Edith Wharton is one of my favorite authors. My first exposure to
her work was in high school, when I was required to read Ethan Frome.
I liked it, but I hadn't really developed the taste for literature that I have
now when I read it, so it didn't stand out too much to me at the time. I
started to really appreciate her when I read The House of Mirth in
college. That novel has the distinction of being the first book I ever shed a
tear reading. From that moment on, I was hooked. In the years since then, I have
read The Age of Innocence and Roman Fever and Other Stories, both of which I really liked. I love Wharton's cutting
sense of humor and long, intricate sentences. I also appreciate the fact that
she writes about issues that affect women of her time period, like divorce,
motherhood, oppressive societal expectations, and money issues. She's one of
those authors that I want to read everything from, so I decided to give one of
her novels that has been sitting on my shelf for years now, The
Reef, a shot next.
The story begins with George Darrow, an American diplomat in London, traveling to France meet up with a woman named Anna Leath. Anna is an old flame from his past that he has very recently reconnected with. Things have been going quite well between the pair; he is in love and plans to propose marriage at their next meeting. Darrow is disappointed however, to receive a note from Anna just as he arrives in Paris urging him to postpone his visit by a month. The note doesn't offer an explanation for the delay, and Darrow becomes convinced that Anna intends to put an end to their renewed relationship.
In his frustration, he engages in a fling with a woman he runs into at the train station. Sophy Viner is spirited, beautiful, and down on her luck, a combination that proves to be irresistible to Darrow. He swoops in like a knight in shining armor, puts her up in a fancy hotel, and takes her to several popular theater shows. They spend a week or so puttering around in Paris, seeing the sights and fooling around. Eventually, Sophy heads off on her own to pursue a career as an actress. Darrow returns to his work as a diplomat, and life goes on.
Months later, Darrow and Anna patch things up and their relationship picks back up where it left off. Marriage is once again Darrow's intention and this time there are no delays or misunderstandings between the pair. They meet up at Anna's home and begin to make solid plans for their future together. Anna truly loves Darrow, but she is cautious in everything she decides with him because she has a young daughter, Effie, and an older stepson, Owen, to think about. She wants to ensure their happiness before her own. As Darrow is a diplomat, marrying him will involve traveling and living in different countries. Her aim is to make sure her children are provided for and settled before making any major changes. Luckily, her mother-in-law will look after Effie during the times she is away and Owen has fallen in love and is on the brink of getting married himself.
Everything seems to be lining up perfectly for Darrow and Anna to finally be together, but complications arise when Owen introduces the woman he loves and intends to propose marriage to. To Darrow's immediate horror, the woman is Sophy Viner. This leaves Darrow in quite the delicate predicament. He doesn't want Owen to marry the sort of woman that would have relations outside of marriage, but he can't reveal how he knows this about Sophy without exposing his own affair with her and spoiling his relationship with Anna. To make matters worse, Sophy reveals that she still has feelings for Darrow and questions whether she can go through with a marriage to Owen at all. The situation steadily declines as awkward behavior, a steady stream of lies, and jealous suspicions threaten to derail the happiness of the entire family.
While The Reef was by no means a bad novel, I struggled with reading this one. I wasn't excited to pick it up, so I began to push my reading off to the side in favor of other things. As a result, it took me a month to finish it. It's a short book. At my normal speed, it should have taken no more than a week. I'm not entirely sure why I didn't click with it. The prose was written in Wharton's beautiful, distinctive style, the story was interesting and scandalous, and there were plenty of female characters and concerns to analyze. It just didn't grab me.
Part of the problem is that I don't think I completely understood the message of the novel. I wasn't sure who or what was being criticized. Wharton seems to lampoon conservative society, "loose" women, and dishonest men in turns. Were Sophy and Darrow meant to be victims of oppressive societal rules, or were they villains behaving badly? Wharton's writing leaves it vague, with different scenes seeming to send different messages. The ending, which didn't feel like an ending at all, only created further questions. In the novel's final chapter, Anna attempts to visit with Sophy. She searches for her at her sister's house, and discovers that Sophy's sister is some sort of weird quasi-prostitute (or something else disreputable). Disappointed, she leaves, and the novel abruptly ends. I'm not sure if that was meant to show that Sophy was ultimately trashy, like the rest of her family, or if it was meant to show that Sophy was downright virtuous when compared with a real fallen woman. Even the title had me confused. There wasn't a reef, or any water at all for that matter, in the entire novel. I'm sure this means that I missed some symbolism somewhere, but for the life of me, I can't figure it out.
The main characters grew tiresome as the novel went on as well. Darrow, who reveals himself to be quite an accomplished liar, never seemed upset enough at himself or at the prospect of ruining his relationship for my taste and his seemingly cavalier attitude grated on me. He didn’t show enough positive traits in the novel for me to understand why he was desirable enough to be at the center of a love triangle. Sophy, who at first proclaims to not believe in traditional marriage, throws away more security and wealth than she could have ever dreamed of having because she suddenly “loves” Darrow again. Her reignited passion seemed so false and unrealistic that I’m not sure if Wharton was having her act on ulterior motives or not, and it is never explained to the reader. She simply disappears by the end of the story. Anna, who is torn between staying with Darrow and breaking off her engagement to him, changes her mind about what to do several times a chapter throughout the end of the book, and while I can understand her indecision and anguish, the execution of it became painfully annoying to read. I didn’t fully dislike the novel, but I was so ready for it to end by the time that I got to the last chapters that it was a relief to turn the final page.
Despite my struggle to engage with this one, I did enjoy some aspects of it. The feelings of betrayal, jealousy, and insecurity one experiences when they discover their partner has lied to them were clear and quite timely. Those are ideas that stretch across generations, and they were very relatable. I also liked the exploration of the double standard for behavior between men and women. Darrow’s liaison with Sophy, while unseemly, wasn’t ruinous to his reputation. No one would prevent him from marrying a society lady on the basis of it. It bothered Anna, but that was for personal reasons. If she broke their engagement, he would simply marry someone else. For Sophy, however, the affair meant the end of her marriageability. To reveal her participation in it would be to doom herself to spinsterhood. Anna comments on this imbalance in the story, and I found the acknowledgement to be interesting. I wish Wharton had gone further with it.
Ultimately, I feel like The Reef was a confused novel. Its characters and message weren’t clear and too many questions went unresolved at the end. While I enjoyed the plot and social commentary, I was left wanting more from it. Perhaps the fault is mine, and I missed some clues that would have made the story make more sense to me. Regardless, I struggled with it. Obviously this isn’t going to be one of my personal favorites, but I’m still happy to have experienced more of Wharton’s writing. I look forward to trying more of her works (and hopefully discovering some more favorites) in the future.
The story begins with George Darrow, an American diplomat in London, traveling to France meet up with a woman named Anna Leath. Anna is an old flame from his past that he has very recently reconnected with. Things have been going quite well between the pair; he is in love and plans to propose marriage at their next meeting. Darrow is disappointed however, to receive a note from Anna just as he arrives in Paris urging him to postpone his visit by a month. The note doesn't offer an explanation for the delay, and Darrow becomes convinced that Anna intends to put an end to their renewed relationship.
In his frustration, he engages in a fling with a woman he runs into at the train station. Sophy Viner is spirited, beautiful, and down on her luck, a combination that proves to be irresistible to Darrow. He swoops in like a knight in shining armor, puts her up in a fancy hotel, and takes her to several popular theater shows. They spend a week or so puttering around in Paris, seeing the sights and fooling around. Eventually, Sophy heads off on her own to pursue a career as an actress. Darrow returns to his work as a diplomat, and life goes on.
Months later, Darrow and Anna patch things up and their relationship picks back up where it left off. Marriage is once again Darrow's intention and this time there are no delays or misunderstandings between the pair. They meet up at Anna's home and begin to make solid plans for their future together. Anna truly loves Darrow, but she is cautious in everything she decides with him because she has a young daughter, Effie, and an older stepson, Owen, to think about. She wants to ensure their happiness before her own. As Darrow is a diplomat, marrying him will involve traveling and living in different countries. Her aim is to make sure her children are provided for and settled before making any major changes. Luckily, her mother-in-law will look after Effie during the times she is away and Owen has fallen in love and is on the brink of getting married himself.
Everything seems to be lining up perfectly for Darrow and Anna to finally be together, but complications arise when Owen introduces the woman he loves and intends to propose marriage to. To Darrow's immediate horror, the woman is Sophy Viner. This leaves Darrow in quite the delicate predicament. He doesn't want Owen to marry the sort of woman that would have relations outside of marriage, but he can't reveal how he knows this about Sophy without exposing his own affair with her and spoiling his relationship with Anna. To make matters worse, Sophy reveals that she still has feelings for Darrow and questions whether she can go through with a marriage to Owen at all. The situation steadily declines as awkward behavior, a steady stream of lies, and jealous suspicions threaten to derail the happiness of the entire family.
While The Reef was by no means a bad novel, I struggled with reading this one. I wasn't excited to pick it up, so I began to push my reading off to the side in favor of other things. As a result, it took me a month to finish it. It's a short book. At my normal speed, it should have taken no more than a week. I'm not entirely sure why I didn't click with it. The prose was written in Wharton's beautiful, distinctive style, the story was interesting and scandalous, and there were plenty of female characters and concerns to analyze. It just didn't grab me.
Part of the problem is that I don't think I completely understood the message of the novel. I wasn't sure who or what was being criticized. Wharton seems to lampoon conservative society, "loose" women, and dishonest men in turns. Were Sophy and Darrow meant to be victims of oppressive societal rules, or were they villains behaving badly? Wharton's writing leaves it vague, with different scenes seeming to send different messages. The ending, which didn't feel like an ending at all, only created further questions. In the novel's final chapter, Anna attempts to visit with Sophy. She searches for her at her sister's house, and discovers that Sophy's sister is some sort of weird quasi-prostitute (or something else disreputable). Disappointed, she leaves, and the novel abruptly ends. I'm not sure if that was meant to show that Sophy was ultimately trashy, like the rest of her family, or if it was meant to show that Sophy was downright virtuous when compared with a real fallen woman. Even the title had me confused. There wasn't a reef, or any water at all for that matter, in the entire novel. I'm sure this means that I missed some symbolism somewhere, but for the life of me, I can't figure it out.
The main characters grew tiresome as the novel went on as well. Darrow, who reveals himself to be quite an accomplished liar, never seemed upset enough at himself or at the prospect of ruining his relationship for my taste and his seemingly cavalier attitude grated on me. He didn’t show enough positive traits in the novel for me to understand why he was desirable enough to be at the center of a love triangle. Sophy, who at first proclaims to not believe in traditional marriage, throws away more security and wealth than she could have ever dreamed of having because she suddenly “loves” Darrow again. Her reignited passion seemed so false and unrealistic that I’m not sure if Wharton was having her act on ulterior motives or not, and it is never explained to the reader. She simply disappears by the end of the story. Anna, who is torn between staying with Darrow and breaking off her engagement to him, changes her mind about what to do several times a chapter throughout the end of the book, and while I can understand her indecision and anguish, the execution of it became painfully annoying to read. I didn’t fully dislike the novel, but I was so ready for it to end by the time that I got to the last chapters that it was a relief to turn the final page.
Despite my struggle to engage with this one, I did enjoy some aspects of it. The feelings of betrayal, jealousy, and insecurity one experiences when they discover their partner has lied to them were clear and quite timely. Those are ideas that stretch across generations, and they were very relatable. I also liked the exploration of the double standard for behavior between men and women. Darrow’s liaison with Sophy, while unseemly, wasn’t ruinous to his reputation. No one would prevent him from marrying a society lady on the basis of it. It bothered Anna, but that was for personal reasons. If she broke their engagement, he would simply marry someone else. For Sophy, however, the affair meant the end of her marriageability. To reveal her participation in it would be to doom herself to spinsterhood. Anna comments on this imbalance in the story, and I found the acknowledgement to be interesting. I wish Wharton had gone further with it.
Ultimately, I feel like The Reef was a confused novel. Its characters and message weren’t clear and too many questions went unresolved at the end. While I enjoyed the plot and social commentary, I was left wanting more from it. Perhaps the fault is mine, and I missed some clues that would have made the story make more sense to me. Regardless, I struggled with it. Obviously this isn’t going to be one of my personal favorites, but I’m still happy to have experienced more of Wharton’s writing. I look forward to trying more of her works (and hopefully discovering some more favorites) in the future.
Challenge Tally:
Classics Club (#74
on my list): 28/100
Total Books Read in 2018:19
Total Books Read in 2018:19
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