whartonbuddread

Twilight Sleep was originally released in a series in Pictorial Review with this cover, before the book was released and temporarily became a bestseller.

So, what did you think? Did you understand the end? (If not, Wikipedia has it laid out in the plot summary.) Like The Glimpses of the Moon, I think this was a Wharton having a little fun with satire, but here also playing with perspectives. #whartonbuddread

Lcsmcat

Graywacke @AllDebooks @amysisson @Ann_Reads @arubabookwoman @batsy @BookishTrish @CarolynM @catebutler @Catherine_Willoughby @Cathythoughts @cindyash 7mo

Graywacke @Crazeedi @Currey @dabbe @Daisey @emilyhaldi @IMASLOWREADER @IndoorDame @jewright @KathyWheeler @kspenmoll @Leftcoastzen @LitStephanie 7mo

Graywacke @llwheeler @Louise @rubyslippersreads @SamAnne @sarahbellum @Sparklemn @Suet624 @Tamra @TheBookHippie @willaful 7mo

See All 33 Comments

Currey @Graywacke I, more or less, understood the ending or certainly as much as Wharton wanted me to. Of course, it is ambiguous as to whether Nona went upstairs to the rescue or went up to confirm her own suspicions but her stepping in the way of the bullet or stumbling into the room at the right time leaves us with the same sense of “waste”. What I was surprised about was Lita traveling with her husband. I don‘t think she would have any remorse 7mo

Lcsmcat I think their life was described well in this quote about Pauline: “Her whole life (if one chose to look at it from a certain angle) had been a long uninterrupted struggle against the encroachment of every form of pain.” 7mo

Lcsmcat So perhaps, @currey Lits felt the need to get out of NYC and away from the pain of being involved in such a sordid situation as quickly as possible. Or perhaps they forced her because they didn‘t trust her to stick to the story. (edited) 7mo

Lcsmcat Poor Nona. All the way through I felt for her. It was like she was born into the wrong family. 7mo

Currey @Lcsmcat Wrong family and wrong era. 7mo

Graywacke @Lcsmcat @Currey Nona was an unlikely hero, or “hero”. But maybe she should have let the bullet find its proper target… 7mo

Graywacke @Currey on Lita and Jim: i think Lita was sent as far from Hollywood as possible. Assuming Pauline still lives in denial, and believing that money solves all human problems and pains, she is still working to solve the marriage problem and keep Lita away from movie stars or other men Lita might like. 7mo

Currey @Graywacke @Lcsmcat well Dexter was truly guilty but it would have been Arthur who would be punished. I thought Wharton‘s depiction of quick thinking Bowden, the butler , was wonderful. Before anyone else had even grasped the situation, he had a solution to “how it looked”, and didn‘t think twice about who was guilty and who should be punished (edited) 7mo

Graywacke @Currey yeah, he was clever (Powder in my edition ) Pauline‘s staff is fantastic. I had to like all of them. (edited) 7mo

Graywacke @Lcsmcat i think that quote does sum up Pauline especially well. She‘s really intent on avoiding psychological pain. 7mo

Currey @Graywacke oh, yes Powder, misremembered. 7mo

Currey @Graywacke Lcsmcat regarding Pauline and psychological pain. It was very ironic that she had no idea of how much she was inflicting psychological pain on others 7mo

Lcsmcat @Currey Yes, she pushed all of hers on to someone else. I think that was even made explicit when Nona was talking about visiting Maisie‘s mother in the hospital. I‘ll have to look for it. 7mo

Lcsmcat @Graywacke I don‘t think Nona could have done anything but what she did. She seemed to spend her whole life taking care of other‘s issues. 7mo

cindyash
@Ldsmcat and it was horrible how she didn't listen to anyone and totally ignore their feelins. esp poor masie and poor nona. And then thet just all go off as if nothing had happened

7mo

Graywacke A long quote from an essay about TS. Should take several posts. Begins here: The rather disturbing reversal of roles in The Mother‘s Recompense - Anne Clephane‘s ‘mothering‘ of the woman who abandoned her at the age of three and Chris Fenno‘s desire to marry the daughter after having had an affair with the mother – becomes translated into obviously dysfunctional relationships in Twilight Sleep. Nona takes on the cares and responsibilities 👇 7mo

Graywacke 👆 of her family, while her workaholic father seeks escape from the boredom of marriage in an affair with his stepson‘s wife, and her mother rushes from pillar to post pursuing the latest fads, unaware that her family is malfunctioning around her. To drive home her point about inadequate parenting, Wharton also presents Kitty Landish and Amalasuntha as predatory parental figures 👇 7mo

Graywacke 👆 who hope to make a fortune, respectively, out of Lita‘s and Michelangelo‘s cinematic careers. 7mo

Graywacke That quote is from Edith Wharton: Sex, Satire and the Older Woman by Avril Horner and Janet Beer @Lcsmcat @Currey @cindyash or others - any thoughts in that? 7mo

batsy Yes, that quote really summed it up @Lcsmcat ! 7mo

batsy I like Nona but wanted her to be more developed; more of her POV would have been nice. I keep thinking about Pauline's narcissism & how her parenting is actually damaging to Nona so that's a very interesting quote about "predatory parenting" @Graywacke Not to mention Dexter's total self-involvement. It's interesting that Wharton keeps mentioning the "Taylorized" wellness solutions; both Dexter and Pauline submitted themselves to automated lives. 7mo

batsy And what's shown as the frivolousness of youth is actually a rejection of that rote life of productivity by both Nona and Lita in very different ways, because different characters. 7mo

Lcsmcat @Graywacke I think the essay gets the role reversals right, but stops short in my mind. Why was Wharton focusing on near-incest, for lack of a better word? Is she trying to say that capital S Society is incestuous? I feel like I‘m missing something. 7mo

Lcsmcat @batsy I agree that Lita and Nona are rebelling. I think Nona‘s is a more mature rebellion, but they are both a bit more reactive than proactive in their lives. 7mo

Graywacke @batsy @Lcsmcat interesting to compare Nona and Lita as parallel rejectors, in a way. My instinct is to not to see Lita as immature, because she seems very clear about what she wants. She doesn‘t have genetic baggage, no ties to any moral codes. So she sets her own. Nona is, in a way, tied down by expectations of decency. But i‘ll have to think on that more. Not sure it holds up 7mo

Graywacke @Lcsmcat so interesting, lovers pursuing parent and child in two successive novels. Did i say interesting? It‘s weird and disturbing. But…where did it come from? Clearly philandering was common in her world, but that this particular trait common? !! 7mo

Lcsmcat @Graywacke My vision of Lita as immature is the way she doesn‘t care how her actions affect (and hurt) others. (Toddlers are usually clear about what they want in a given moment. 😂) Pauline is similar in this respect. As well as being hypocritical in thinking Lita getting a divorce is unthinkable, yet she‘s on her second marriage. (edited) 7mo

Graywacke @Lcsmcat all true! But Lita is willfully indifferent of other people. They are there only to amuse and admire her. It‘s a developed skillset. 🙂😁 7mo

jewright @Graywacke—Do you like Lita is having a bit of a midlife crisis? She got married and had a baby and then freaked out about missing out on fun. I mean honestly who wouldn‘t want a chance to star in movies? 7mo

Graywacke @jewright i wouldn‘t want a Lita anywhere in my family. !! I wouldn‘t want to deal with her. Phew. But, you know, we have them anyway - in every family and elsewhere in life. 7mo

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