Italian Backgrounds

#whartonbuddyread - Italian Backgrounds - 2nd half

Well. Your Italian tour has completed. Please grab your personal items, check for anything you may have dropped while napping, and take a stop in our little discussion store here before exiting. (Maybe i‘ve spent too much time on ✈️s recently?) Anything standout for you? Should we go back to novels after the holidays? (Next could be The Mother‘s Recompense)

Lcsmcat

Graywacke @AllDebooks @Ann_Reads @arubabookwoman @batsy @BookishTrish @CarolynM @catebutler @Catherine_Willoughby @Cathythoughts @Crazeedi @Currey @Daisey 1y

Graywacke @emilyhaldi @IMASLOWREADER @jewright @KathyWheeler @kspenmoll @Leftcoastzen @LitStephanie @llwheeler @Louise @SamAnne @sarahbellum @Sparklemn @Suet624 @Tamra @TheBookHippie 1y

Currey Yes, back to novels please. 1y

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Currey @batsy @Lcsmcat @Graywacke As Batsy noted in her review the George Sand dis was quite the masterpiece of cruel 1y

Currey @Graywacke - I enjoyed looking up the painters and paintings to help me see what she was discussing but I was again feeling as if I was so much NOT the intended audience for this book 1y

Lcsmcat Like @Currey I felt like so much was going unnoticed by me because I am not of the time or the class. But mostly I think Wharton is just at her best when depicting people, rather than places. 1y

Lcsmcat I‘m for returning to the novels, but I‘m not sorry to have tried this. And @Graywacke - your introduction had me giggling. 😂✈️ 1y

Graywacke @Currey @Lcsmcat we are the wrong audience in many ways. I was hoping for some history, but I kind of got the sense Wharton assumed we knew all the history already and she was determined to find something we couldn‘t possibly know. She seemed to have a well read and well traveled audience in mind. 1y

Graywacke My main problem is that a text catalogue of art works might make sense in 1905, but doesn‘t make sense today and it‘s not what we‘re used to. Those artist names and works fly by, and i found myself searching for something i would have a chance of remembering. 1y

Leftcoastzen I didn‘t find a way to get my hands on this one . I was looking through a section of trade paperbacks I seldom look through & I do have a copy of The Mother‘s Recompense!😂 1y

batsy That was my main issue too @Graywacke there's a lot that's assumed of the reader but we're not as smart these days, Edith! We have smartphone-ruined brains 😂 I was so hoping the other pieces would have the same tone and creative freedom, so to speak, as the Hermits piece. @Lcsmcat That's a great point, the novel suits her strengths better in terms of getting into people's heads. 1y

CarolynM I intended to join in with this but I‘m just not in the right headspace. I will get to it one day, and when I do I know I‘ll enjoy everyone‘s comments. 1y

Graywacke @Leftcoastzen it‘s not easy to find in paperback, and maybe not worth the effort. But, cool you‘re prepared for The Mother‘s Recompense. 1y

Graywacke @batsy the hermit piece was terrific. And I agree, we aren‘t as smart these days. 🙂 1y

Graywacke @CarolynM hugs. Join back in anytime you feel ready. 1y

TheBookHippie I was so disappointed ! And @batsy 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I don‘t think she was writing to us… sorry to be so late! Last weeks of school were 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫 bring on the novels and winter break! 1y

Graywacke @TheBookHippie enjoy your break! And yeah…about the book and our Wharton future. 1y

32 likes17 comments

batsy

Italian Backgrounds | Edith Wharton

pick

This is my first attempt at Wharton's nonfiction. I am dazzled by the ease with which she synthesises myriad references to art & architecture. Her depth of knowledge is remarkable. People reveal themselves when they travel, but especially so when they write about it, & as such there's a glimpse of her snobbery. There were times when it felt like the references overcrowded her prose. Her formal descriptive powers in her novels are the highlight;

batsy here it felt like we were often given a rundown of how many examples she could cite, how many references she could make. I'm sure writing as a woman in that era would have made her even more determined to show that she knew what she was talking about, but it doesn't always make for compelling reading. My favourite pieces were "What the Hermits Saw" & "Italian Backgrounds". I haven't finished looking up her references! #WhartonBuddyRead @Graywacke 1y

batsy (The illustrations in the Gutenberg epub edition, shown above, are by Ernest C. Peixotto. They are lovely and delicate drawings..."softer" than Wharton's artistic eye, in a sense!) 1y

tpixie Love the illustration and your review. I‘ve never read her… so many books I need to read! 1y

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Ruthiella I didn‘t even realize that she also wrote NF. 😳 1y

erzascarletbookgasm Lovely review. 1y

BarbaraBB Wow, I didn‘t know about her non fiction 1y

JenDR Definitely checking this out. 1y

CarolynM Lovely review. I will get to this sometime…😬 1y

batsy @tpixie I know the feeling! #MountTBR I definitely recommend her novels 👍🏽 1y

batsy @Ruthiella @BarbaraBB She was extremely prolific 🙌🏽 1y

batsy @erzascarletbookgasm @CarolynM Thank you 💜 1y

batsy @JenDR I do hope you enjoy it! It wasn't the best display of her strengths but her writing is always so elegant. 1y

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batsy

Italian Backgrounds | Edith Wharton

"Still more Shakespearian is the scene of the pearl. Cleopatra, enthroned in state at the banqueting-table, lifts one hand to drop the jewel into her goblet, and in her gesture and her smile are summed up all the cruel grace of the 'false soul of Egypt'". Love it when words collide, in this case #WhartonBuddyRead & #ShakespeareReadAlong ? @Graywacke

The detail in this painting ? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Banquet_of_Cleopatra_(Tiepolo)

TheBookHippie 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍 1y

batsy @TheBookHippie So gorgeous! 1y

Graywacke I think this was my favorite line in this second part. 1y

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batsy @Graywacke Same! 1y

Lcsmcat That line jumped out at me too. But I think my favorite section was when she not-so-subtly pans George Elliott. Wharton is the queen of snark. 1y

batsy @Lcsmcat Oh no, I must have missed that...zoned out when I read it, maybe 🙈 I did enjoy her snark towards George Sand! 1y

Lcsmcat @batsy I shouldn‘t post before I‘ve had my coffee. I meant Sand. 1y

batsy @Lcsmcat Haha, no that's a relief! I was worried I had missed out on reading the book while reading the book 😁 1y

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Currey

Italian Backgrounds | Edith Wharton

Onward Wharton readers - one of my favorite Correggios….

Lcsmcat, batsy, Graywacke

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AllDebooks

Italian Backgrounds | Edith Wharton

#Whartonbuddyreads

This is a delight. It is so lovely to view European travel through the eyes of a rich American woman in the early 20th century. Edith Wharton provides us with a glimpse of a bygone world with her usual prosaic flair. I'm really enjoying this so far @Graywacke @Lcsmcat

Graywacke No. To answer that question. 🙂 Looks like you finished. Glad you enjoyed! 1y

TheBookHippie I‘m loving this read. 1y

AllDebooks @Graywacke lol. She's so snobby, tho 🙄 1y

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AllDebooks @TheBookHippie 🩵 1y

Graywacke @AllDebooks yeah. This is true. And she has no idea… 1y

Deblovestoread Not reading along but love the cover 😍😍😍 1y

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Graywacke

Italian Backgrounds | Edith Wharton

This week we‘re covering the first five sections:
- AN ALPINE POSTING-INN
- A MIDSUMMER WEEK'S DREAM
- THE SANCTUARIES OF THE PENNINE ALPS
- WHAT THE HERMITS SAW
- A TUSCAN SHRINE

Share your thoughts on this elegant wealthy travel writer from 1905? (The same year House of Mirth, her 1st successful book, was published)

#whartonbuddyread

Lcsmcat

Graywacke @AllDebooks @Ann_Reads @arubabookwoman @batsy @BookishTrish @CarolynM @catebutler @Catherine_Willoughby @Cathythoughts @Crazeedi @Currey @Daisey 1y

Graywacke @emilyhaldi @IMASLOWREADER @jewright @KathyWheeler @kspenmoll @Leftcoastzen @LitStephanie @llwheeler @Louise @SamAnne @sarahbellum @Sparklemn @Suet624 @Tamra @TheBookHippie 1y

Currey To be honest, I could barely read the first two selections with their circuitous sentence structures, and their assumptions about what her reader knew and felt. I was probably not even close to understanding her reader. What is the difference between banal, picturesque and sublime in the Swiss alps versus the Italian alps. There were some truly wonderful passages however. 1y

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Currey @Graywacke I truly enjoyed the selection on the hermits and the old gods living with the new. That was delightful 1y

Currey @Graywacke also, thank you for your teaser. Great way to help visualize her scenery 1y

Graywacke @Currey i was really unhappy after finishing the second section. I was thinking, uh oh. But I found the next three each terrific. 1y

TheBookHippie The writing for me, was much better in the last three 😵‍💫😅 however I found lovely passages throughout. What I wondered while reading was, did the upper class who traveled speak a certain way to one another and we aren‘t catching it? I am thoroughly enjoying this, ties nicely with trying to focus on nature, surroundings etc in this season. 1y

Lcsmcat Late to the party (our Happy Holly Days parade was today) but I agree that this was harder to get into than her fiction. I did like the images of old gods living alongside the hermits. But Wharton‘s snobbery came through loud and clear without the skewering of her own class we are used to in her fiction. 1y

Graywacke @TheBookHippie interesting question. My guess is she was speaking to people who had to option to travel like her. But, as far as speaking in a certain way…don‘t know. 1y

Graywacke @Lcsmcat agree. Snobby and hard to get into up front. But once i got to section 3, I didn‘t have issues. I loved the chapter on the hermits. 1y

TheBookHippie @Graywacke it reminds me of Germanic languages where there is high and low class distinctions in speech. Did she know she was coming off as a snob or was that how she spoke oblivious to how it sounded, which is hard to believe reading her fiction, but maybe? 1y

Graywacke @TheBookHippie mm. I think there is a lot of consistency between her fiction and nonfiction perspectives. She just doing different things. It‘s easy to see snobbery in casual analysis of travel luxuries. But I think the same mindset is embedded in her fiction, just that her fiction is character-centric, so that snobbery is adulterated in a way. 1y

Graywacke I find myself thinking of Willa Cather as Wharton captures scenery. Wondering how Cather would do it. Wharton does scenery really well, and gardens. But you don‘t feel the natural space like you do with Cather. 1y

Lcsmcat An example of her perception of her era and class as the pinnacle of taste/knowledge, etc: “The perception of differences in style is a recently-developed faculty” Really? She thinks earlier artists didn‘t perceive differences in style? That kind of thinking suffuses the writing. 1y

TheBookHippie @Graywacke Agreed it just seems to have struck me this time! Ha. I agree about Cather! I like both ways too which surprises me. This read has been fun. 1y

Lcsmcat @Graywacke I agree that she does “tame” landscapes better than the “wild” ones Cather is so good with. 1y

batsy I'm glad to see that others also struggled a bit getting "into" it—it did seem very much of its time in its snobbery, & drops you right in the middle & expects you to have knowledge of the places & the references. I found the writing beautiful, however, & appreciated the illustrations in my Gutenberg epub (looking it up on Google sort of ruins the magic, for it places you squarely in the present day!). The writing is gorgeous; Hermits is my fave. 1y

batsy Certain things made me wish I was there to understand her concept of beauty: "It is precisely in places like Tirano, where there are no salient beauties to fix the eye, that one appreciates the value of these details, that one realizes what may be called the negative strength of the Italian artistic sense." Such an intriguing statement! 1y

Graywacke @TheBookHippie @Lcsmcat I like both ways too. Despite the snobbery, I‘m enjoying this. I just don‘t like the parts where she lists a bunch of stuff she saw. 1y

Graywacke @batsy it‘s a very interesting choice of description. Negative strength. Glad you‘re enjoying the prose. Hermits was a great chapter, and a great for the books arching structure. It makes the adjacent chapters better because I found myself rethinking the sacred mountain of Varallo and then imaging where she‘s going with forgotten works in Vivaldo in light of hermits. 1y

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Graywacke

Italian Backgrounds | Edith Wharton

A little teaser for Italian Backgrounds

Sacro Monte di Varallo
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CfO5EW8t_bE
(It‘s in Italian. But, it works for me on mute. 🙂)

#whartonbuddyread

Lcsmcat

batsy Thank you! 😁 1y

TheBookHippie I think we should have a field trip. 1y

36 likes2 comments

LitsyEvents

Italian Backgrounds | Edith Wharton

repost for @Graywacke

Reminder - we pick up Wharton again the first part of this month, a travel book. We‘ll discuss the 1st five sections (essays? Travelogues?) next weekend. As always, anyone is welcome to join.

This book is difficult and probably expensive to find in hardcopy. But it‘s cheap in different ebook versions on amazon and elsewhere. Look for Wharton‘s complete works for the cheapest versions.

#Whartonbuddyread

LitsyEvents #BuddyRead

original post:
https://www.litsy.com/web/post/2671123 1y

36 likes1 comment

Graywacke

Italian Backgrounds | Edith Wharton

Reminder - we pick up Wharton again the first part of this month, a travel book. We‘ll discuss the 1st five sections (essays? Travelogues?) next weekend. As always, anyone is welcome to join.

This book is difficult and probably expensive to find in hardcopy. But it‘s cheap in different ebook versions on amazon and elsewhere. Look for Wharton‘s complete works for the cheapest versions.

#Whartonbuddyread

Lcsmcat, LitsyEvents

Graywacke @AllDebooks @Ann_Reads @arubabookwoman @batsy @BookishTrish @CarolynM @catebutler @Catherine_Willoughby @Cathythoughts @Crazeedi @Currey @dabbe @Daisey @emilyhaldi @IMASLOWREADER @jewright 1y

Graywacke @KathyWheeler @kspenmoll @Leftcoastzen @LitStephanie @llwheeler @Louise @rubyslippersreads @SamAnne @sarahbellum @Sparklemn @Suet624 @Tamra @TheBookHippie 1y

Graywacke I suspect we‘ll have a smaller group for this one. No worries. If you want off this notification list for just this book or the buddyread in general, just let me know. Of course, if you want to be added, you‘re welcome to be. Again, just ask. Cheers. 🙂 1y

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dabbe Can I pick up again with y'all in January? I'm a team leader for #WinterGames and am swapped with holiday reads right now. 🩵❄️🩵 1y

Graywacke @dabbe of course 1y

rubyslippersreads I think I‘ll pass on this one and rejoin in January. 1y

Graywacke @rubyslippersreads thanks. I‘ll update you on my list. 1y

AllDebooks Looking forward to this one 😀 1y

Graywacke @AllDebooks me too. ☺️ 1y

TheBookHippie Got it on my kindle! As a stand alone! Who knows when I purchased it! 🙃😂 I‘m excited for it. 1y

batsy Whoops! Thanks for the reminder 😅 I'd forgotten and am happily doing the #CloakandDaggerChristmas challenge this month, but I'll do my best to fit this in. 1y

jewright I‘m excited to read this one! I was just thinking I was missing Wharton. 1y

Graywacke @TheBookHippie that funny. It‘s almost time to start. 🙂 1y

Graywacke @batsy well, glad I reminded you. Wish you well with the challenge. I‘m happy you‘re joining us. 1y

Graywacke @jewright yeah. I miss Wharton too. (And I‘ve only been reading all men. Hemingway, Coetzee, Paul Harding, and lately Cormac McCarthy. And my audio is Paul Murray…) 1y

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LitsyEvents

Italian Backgrounds | Edith Wharton

Repost for @Graywacke

#whartonbuddyread goes nonfiction for December.

Italian Backgrounds (1905) is only about 100 pages, and covers Wharton‘s travel experiences and her take on Italian history and art. It should make a nice easy end of the year buddy read.

Anyone is welcome to join

I‘ll repost the schedule in the comments, since it‘s not really readable above.

LitsyEvents Original post: https://litsy.com/p/N2tXVUNpME9x 1y

26 likes1 comment

Graywacke

Italian Backgrounds | Edith Wharton

#whartonbuddyread goes nonfiction for December.

Italian Backgrounds (1905) is only about 100 pages, and covers Wharton‘s travel experiences and her take on Italian history and art. It should make a nice easy end of the year buddy read.

Anyone is welcome to join

I‘ll repost the schedule in the comments, since it‘s not really readable above.

Lcsmcat, LitsyEvents

Graywacke @AllDebooks @amysisson @Ann_Reads @arubabookwoman @batsy @BookishTrish @CarolynM @catebutler @Catherine_Willoughby @Cathythoughts @Crazeedi @Currey @dabbe @emilyhaldi @IMASLOWREADER @IndoorDame 1y

Graywacke @jewright @KathyWheeler @kspenmoll @Leftcoastzen @LitStephanie @llwheeler @Louise @rubyslippersreads @SamAnne @sarahbellum @Sparklemn @Suet624 @Tamra @TheBookHippie @willaful 1y

Graywacke December 9 set
- AN ALPINE POSTING-INN
- A MIDSUMMER WEEK'S DREAM
- THE SANCTUARIES OF THE PENNINE ALPS
- WHAT THE HERMITS SAW
- A TUSCAN SHRINE 1y

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Graywacke December 16 set
- SUB UMBRA LILIORUM AN IMPRESSION OF PARMA
- MARCH IN ITALY
- PICTURESQUE MILAN
- ITALIAN BACKGROUNDS 1y

willaful I think I'm going to be too busy for this one. 1y

Currey I‘m in. How delightful to be in Italy in December 1y

TheBookHippie Oooooo I‘m in. 1y

IMASLOWREADER i guess ill live vicariously through Edith Wharton lol 1y

batsy Thank you! I'm keen to join and barring any last minute issues I should be able to read along 🙂 1y

IndoorDame I‘m going to skip this one. I haven‘t been managing to keep up with my group reads lately 1y

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