12/16/2023 0 Comments The glimpses of the moonThey entertain the wealthy of their set who pop by in their boats or buggies to spend afternoons at home or evenings out. And so their life together begins with their first stay in a villa in Italy owned by a close friend of Susy’s, Charlie Strefford. Due to Susy’s calculations she has figured out they could honeymoon for a year all over Europe on the invitations of friends for whom lending their homes to the newlyweds is a happy prospect. “We’re both rather unusually popular–why not be frank?–and it’s such a blessing for dinner-givers to be able to count on a couple of whom neither one is a blank.” So they make a bargain that they will marry with the understanding that if either finds a better situation the other will release them.Īnd it works. “I don’t know how you feel a man’s popularity is so much less precarious than a girl’s–but I know it would furbish me up tremendously to reappear as a married woman.” They both know the ropes, can spot opportunities and will be a novelty as a married couple. Nick has come to visit and after several days of conversation they realize they are in the same position in society, but might do much better as a couple. They first see each other at their mutual friends, the Fulmer’s, where Susy is staying. They live off the good graces of their rich friends and all expenses are paid whether for a weekend in the country or a 3-month tour of Europe. Both are charming, beautiful and likeable the kind the wealthy enjoy having around to enliven parties and animate conversations. When Nick and Susy meet they recognize kindred spirits. She is also masterful at portraying another part of this society: the dependents, the bright, pretty things of wit and intelligence hoping to break into the community of the wealthy and achieve some level of stability and status. Wharton, who was born in New York City to a wealthy and prominent family, writes realistically of upper class society in the early 20th century piercing its contradictions and exposing its hypocrisy. Where the problems exist in Edith Wharton’s, The House of Mirth, The Glimpses of the Moon is its “redo.” Nick Lansing and Susy Branch of The Glimpses of the Moon are the answer key to Lawrence Selden and Lily Bart in The House of Mirth, whose motivations and actions often confused me. It was a part of his difficulty and of hers that to get what they liked they so often had to do what they disliked. He knew on how frail a thread the popularity of the penniless hangs, and how miserable a girl like Susy was the sport of other people’s moods and whims.
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