Thanks for including the annotated sentence. I learned something new when you used the annotation to unearth the pattern in the passage - overwhelming passion and emotion interrupted by the forces of "time and capital-S Society". Ha! there's the cover blurb.
These chapters really moved the story along. Newland learns he's been a lot more transparent about his inner "sanctuary" than he thought as he realizes the family has left him out of the loop in discussions about Ellen. Even though Newland and Ellen have deferred their desires, they are not completely innocent. In today's terminology, they've been carrying on an emotional affair. I like how Wharton keeps using Lawrence Lefferts as a guidepost for Newland's conscience. Newland doesn't like Lefferts's behavior, but when he starts creating a web of lies to cover his planned trip to DC he finds himself "furnishing details with all of Lawrence Lefferts's practiced glibness". Now that Newland knows that May (and probably everyone else) is fully aware of his feelings about Ellen, Lefferts gets an almost irrational rise out of him with insinuating comments about her. Even so Newland is super excited about his errand to meet Ellen and the prospect of time alone together. This meeting surely has to be the inflection point that is going to determine how the rest of the story will play out. Because it's Wharton, I anticipate something a lot more complex than for the two of them to flout society and run off together.
In terms of bank failures, it's important to realize that there was no FDIC and no SEC and no Federal Reserve.
Basically, banks attracted deposits based on reputation. A bank makes money by taking in deposits and investing the deposits at a higher rate than they pay out on the deposits. So for every $100 of deposits, a bank might keep $10 in reserve and invest the other $90.
Once rumors start flying about whether a bank's investments, in this case the $90, was "shaky," depositors will rush to withdraw their money. If too many depositors ask fro their money back and the bank can't sell its $90 of "shaky " investments the depositors will lose money.
You can imagine Beaufort taking big risks with the $90 hoping to make a fortune but failing. Basically he's mostly gambling with his depositors' (his social set's) money.
Oh, this is fantastic context!! In The House of Mirth, the main character has a gambling addiction. And the novel does a really good job of highlighting that there's hardly any difference in her addiction to winning money while playing bridge and the men who use other people's invested money to win business deals. There's a fantastic academic essay about "speculation" in The House of Mirth, which is all about the overlap between speculating on the market and being a spectator in society.
Excellent connections here, with Beaufort's "big risks" and gambling behaviors.
I knew something big and financial was coming! Really interested to see how Beaufort’s ruin will affect the other characters, and how it mirrors others’ failures, like you said.
And WOW May, I kind of love her with the claws out but it also scares me 😮
It really feels to me like Beaufort and Newland are more parallel than Newland would like to admit. I'm always intrigued by Newland's hate if Beaufort. Beaufort's downfall feels so connected to what I think is going to be Newland's downfall?
Haley, I lovelovelove your interpretation of Newland as genuinely sensitive. This idea really helps me to turn the story at a new angle and see different layers. Of course you're right that he's been trained to interpret what people don't say in words (they all have been!), but he also has an aptitude for emotion that he has honed through his dilettantism with literature and philosophy and his love of books. He has a very powerful imagination, tied to emotion; there are places his imagination doesn't go (like the idea of May having agency and personhood), but that combination is still a hugely important part of him. And he may not always be wrong about what he imagines that others are feeling.
Observation: Newland is being so, so reckless right now. Even when he learns that his family doesn't trust him where Ellen is concerned, even when his unspoken dialog with May is all about how she knows he's lying to her and why, even when he is witnessing the dire consequences levied within New York upon transgressors of their values for Honesty and Marriage, even when Ellen herself told him that she will only stay in America if he doesn't try to be close to her--all he is trying to do is get time alone with her. Even as he congratulates himself for how noble Ellen has helped him to be (just as he used to feel about May and what she represented to him...), he's still ready to throw it all out because of these powerful feelings.
In the lengthy discussions of Julius and Regina Beaufort's situations, with historical annotations, Wharton very specifically gives us anatomies right at this inflection point of what New York cannot tolerate, and how it punishes those who fail to hold the right standards. Is Newland paying any attention to what he is risking, how dangerous a thing he's trying to do? Maybe he *wants* his world to come crashing down on him, if it means he can just feel this.
I'm liking this reading, too. It's opening up Newland in new ways for me. Like you said: maybe he *wants* to risk it all because he gets to feel something. Maybe it kinda feels good in some ways to be so on the edge — he is certainly more wakeful and alert and alive in this chaos than he is inside that numb and deadened existence he fears is all he can have with May and the Lefferts and the Sillertons.
There's also something a little naive about it, that warms me to him. He's so certain that he knows everything, but he doesn't know what to do about Ellen. He's clumsy and obstinate and a little frantic. It's humanizing him in ways that break my heart a little bit.
“Archer listened unmoved to the relentless chorus. The idea of absolute financial probity as the first law of a gentleman's code was too deeply ingrained in him for sentimental considerations to weaken it. [...] Nor did Mrs. Beaufort's fate greatly move Archer. He felt, no doubt, more sorry for her than her indignant relatives; but it seemed to him that the tie between husband and wife, even if breakable in prosperity, should be indissoluble in misfortune.”
This passage really stuck with me. It tells me two things: Firstly, that Newland is more than ready to go to battle for Ellen, but it won’t for another woman in a similar disgraced position; his feelings for Ellen couldn’t be more obvious even to the casual observer, and he thought he could get away with it!
And secondly, that he’s more than aware of the importance of marriage in the society he lives in. When he proposed to May, he agreed to a very clear social contract: he would fulfill his role of husband just the way May, their families and old New York would expect. Then he had a change of heart, but still went ahead and got married. May has every right to be mad.
"If Newland has been longing for someone — a lover, a woman — to see through all his social personas and masks, he is married to the woman who sees him clearer than anyone else. And he hates her for it." So well said, and so devastating!
Oh, such a great moment to closely read!! He says he's unmoved...and that these ideas are "too deeply ingrained in him," but the sentimentality of it all is certainly getting to him with *Ellen,* even if it doesn't get to him with anyone else.
It reminds me of when he yells at Lefferts early in the novel: "Women ought to be free!" I don't think he means it. In fact, now considering this quote, I'm afraid what he's really shouting is: "Ellen should be free to be my mistress!"
Which is, of course, at the heart of his definition of "Freedom." To be able to do the naughty thing, break the social code, and get away with it.
But Ellen's definition(s) of freedom are much more interesting and open, I think. Newland's are so narrow and so limited.
For me, this past week's reading could've ended after this line from chapter 25: "Her choice would be to stay near him as long as he did not ask her to come nearer; and it depended on himself to keep her just there, safe but secluded." I think it kind of puts the context and the conflict of Newland's world into one sentence.
Of course, I also loved this one from chapter 26: "It was incredible, but it was a fact, that Ellen, in spite of all her opportunities and her privileges, had become simply 'Bohemian'." Fantastic.
It is exciting/interesting to see things begin to unfold as well as unravel. Beaufort's losing his (as well as others) money and the whole of New York Society are panicked. Their want to be secluded within and intertwined with each other is working against them. AND it turns out May is not so clueless after all! I loved this sentence from her: "I offer you this one myself, in the only form in which well-bred people of our kind can communicate unpleasant things to each other: by letting you understand that I know you mean to see Ellen when you are in Washington, and are perhaps going there expressly for that purpose..."
I am anxious to see what happens next. Is Beaufort done?! Will we no longer see his character? What's going to happen with May and Newland...with Ellen and Newland?!?
On a completely unrelated note, I was thrilled to see part of the story take place in Jersey City...the city of my birth. Kind of wasn't expecting that. Happy reading and Happy 4th!!!
Thanks for including the annotated sentence. I learned something new when you used the annotation to unearth the pattern in the passage - overwhelming passion and emotion interrupted by the forces of "time and capital-S Society". Ha! there's the cover blurb.
These chapters really moved the story along. Newland learns he's been a lot more transparent about his inner "sanctuary" than he thought as he realizes the family has left him out of the loop in discussions about Ellen. Even though Newland and Ellen have deferred their desires, they are not completely innocent. In today's terminology, they've been carrying on an emotional affair. I like how Wharton keeps using Lawrence Lefferts as a guidepost for Newland's conscience. Newland doesn't like Lefferts's behavior, but when he starts creating a web of lies to cover his planned trip to DC he finds himself "furnishing details with all of Lawrence Lefferts's practiced glibness". Now that Newland knows that May (and probably everyone else) is fully aware of his feelings about Ellen, Lefferts gets an almost irrational rise out of him with insinuating comments about her. Even so Newland is super excited about his errand to meet Ellen and the prospect of time alone together. This meeting surely has to be the inflection point that is going to determine how the rest of the story will play out. Because it's Wharton, I anticipate something a lot more complex than for the two of them to flout society and run off together.
In terms of bank failures, it's important to realize that there was no FDIC and no SEC and no Federal Reserve.
Basically, banks attracted deposits based on reputation. A bank makes money by taking in deposits and investing the deposits at a higher rate than they pay out on the deposits. So for every $100 of deposits, a bank might keep $10 in reserve and invest the other $90.
Once rumors start flying about whether a bank's investments, in this case the $90, was "shaky," depositors will rush to withdraw their money. If too many depositors ask fro their money back and the bank can't sell its $90 of "shaky " investments the depositors will lose money.
You can imagine Beaufort taking big risks with the $90 hoping to make a fortune but failing. Basically he's mostly gambling with his depositors' (his social set's) money.
Oh, this is fantastic context!! In The House of Mirth, the main character has a gambling addiction. And the novel does a really good job of highlighting that there's hardly any difference in her addiction to winning money while playing bridge and the men who use other people's invested money to win business deals. There's a fantastic academic essay about "speculation" in The House of Mirth, which is all about the overlap between speculating on the market and being a spectator in society.
Excellent connections here, with Beaufort's "big risks" and gambling behaviors.
I knew something big and financial was coming! Really interested to see how Beaufort’s ruin will affect the other characters, and how it mirrors others’ failures, like you said.
And WOW May, I kind of love her with the claws out but it also scares me 😮
It really feels to me like Beaufort and Newland are more parallel than Newland would like to admit. I'm always intrigued by Newland's hate if Beaufort. Beaufort's downfall feels so connected to what I think is going to be Newland's downfall?
You’re so right - it almost feels like Newland is jealous of Beaufort in a way? Or superimposes his own life onto Beaufort’s and vice versa
Absolutely using every shred of willpower not to read too far ahead! If the beginning of this novel was slow, the end feels so, so quick.
Isn't it wild? It's like we were riding a long wave into the shore and now we're about to crash into it!
Haley, I lovelovelove your interpretation of Newland as genuinely sensitive. This idea really helps me to turn the story at a new angle and see different layers. Of course you're right that he's been trained to interpret what people don't say in words (they all have been!), but he also has an aptitude for emotion that he has honed through his dilettantism with literature and philosophy and his love of books. He has a very powerful imagination, tied to emotion; there are places his imagination doesn't go (like the idea of May having agency and personhood), but that combination is still a hugely important part of him. And he may not always be wrong about what he imagines that others are feeling.
Observation: Newland is being so, so reckless right now. Even when he learns that his family doesn't trust him where Ellen is concerned, even when his unspoken dialog with May is all about how she knows he's lying to her and why, even when he is witnessing the dire consequences levied within New York upon transgressors of their values for Honesty and Marriage, even when Ellen herself told him that she will only stay in America if he doesn't try to be close to her--all he is trying to do is get time alone with her. Even as he congratulates himself for how noble Ellen has helped him to be (just as he used to feel about May and what she represented to him...), he's still ready to throw it all out because of these powerful feelings.
In the lengthy discussions of Julius and Regina Beaufort's situations, with historical annotations, Wharton very specifically gives us anatomies right at this inflection point of what New York cannot tolerate, and how it punishes those who fail to hold the right standards. Is Newland paying any attention to what he is risking, how dangerous a thing he's trying to do? Maybe he *wants* his world to come crashing down on him, if it means he can just feel this.
I'm liking this reading, too. It's opening up Newland in new ways for me. Like you said: maybe he *wants* to risk it all because he gets to feel something. Maybe it kinda feels good in some ways to be so on the edge — he is certainly more wakeful and alert and alive in this chaos than he is inside that numb and deadened existence he fears is all he can have with May and the Lefferts and the Sillertons.
There's also something a little naive about it, that warms me to him. He's so certain that he knows everything, but he doesn't know what to do about Ellen. He's clumsy and obstinate and a little frantic. It's humanizing him in ways that break my heart a little bit.
“Archer listened unmoved to the relentless chorus. The idea of absolute financial probity as the first law of a gentleman's code was too deeply ingrained in him for sentimental considerations to weaken it. [...] Nor did Mrs. Beaufort's fate greatly move Archer. He felt, no doubt, more sorry for her than her indignant relatives; but it seemed to him that the tie between husband and wife, even if breakable in prosperity, should be indissoluble in misfortune.”
This passage really stuck with me. It tells me two things: Firstly, that Newland is more than ready to go to battle for Ellen, but it won’t for another woman in a similar disgraced position; his feelings for Ellen couldn’t be more obvious even to the casual observer, and he thought he could get away with it!
And secondly, that he’s more than aware of the importance of marriage in the society he lives in. When he proposed to May, he agreed to a very clear social contract: he would fulfill his role of husband just the way May, their families and old New York would expect. Then he had a change of heart, but still went ahead and got married. May has every right to be mad.
"If Newland has been longing for someone — a lover, a woman — to see through all his social personas and masks, he is married to the woman who sees him clearer than anyone else. And he hates her for it." So well said, and so devastating!
Oh, such a great moment to closely read!! He says he's unmoved...and that these ideas are "too deeply ingrained in him," but the sentimentality of it all is certainly getting to him with *Ellen,* even if it doesn't get to him with anyone else.
It reminds me of when he yells at Lefferts early in the novel: "Women ought to be free!" I don't think he means it. In fact, now considering this quote, I'm afraid what he's really shouting is: "Ellen should be free to be my mistress!"
Which is, of course, at the heart of his definition of "Freedom." To be able to do the naughty thing, break the social code, and get away with it.
But Ellen's definition(s) of freedom are much more interesting and open, I think. Newland's are so narrow and so limited.
For me, this past week's reading could've ended after this line from chapter 25: "Her choice would be to stay near him as long as he did not ask her to come nearer; and it depended on himself to keep her just there, safe but secluded." I think it kind of puts the context and the conflict of Newland's world into one sentence.
Of course, I also loved this one from chapter 26: "It was incredible, but it was a fact, that Ellen, in spite of all her opportunities and her privileges, had become simply 'Bohemian'." Fantastic.
It is exciting/interesting to see things begin to unfold as well as unravel. Beaufort's losing his (as well as others) money and the whole of New York Society are panicked. Their want to be secluded within and intertwined with each other is working against them. AND it turns out May is not so clueless after all! I loved this sentence from her: "I offer you this one myself, in the only form in which well-bred people of our kind can communicate unpleasant things to each other: by letting you understand that I know you mean to see Ellen when you are in Washington, and are perhaps going there expressly for that purpose..."
I am anxious to see what happens next. Is Beaufort done?! Will we no longer see his character? What's going to happen with May and Newland...with Ellen and Newland?!?
On a completely unrelated note, I was thrilled to see part of the story take place in Jersey City...the city of my birth. Kind of wasn't expecting that. Happy reading and Happy 4th!!!