I'm not quite sure how to write this post, my review of Edith Wharton's Short Stories. I usually go through a summary of the novel I've read and then give my opinions. But there's multiple different stories in this fabulous little volume, so that model doesn't hold. There are stories of ridiculous society ladies getting intellectually trounced by an interloper and of tragic lovers whose romance is ruined by the convictions of the day and their own desire to reject those convictions, among several others.
I love Edith Wharton's voice; The Age of Innocence is one of my favorite books. She writes social commentary on par with Jane Austen, but with the added bonus of a mocking, acerbic wit. Her short stories could be funny or tragic or both, and I devoured this little 120 page volume in two nights. She makes fun of society ladies by also notes how impossible life can become when a woman tries to buck the conventions.
Basically, she just kicks literary butt across the centuries.
I give this book a 10 out of 10. A good deal considering I think I paid $1 for my Dover edition paperback.
I started this book while traveling to North Carolina to help a friend with wedding planning, and I brought along a spare just in case. This means I won't be using the random number generator to pick my next book - I'll just finish the spare book I already started: Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner.
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