different idea of \u200b\u200bwhat success is, as expressed in the following dialogue:

[Seldon] "Success ... What is success?. I am interested in your definition.
- Success? - Lily hesitated. Well, I guess life is to get everything you can. Is a relative quality, after all. Do not match your idea with mine?
- My idea? Absolutely! She sat up with sudden energy, rested his elbows on his knees and stopped the placid look at the fields. "My idea of \u200b\u200bsuccess he said, is personal freedom.
- Freedom? What concerns?
"Everything ... money, poverty, comfort and anxiety, all materials accidents. Maintain a kind of republic of the spirit of what I call success .

this reader, the only independent republic before it is advertised by a popular shopping center, they can not excite these feelings and sensations between people who hate the ugliness, discomfort and poverty and live in a showcase only social attentive to themselves, their luxury and comfort. Therefore, despite its serious literary, I must confess that I am bored this type of stories that convey anything but me is the indifference towards the world "lost?, Populated by unsympathetic and selfish beings. By the way, nor find in this novel ironic vision and offers fine critics who say the author of this social group that should know so well and so faithfully portrayed, perhaps, that if, with a touch of cynicism.

© Manuel Martínez Bargueño
October, 2010

If you have interested in this entry and want to ask, comment or add something about it can leave a comment or write to my e-coreero manuelblas222@gmail.com with confidence be promptly addressed.

Thanks.
Manuelblas
NOTES

1. This novel was also filmed in 2000, written and directed by Terence Davies and Gilliam Anderson in the role of Lily Bart.

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The world of yesterday, Stefan Zweig

confess that I really wanted to comment on this book suggestive title, from a day when, leafing through an old manual random Literary History 1 , I read that in addition to biographies, novels worked in a very personal and poet, Stefan Zweig, who I had a child and almost forgotten author, it was " one of the most important works of literature germana, fictionalized biography," The world of yesterday " which is, moreover, one of the most representative documents of our time. "

Then I saw rave about this work, including 2 Rosa Montero and Antonio Muñoz Molina 3 , but what moved me most has been reading the recommendations of good friends in whose wisdom and trust literary taste. I'll

discussing some features of the biography of Stefan Zweig, leaning as much as possible in reading his book (written in italics is taken from the original) and only minimally on other sources I cite at the end of the text.

Son of a wealthy family of industrialists of Jewish origin, Stefan Zweig, the second of two brothers, born in Vienna in 1881 - " In no other European city of culture, the desire was as passionate as in Vienna, promoted culture, food and even created by Jewish community "- and lived there until the end of World War I, going to the dismemberment of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, an event that gave him the feeling Zweig that whole ideal of life, an orderly world, " the security world " settlement.

Times were peaceful, Zweig writes in which being young " an obstacle to any career and only the old age became a advantage," which explains that the school had a distinctly authoritarian and that the Young was subject to the family, while pounding out a city full of inspiring attractions, theaters, museums, libraries, universities, music ... The young people of his generation " seemed to have a fever for knowledge and know everything that occurred in in field of arts and science ", especially " we read, we read a lot, everything fell into our hands " for updates, although" the best school where reported a better all the news was coffee. "

At age 16, Stefan, knew all the poetry of Baudelaire and Whitman and was an enthusiastic of the nascent work of Valery and Rilke. Like all youth cults of the time despised the sport, a "waste of time " and shied away fearfully the problem of sexuality, " because any form of free love or out of wedlock was against bourgeois decency ... that was, first, assume the existence of sexuality and its natural development in private, and, secondly, I did not recognize it under any circumstances public. " To channel the vexed extramarital sexuality-the male, it is understood, because women had to come to marriage " not only with the body intact but with the pure spirit " prostitution was a profession regulated like any other, the huge expansion in Europe before the Great War.

This time of glorious youth is summarized by the author: " as citizens enjoy more freedom than the current generation [the book was written in 1941 and published in 1944] ... we dedicate ourselves to our favorite art , follow our intellectual inclinations, shape our private life in a more individual and personal .... had, in fact, vastly more individual freedom and not only loved but also the we used .. had the sense of freedom and self-confidence. "

During the following years before the outbreak of the war, Zweig is a poet and storyteller who travels to bohemian Paris, the city of eternal youth "who as a young going there a year it saves a memory incomparable happiness throughout his life "and Belgium, where he met one of his idols, the poet Emile Verhaeren (1855-1916), one of the main founders of modernism" Emile Verhaeren was the first French poet who tried give Europe what Walt Whitman gave America: a statement of faith at the time, future. " He also met during the same time Leon Bazalgette and " silent, enigmatic and invisible " Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) whose portrait trace human and writer with a master hand in the evocation of even the smallest details of his strange personality, " is wonderful that we had between us like poets." Through Verhaeren met Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), " great men are also more polite and yet those who live easiest way."

De Paris went to London where there is no fully acclimatized and then to Italy, Spain 4 , Belgium, Holland " change as the distance from the homeland, also changes the internal measure of things " America " in everything concerning the American culture were far behind in our Europe " , Africa, India, without ceasing to be, as noted by Luis Antonio de Villena, "a gentleman protected by family money " 5 and always having a way station in Vienna, a place of rest and work intervals between trips .

Rebuilding the spiritual atmosphere of the years before the First World War, Zweig, avid traveler, seen as a period of prosperity was apparent in all the cities of Europe: " the streets were wider, more luxury shops and elegant ... emerged everywhere new theaters, libraries and museums ... amenities such as bathroom and telephone, formerly privileged few, came to the petit bourgeois circles and since he had reduced the working day, the proletariat had been rising from below to participate, at least in small joys and comforts of life. Progress is breathed everywhere ... but not only cities but also people became more beautiful and more healthy through sport, to better food to shorter workday and even more intimate contact with nature .. Travel was cheaper and more comfortable ... bicycle, automobile and electric railways had shortened distances and had given the world a sense of space ... nobody, except the very poor, stayed home on Sundays. "

This world that seemed to herald a new dawn rose shattered when the 28 July 1914 fatal shot rang out in Sarajevo. " if we reflect calmly, we wonder why Europe went to war in 14, did not find no reasonable basis, not a single reason . " The people obeyed their superiors and were the war with blind faith that the sacrifice was inevitable.

cosmopolitan life and distrust take politicians Zweig vaccinated any patriotic enthusiasm, - " war needs a state of emotional excitement, enthusiasm required for the proper cause and the hatred of the enemy " - without the enormous and tragic war did shake his belief in the necessary unity of Europe. Refugee

itself, with the complicity of Rilke only for a time before this to go abroad, Zweig lives alone at home, hidden as a translator and proofreader in a library. An article " A Friends strange land" against the odds published in a German newspaper from Switzerland brings encouragement friend Romain Rolland (1866-1944) peace activist, who breathes enough encouragement to fight the word against the horrors of war. Write your drama "Jeremiah " plea for pacifism, and premiered in Zurich in 1918 .

After the collapse of the Habsburg, Stefan Zweig, who never discussed in this work that speaks of his private life, but which we know that by then was married to his first wife, Friderike, which already had two children from a first marriage, goes to live to a large house in Salzburg that he had bought during the war.

The postwar era and something very different. The world was not the same as before the war. " whole generation of young people had stopped believing in their parents, politicians and teachers: I read with suspicion any decree, any claim State." Inflation more persistent in Germany than in Austria, lasted until 1923, " nothing poisoned both the German people, nothing turned both matured and his hatred for both the advent of Hitler as inflation." Converted into a time of madness, all over Europe were altered the values \u200b\u200band not just the materials.

Since 1924, Stefan Zweig's personal life was rewarded with the arrival of an unexpected guest: success. During the 20's and early 30 century, Zweig became a celebrated author of best-sellers, which quickly translated into all European languages: the series' Builders world ", his short novels as" Amok "or" Letters from an Unknown "famous" stellar moments Humanity "(required reading in schools), and especially his work biographies of famous people: "To the biography of Marie Antoinette actually examined each and every one of the accounts to check their personal expenses, I studied all the newspapers and pamphlets of the time and I reviewed all records of the process until the last line ."

Interestingly, the explanation given by the author about his creative process of writing: " really easy for me to write and do it with fluency, in the first draft of a book Pen let it run its air and fantasize all dictated by my heart ... as a clean finish to put the first draft of a book starts for me the work itself, which is condensed and composing, a job that is never satisfied enough from one version to another ... This process of condensation and dramatization rather then repeated once, twice or three times in the galleys, and finally becomes a kind of game hunting: find a phrase, even a word, whose absence would not discriminate the accuracy and turn increase the pace. Among my literary tasks, to abolish is actually the most fun . "

The years between 1924 to 1933 Furon a relatively quiet day for Europe " traveling, rehearsing, we returned to discover Europe, the world ... capable of influence and effectiveness could be advertised for years what had become the fundamental idea of \u200b\u200bmy life, the spiritual union of Europe. " Salzburg, where he lives during these years Zweig who visit Russia and other countries, had become not only the artistic capital of Austria but the world. The most famous writers, musicians, painters, authors, scholars in all parts of the globe you are visiting and your guests and help increase the great library had been collecting autographs (and buying) of the great masters of all time .

And more years elapsed, working and traveling, learning, reading, collecting and enjoying all this ... until it was Hitler " so well known trick to force everyone promises that the day he came to power, joy seized more disparate sides" and destroyed the literary life in Germany. Authors' works were banned non-Aryans and the name of Stefan Zweig, like many others, was banned.

When in 1934, police searched his home then, in early 1934, a house search was a terrible affront "Zweig realized that Austria was lost and began to prepare for departure country, " for me freedom is the most important world. " He lived in London " physically, not to the soul " preoccupied attending events leading up to World War II .

In 1936, on his way to America, invited to give lectures, the ship calls at Vigo, in the hands of Franco, and saw standing before the City Council and formed a " some youths led by priests and dresses with their peasant clothes, probably brought from the neighboring villages "and go see them again, soon, wearing uniforms and equipment of soldiers, wondering: Who organizes these young anemic?, Who pushes them to fight the powers that be?, Who provides and pays for weapons and equipment? And answers himself: " was a new power that he wanted the domain, the same power acting here and there, a power he loved the violence, which needed the violence and he considered weak and outdated ideas that we all professed and for which we lived: peace, humanity, understanding ... who took advantage of naive idealism of youth to their power and their business " 6 .

In 1938 he produced the annexation of the Republic of Austria to the Reich, to the international passivity. Hitler became owner and master of your city and Zweig, private Austrian passport had to ask the British authorities stateless passport. With the invasion of Poland in 1939, "more intimate mission to which he had devoted all the strength of my conviction for forty years, the peaceful union of Europe, had failed ." Zweig moved to the United States and then to Argentina and Brazil.

The rest of his life is not in this book, but we can not tell. About to turn sixty, although not lacking editors or readers, fine and delicate sensibility was not able to assimilate so much disaster and 22 February 1942 committed suicide with barbiturates, along with his second wife, Lotte, in his flat in Petropolis, near Rio. The couple had prepared everything carefully so as not to disturb anyone, left money to pay the rent and salaries of employees, willing his will, precise instructions on what must be done with his stuff, who would care for her dog, recent texts corrected and ready to be published and a pile of letters stamped envelopes and properly dismissed, the image of both embraced in his deathbed, still impresses .

As Rosa Montero writes 7, what is truly important is not the act end of a person who no doubt believed that his life and his world were exhausted, but they, over time, hence the renewed relevance of his message, Zweig was right in claiming their right to live peacefully in a civilized European territory open to the world. His was, in the troubled years of the war, a light in the darkness.

© Manuel Martínez Bargueño
October, 2010

If you have interested in this entry and want to ask, comment or contribute something about it, you can leave a comment or write to my e-mail directions manuelblas222@gmail.com with confidence be promptly addressed.

Thanks. Manuelblas.

NOTES

1. Ramon Esquerra. "Introduction to Literature Universal ", third edition by Fernando Gutierrez. Editorial Apollo. Barcelona, \u200b\u200b1948, p.585.

2. Rosa Montero " A small light in darkness " Country Weekly 12.05.2002.

3. Antonio Muñoz Molina. "A European ." Country Weekly (I have the date of the cut)

4. "I have a concern travel everywhere, to see and enjoy it all, I'm afraid of old age and lose it (...) in the despondency and laziness. In March, I will go to Spain, which must be the most beautiful country in Europe, I can sense it Come with me, you if it would be a travel companion! No but every time I utter the word Spain, I feel like a jerk. I'm so glad (...) this trip. I'm studying English "Stefan Zweig Letter dated Herman Hesse in Paris on 21.11.1904."

5. Luis Antonio de Villena. "Three lives Stefan Zweig. "The Cultural World
24.12.2009
6. While in Argentina, Zweig read in a newspaper the news of the bombing of Barcelona and the shooting of a English friend in whose company he had spent a pleasant hour not many months ago. I wonder, and ask any one who knows-who could be the English friend.

7. Rosa Montero. " A small light in the darkness ." El País, May 12, 2002