Kenneth is upset when he sees the letter but does not share its contents with Charlotte. She has examined the envelope enough to decide it's a woman's writing. As the letters continue to turn up, Charlotte becomes more and more agitated but is unable to break their trust by opening one. She hides and observes him opening one one day and sees his reaction to what's inside is extreme.
She enlists her sympathetic mother-in-law to help her and her mother-in-law opens a letter but cannot read the faint print. She fears it is from his dead wife. By this time, Kenneth has promised Charlotte a trip to make things up to her and the two women wait for his return. They wait on and on.
I am a fan of Wharton's novels: AGE OF INNOCENCE, HOUSE OF MIRTH, ETHAN FROME and her stories are equally strong. The detail in this story makes it work but oddly such detail would probably be cut by an editor today.
"The details are not the details. They make the design." Charles Eames
Or in this case, story.
7 comments:
I haven't read Wharton in a very long time, Patti. I should read some of her short stories...
She sure wrote a lot!
Mine is up now, Patti: GREAT GHOST STORIES: 101 TERRIFYING TALES, edited by Stefan Dziemianowicz (whose last name I have to stop typing and punch in letter by letter).
Patti, I read a number of Edith Wharton's novels when I was working on my dissertation. I've read a few of her short stories, but clearly not enough!
A little delayed today. We went to Costco this morning and got our flu vaccines, so we are now all caught up on this year's shots. The pharmacist giving us the shots had a story that echoed one in last week's TRANSPLANT (the Canadian medical show, on Thursdays on NBC). A woman had to get vaccinated for college but was so afraid of needles, that every time he tried to touch her she jumped up and screamed, to the point where he had to call another woman in to make sure no one thought he was attacking her! We had no issues.
Good choice. I have Wharton's collected stories but somehow it always gets pushed down the list as newer things come in. I really need to put it higher on the Kindle.
I'm currently reading two collections:
SCHOOL OF HARD KNOX
ROMAN STORIES by Jhumpa Lahiri
The first is the new collection from Crippen & Landru, where they took the "Ten Commandments" of crime fiction proposed by Ronald Knox 100 years ago, and got new stories breaking various rules, by Martin Edwards, Naomi Hirahara, Toni LP Kelner, SJ Rozan (another fun story featuring Chin Yong Yun, Lydia Chin's mother), Art Taylor and others. For instance, the Edwards story (SPOILER ALERT) violates - egregiously - the rule stating "no long lost, previously unmentioned twins" in the solution (END SPOILER).
Lahiri is a favorite author of mine. In 2015 she started writing in Italian and translating the stories herself, and this is her new collection.
Loved Interpreter of Maladies!
I recently purchased The New York Stories of Edith Wharton for Kindle, and it has this story in it. So I will check it out plus other stories by the author. I haven't read any of her novels.
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