Edith Wharton - “A Lady Doesn’t Write” - A BBC2 ‘Bookmark’ Documentary narrated by Ian Holm
Вставка
- Опубліковано 15 чер 2024
- ‘No one before her had ever described and portrayed the position of women in American society’
For many of her best known works, the celebrated American novelist Edith Wharton [1862-1937] drew her inspiration from the New York aristocracy that defined America in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Her own personal life was complex, constrained by conventions, contradictions and ignorance, and served as an essential source for some of her finest writing. Edith Wharton published her first novel at the age of forty, and would become the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature with ‘The Age of Innocence’.
Wharton was confidante to many noted intellectuals of her time, including Henry James, Jean Cocteau, and Andre Gide, and counted Theodore Roosevelt and Kenneth Clark among her friends. She spoke fluent French, Italian and German and most of her work were first published in English and French.
With readings from; The Fullness of Life, The Buccaneers, The Line of Least Resistance, A Backward Glance, The Dilettante, Expiation, The Greater Inclination, The Age of Innocence, The House of Mirth, Ethan Frome, The Reckoning, and The Fullness of Life,
Dramatised extracts from “The Buccaneers” - A BBC /WGBH Boston co-production.
Readings by Irene Worth
Additional Readings: Liza Ross, Paul Birchard
Commentary: Ian Holm
Contributors:
Professor RWB Lewis: Biographer
Louis Auchincloss: Writer and Biographer
Michael Pye: Writer
Marilyn French: Writer
Valerie Steele: Fashion Historian
Charles Scribner III: Publisher
Lily Lodge: Etiquette Consultant
Stephanie Copeland: Restoration Director, The Mount
Professor Candace Waid: Yale University
Photography: Nigel Walters
Sound: David Jewitt, Alan Line, Paul Wilson
Rostrum Camera: Ken Morse, Ivor Richardson
Graphics: Mina Martinez
Film Production Consultant: Warwick Gee
Unit Managers: Erica Banks, Nick Hawkins
Production Assistant: Carol Akillian
Film Editor: Jan Leman
Director: Tim Neil
Producer: Ann Hummel
Series Editor: Roland Keating
First shown as part of the BBC 2 Bookmark strand in 1995.
Filmed on 16mm Eastmancolour. Stereo.
Salvaged from VHS many years later!
More rare film footage and documentaries in the pipeline, so PLEASE remember to subscribe!
She died 84 years ago today and is still one of the greatest writers who ever wrote. Ethan Frome is my favorite of her novels. I love the way she writes about the New York Familes of the 19th and early 20th Century. They really ruled New York in every way. They in there way was the Mafia before the Mafia. Thank you Miss Wharton for all your books.
One of the most beautifully produced entrees into a writer's life that I have seen. Lovely and engaging.
There was a time when everyone read Wharton's Ethan Frome in High School. It was mandatory for a well rounded education. We have lowered our standards in basic education.
That book, which I read in a high school English class, was my introduction to Edith Wharton some 50 years ago. I just reread it a couple of months ago and I reread "The House of Mirth" once a year. I read "Bunner Sisters" and "Summer" for the first time a few months ago. Wow! "Bunner Sisters" is a gem. Also enjoyed "Summer". So thankful for that high school English class and teacher who introduced me to Wharton. She's one of the best in my opinion.
@@tabithadorcas7763 Me too, English class 1970 . My teacher introduced us to the classics like Member of the Wedding , Great Gadsby and thankfully was a great teacher. ☺
@@colinhalliley111 "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter-tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther....And one fine morning- "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." Those words were beautiful to me back then and now even more so given years of living.
@@tabithadorcas7763 Exactly, nothing new under the sun. Just how we approach it.☺
Colin 'I would say maybe through western world, standards have diminished, lots have natural lessons are not taught ,history's, arts,home economics etc etc I have felt its to smooth,and gradually to usher in' plan',and with the help and direction of all of these " movements"
"Her marriage had been too concrete a misery to be surveyed philosophically."...ha! How true for many of us.
She was my Grandma's idol Im 83 and still read her letters to my gdmother
They are treasures for sure!
The soul waits for a footstep that never comes. Wow
Unless you know in your heart that you are the beloved child of the Most High God. But hey, as the Bible says about the rich man, the camel and the eye of a needle. . .
@@Mrs.TJTaylor and that is why (in most things personal) I say only God and I know....and that is enough.
@@ironsnowflake1076 You are right.
I felt that
Often USA women's history overlooked in UK but interesting ..Clivedon House UK is worth a visit. In 1893, the estate was purchased by an American millionaire, William Waldorf Astor (later 1st Viscount Astor), who made sweeping alterations to the gardens and the interior of the house, but lived at Cliveden as a recluse after the early death of his wife. He gave Cliveden to his son Waldorf (later 2nd Viscount Astor) on the occasion of his marriage to Nancy Langhorne in 1906 and moved to Hever Castle.
Miss Wharton was my favorite author in youth... now81 I still rem her books with affection&admiration.
What was it about her and her books that you liked so much?
"She excelled at the rare art of taking things for granted."
A sensitive and hugely engaging documentary into this extraordinary woman's life. Thanks for the upload!
I love your comment dear and nice to meet you 🌹
Her Pulitzer The Age of Innocence captures a time 189~ she explains the wealthy life and the honor of a man’s word. Many call her a snob because it was always said the phrase Keeping Up With The Joneses was meant for Edith’s family.
8:33-11:08 Irene Worth. Per Wikipedia, "In the mid-1990s, she devised and performed a two-hour monologue Portrait of Edith Wharton, based on Wharton's life and writings. Using no props, costumes or sets, she created characters entirely through vocal means."
Wish I’d seen that. I love Wharton’s novels and am only now discovering more about her life. Perhaps another actress will pick this up at some point again.
I love your comment dear and nice to meet you 🌹
She’s amazing! How can I not have heard of her before?! Thanks for the info.
We were fortunate years ago to tour the house. Magnificent! Henry James visited there.
The gardens are marvelous. A trip to see the house and gardens is worth it if you are in the area. A slice of life preserved to perfection!
I met Edith Wharton through Martin Scorsese and his movie The Age of Innocence. I remember vividly both the pleasure the film gave me and the joy I felt when I discovered that the book was even better. I knew nothing about the author but fell in love with her way of writing. Still am today.
Thank you for this documentary, whose only fault is to doubt the importance of the House of Mirth 😉
Yes! In my opinion, "The House of Mirth" surpasses "The Age of Innocence". Also, I think that the film adaptation of "The House of Mirth", starring Gillian Anderson, is very fine.
Me too. 😊
@@marymary5494 Hear! Hear!:) By the way, have you read the novellas: "Bunner Sisters" and "Summer"? I did this past winter as well as reading Ethan Frome. I'd be interested to know what someone else thought of the first two mentioned.
Age Of Innocence showed how the slightest event was grounds for being canceled from " polite society ". When the man unbuttoned your glove and touched bare skin was a scandal.
@@tabithadorcas7763 Bunner Sister’s is my favorite one of all . I haven’t read Summer yet.
I love The Age of Innocence. It’s a must read
And worth re-reading at different stages in your life too!
@@dharding5510 So true! I read it in college and liked it, but didn’t really resonate with it. In my 30’s it became truth, and in my 40’s gospel. It’s my 3rd favorite book of all time.
Agreed - seems to get better every time. ❤️
The first time I read Edith Wharton was her short story "Roman Fever", in high school. Made such an impression on me. I hope she is resting in peace.
First read Ethan Frome un Jr. High. Was not impressed. Then found Roman Fever as freshman in college. Since then have re-read Ethan Frome and plowed through all herr writings over and over again. Marvelous
Oddly can't find S Backward Glance
Still haunting second hand bookstores....
One of my all time favourite authors!
There is something so wholesome and mature about this tale. It's a way of life and a point of view that have completely vanished, You could once upon a time, chase an echo of it at the end of an East coast dinner party - but it was a ghost. It's calming and most of all better viewed through a lens of the educated. Thank you.
Wholesome? Read Beatrice Palmato and get back to us.
Edith Wharton is still one of my most favorite writers. True American literature in every sense. Henry James could have learned a lot about readable writing style from her.
She suffered typhoid fever at age 8 and was affected by that illness into herb20's, according to another on lone documentary. This documentary is beautifully done.
I am SO happy to see Irene Worths’ readings in this! I became very interested in EW in the 1990’s when Miss Worth was doing her one woman show of Mrs Wharton. I never got to see it. A scene from “the Age of Innocence”was filmed at a building I worked in and I’ve been hooked ever since. She’s perfect! This is a treat.
I love your comment dear and nice to meet you 🌹
This show was so strange. It came to an abrupt end spending only a few minutes on what happened between her divorce and her death in 1937. I feel it it should have been a half hour longer at least.
If you have an interest in Edith Wharton I highly recommend that you search for an article in the New Yorker on her and her letters from June of 2009. It turns out that although she was different from the other rich girls in the New York of her childhood, she was not alone and was not a socialite with a limited education who somehow became a great writer. No, it turns out she had a sympathetic governess who she remained in touch with who helped her learn multiple languages and with whom she discussed literature.
Yes, and there's not much detail about her life growing up in New York either. They talk a lot about the overall culture of New York socialites around the turn of the century but not much about Wharton's personal life that would be included in standard biographies. All in all, kind of a strange documentary.
@@lynnturman8157 I see what you are saying. But any program created after 2009 has to contend with the new information revealed by her governess's letters. The New Yorker article I mentioned above quoted from Wharton's writings in which she painted herself when young as utterly alone among the unknowing Philistines. Well, that may have been true when she was with friends and family but not when she was with her governess -- and there is evidence to show her adult recollections were incorrect.
21:21 You're wrong: not learning anything about sex in the 1950s made my life vastly more difficult.
Normal sex doesn't exist anymore, ie spontaneous affection, every man expects planned porn now as the norm.
I visited The Mount, her home in Lenox in the Berkshires. I have read a great deal of Edith Wharton and she was a wonderful writer, with a number of memorable novels - House of Mirth, Ethan Frome, The Custom of the Country. Oh, and The Age of Innocence, made into a memorable movie in the '90s. The 1990's.
There is also a version of The Age of Innocence made in the 1930’s. I believe Irene Dunne is in it.
@@patsymontana7670 I love Irene Dunne!
I’ve visited The Mount too. Not only are the house and gardens lovely in their own right, they cast a lot of light on Wharton’s aesthetic philosophy of restrained elegance, leavened with modern conveniences (carefully concealed) and just a hint of wit.
@1:49, the authors description of Wharton's view on the American woman's position in society would be true of women everywhere at the time..today our freedoms to enjoy life on our own terms was fought for long and hard by those brave grandmothers of ours. It behooves us to honor their struggle, not by destroying ourselves in a modern society intent on destruction of all things feminine, but by building on them to achieve, attain and enjoy the life we have honorably.
Well said 👏🏻
Behooves....
a word not used much of late methinks 🍷
I loved "the age of innocense." One of my most fave movies.
I have always loved Edith Wharton. Not only for her writings but for her sensibilities. I have visited the Mount in Lenox Massachusetts and felt the esthetic grandeur of what she considered to be the correct assemblage of a home.
Thank you Edith for freeing me of all bondage including waiting for nothing
How is that?
Very much enjoyed! Well Done. She, herself, is a great CHARACTER. 🙂!
Fancy judging and deciding 'she was a woman who wasn't meant to be happy' on a couple of photographs and the way she was 'rigidly' posing! One had to hold a shot in formal attire for that era anyway.
And cameras of that era required subjects hold perfectly still for seconds because of slow film exposure from those large format cameras. Hard to hold a smile or any posture perfectly still.
@@personan0ngrata1 Thank you, it's what I meant, you were more expressive. Lol
brilliant documentary 👍
I love her writing
So lovely. Thank you.
I love Edith Wharton. I think I have written everything published by her, at least everything I've been able to find. Her writing is wonderful.
Excellent documentary. Thank you for the upload.
Or, as Lord Curzon was reported to have told his wife as he was enjoying his conjugal rights " Madame, ladies do not move "
😲 or 🙄 or 🤬🤬🤬. All three I suppose, to Curzon.
Thank you for sharing.
I love your comment dear and nice to meet you 🌹
I was just at The Mount last week. Beautiful estate.
Sister Carrie, Ethan Fromm, and so many others i can't even name , had me captivated from the beginning. I fell in love with Ms. Edith Wharton from the beginning. I think I'll suggest to Santa Clause a collection of her books, kepp them, enjoy them and than pass them down if my neices ever outgrow their narcissism and can emphasize with someone else's position in life. Let us pray.🙏🙏🙏
My favorite book in hs that I read was Ethen Frome...beautiful story...I read it straight through in 2 nights...
I love your comment dear and nice to meet you 🌹
Thank you for this wonderful video!
The House of Mirth is a worthwhile read.
A brilliant woman. But so sad about her love life. Teddy and Morton were complete xxxxxxx
I love your comment dear and nice to meet you 🌹
What on earth do you mean, “she was never meant to be happy”? That’s a ridiculous statement.
Today yes but the role of a lady was looked at ver differently in that age.
Yes, I was shocked and offended by that statement. It is so presumptuous and wrong. It is for forcing Edith Wharton to fit into that woman's narrative for her that she thought up for Wharton to fulfill. But Edith Wharton is not a fictional character or a symbol, she was a real flesh and blood woman.
Yes a pretty shocking statement. I mean the woman won a Pulitzer. Surely, she derived some satisfaction from her success. Maybe if they would have said "unhappy in love," it still would have been more understandable since her ideals buttressed up against the times, but still. How could one do all this to elevate her then it one sentence undo all of that? Sheesh. As if photos of ppl during that time didn't all look generally the exact same--stiff, melancholy! Everyone knows that photos at that time required one to be absolutely motionless. Egads!
@@gina.1 A picture is just a moment in time! It does not proof anything. There is no validity to that statement. (Sorry for my English.)
Some of us are not meant to be happy no matter how much we wish to be. It happens. We learn to just be.
As much I like Edith Wharton ,I Wish there is a BBC Documentary on Henry James .
Yes. He has a lot to say to us today. Some of his lesser known work can be startling; it could almost have been written today. I am thinking of What Maisie Knew, A London Life and The Reverberator. He is definitely worth a revisit. He, like Wharton, was from a rarified environment even in his own day. Some of his work is not for everyone. But it should be better known.
@@joankonkle6972 The Ambassadors! The Wings of the Dove! The Golden Bowl! Mad about the man!
@@foxycinnamon7307 my all time favorite film - based on HJ's Washington Square -- "The Heiress"
❤️😓😓😓❤️
@@foxycinnamon7307 Wings of the 🕊️ -- fabulous film! Venice canals, great performances, 3-hanky masterpiece!
@@foxycinnamon7307 Can't forget Portrait of a Lady.
Wonderful 👍🌻
Thanks for the visit
just watched the house of mirth directed by terence davies. goodness gracious what a beautiful tragedy. came here to learn more!
I can't find that film ANYWHERE, where did you? I LOVE that movie but I wanted to smack the heroine around at the end for repeatedly refusing help from the one man who truly loved her... Her consuming pride got her killed. I cried all day after seeing it when I was in New Orleans! 😓
@@hilakummins3104 i downloaded it!
To really learn more, read the book. A movie can mimic the story, but reading Edith's words, and her way with them, is very different. She's one of those rare people who put concepts into words so beautifully that you can sit and ponder a freshly read sentence and be amazed someone wrote what has only been an inarticulate pother within ones self.
Isn’t it heart-wrenching? But as another commenter said, if you enjoyed the movie the book will convey so much more. The description of Lily’s last day can make me tear up just thinking about it. And it is, quite precisely, a tragedy in the Greek sense, in that Lily has greatness of character - she’s not just some pretty little gold-digger or some meek, dull society miss; she’s bright, creative, and fastidious. But her own character flaws clash so fatally with the cruel and superficial society she wants to be part of.
Interesting that Louis Auchincloss has the same American-British way of speaking as FDR!
I wonder if there's a relation to Jackie Kennedy's step father with the same last name?
@@mjohnson1741 Yes. Hugh Auchincloss was the first cousin once removed of author Louis Auchincloss. (Specifically, Hugh A was the first cousin of Louis A’s father.) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_D._Auchincloss And that whole social stratum had a carefully tutored “mid-Atlantic” accent (similar to, but Heaven forbid, not the same as, the accent actors and radio presenters learned in the early 20th century, which we now hear in old newsreels, movies, and parodies).
Very much enjoyed this documentary..
I love your comment dear and nice to meet you 🌹
She wrote my favorite novel the house of mirth...
Thoroughly enjoyed this.
20:00 The expectations for women in the 1890s sounds very much like the ones that were in place in the 1950s.
Or even the 1970s. My oldest sister is in what was essentially an arranged marriage and the only ones of us who have done well have done so by marrying well.
@@alexcarter8807 and the 1980s-1990s. My grandmother expected me to give up my job, move in with her and be her domestic slave, just like my mother (her only child) had been. Needless to say, I quietly rebelled and stayed well away.
@@HaFannyHa Maybe that was your experience but not everyone’s. You make it sound like feminism wasn’t a thing until the 2000’s.
@@robinrinsmith I was just trying to illustrate that many things took longer to change for many of us. By rebelling from those lowly expectations, I have enjoyed many simple rights that were denied my mother: My own income and pension, pastimes and pleasures etc. No, feminism didn't happen in our household - I had to become a feminist far away from the family home!
@@HaFannyHabut HaFanny, you did it! Brava!
What is the piano piece at 17:44 please anyone? Thanks in advance.
OK docu, the best Wharton doc, so far, on YT. ~~ Let's not be harsh on Morton Fullerton. He was a sexy playboy. Edith adored him. (Walter Berry was a snobby queen),
The guy she was supposed to marry ended up dying a couple of years after their broken engagement from tuberculosis. His mother did not want them to marry and she ended up with his inheritance after his death.
Love EW and everything about her and everything she wrote.
Very interesting, life, especially that of Edith Wharton.....
Ethan Fromm was my favorite of all her writings. What is yours?
Age of Innocence!!
The Reef
her likening at the beginning can be transmuted into the houses of ones astrological birth chart
I love House of Mirth!!
she had amazing gardens
I love your comment dear and nice to meet you 🌹
This documentary starts with Lily Lodge (a.o. actress) implying that Edith Wharton was a snob and was thus not forgiven by the New York elite of her time and age. I have read almost everything written by Edith Wharton and one thing she is not and that is a snob. In fact she very often ridicules the socalled high society of New York at the turning of the century.
I ❤her writing
Ultimately a sad story and a sad life. Kudos to Louis for his typically acerbic comments.
I think she created the life she wanted out of the confines of the life that was expected of her.
“How tedious”, she said, in her best highbrow voice.
I love your comment dear and nice to meet you 🌹
I recall hearing Scorsese refered to The Age of Innocence as his most violent film it's probably my most favourite of his too not just for the performances including the great Daniel Day Lewis but for the truth of social expectations biases conformity the class system etc. The shame and slow character assassination a woman receives for divorce or daring to feel any love or passion inappropriately wearing the wrong clothes to the Opera etc.
"She wasn't meant to be happy" what a ridiculous statement. She was starved for love, tenderness and the emptiness was from not knowing how to, reconcile the abandonment of her as a person and the rejection of her capabilities also. However, as pathetic as her marriage was, had she married anyone else she may have been subjected to bullying, abuse and countless atrocities committed on women. So this meaningless marriage enabled her to grow intellectually.
Looking at positive side!
Watching this now, in 2022, what strikes me most is the fact that the world seems to be becoming less intelligent as the years go on. People in the 90s were more intelligent than young people today and the people around 100 years ago were far more intelligent than people today.
A most interesting thought, that is hard to disagree with!
@@LEMANPRODUCTIONSARCHIVEnot more intelligent but certainly better educated.
I like my snob 😂 😂 😂 😂. Oh I get got it, we got manners.
Wasn't there a Didi French film based on a book of hers, or was it another English author...?? (It was so good -- but depressing!)
*Judy -- and I just remembered it was Iris Murdoch, not Wharton... Nevermind! 😂
‘Her hips were too wide’ lol story of my life
To write is to expose. The fear of the fake.
While this was fascinating I am left feeling that perhaps my love of her books was just a bit, a little bit, lessened for having watched this film.
Why do you think that was?
💛
Warton's novels are a real portrayal of a gracious but brutal society that no longer exists in America and in some ways we are the worse without it I think. She was a Snob and many of her Views on society ect would land her in hot water today but I can respect a snob who is honest and open with there snobbery .
'I can respect a snob who is honest and open with their snobbery'. Personally, I'd reserve judgement, especially after viewing this documentary! :)
"Greenlawn Cemetary, which is in the Bronx, north of New York." Excuse me, but I live in the Bronx, and it is very much New York. If you're going to be a Brit and do a doc about a NY writer, you might want to know what you're talking about.
Who is the lady deprived of a debutaunte ball ?
thanks for sharing this great documentary
Poor Professor R W B Lewis 1:56
who's badly fitting dentures forced him so swallow and slap and clack and sniff back phlegm and whistle like a canary it was hard to hear what he was saying the noise was so disgusting and distracting
it made me realise how audio technology is so advanced today compared to when this was produced so distractions and repulsions can be easily edited off the soundtrack 🤣
This surely must be Elizabeth Taylor reading these excerpts. I want to know where that is from, if anyone knows?
This is actually a sad story. I dont know what to make of this except dont get married and pursue your dreams. ❤️
Or perhaps, just don’t get married.
That would be the New York Harry Kessler writes about in his diary.
I love your comment dear and nice to meet you 🌹
I'm terrible with FB... Can someone pls help me post this video to my Facebook page? (If you do it for me I'll follow you & love you forever!) 😀
Women don't get much of a deal from life according to this biography. But she wrote such wonderful, well plotted books! Her life sounds tragic, but her books are well worth reading today.
I concur with your sentiment.
Australia
I think Edith shackled herself willingly to the harsh standards of her community even though it made her unhappy. She still chose it over frightening independence and being alone. She has been a top 5 author of mine for 35 years; what a gift for expression she had! But her CHOICE, like many women's, to do the safer, easier and socially acceptable conforming to stifling societal regulations is what made her miserable. Self imposed misery. Edith was the quintessential "poor little rich girl" and I can't bring myself to pity her. Personally, I've had a far more difficult life and tougher dilemmas than agonized self involvement and satisfying the judgment of high society.
I'm a huge fan of Ms. Wharton, but I find her life very limited in perspective if she felt like she had limited chances in life. Had she put on her walking coat and just walked south block after block for hours she'd have seen how her life drastically differed from other people on the island of Manhattan they shared and called home.
She left home through her imagination. For whatever reason though she herself wanted to stay within the orbit of the way of life she grew up with. Yes, she left Manhattan for the Mount and France but it seems that her outer, public life stayed conventional enough so that she would always be accepted by her own kind.
Hear hear!
Controversial question, aren't modern women being trapped also? We are told that we have to go to university, have to work for a corporation, have to put off or even downright discouraged from marriage and having children and encouraged to participate in casual sex and abortion, we are encouraged to put what offspring we do have into care as quick as we can and get back to work. Some women put off their peak fertile years so that we have to pay for expensive fertility treatments that many can't afford. Many end up never pair bonded and very bitter.
At the same time we are encouraged to berate, insult the intelligence, and deride our sisters that want a life where they like to cook and care for their families. I was from the 80-90s generation of feminism where they SAID they were about women making the choice that was right for them. I thought I would always be a career woman. I never anticipated having all of my assumptions upended after I had our first child and went back to work a few weeks later. I was absolutely miserable for the next 18 months. I wasn't neurotic and constantly calling the daycare. It was a lot of little things like her yeasty diaper rash and they wouldn't allow the doc's salve prepared by the pharmacy (which worked btw) because it wasn't an approved treatment. This was a military daycare, a military doctor and a military pharmacy that made it. I went through a lot from my female coworkers and in online mom's groups because I made a choice that was right for me and my family. I can't count how many times I was accused of "betraying ALL women", "giving in to the patriarchy", "internalized misogyny", "holding women back", or how many times I was told to just die, kill myself, and wishes that I would get divorced or that my family would hate me. This was all done by other women.
How is the current woman's cage much different from back in Edith Wharton's day except it is almost entirely women demanding their way of being a woman is the only way?
Unfortunately, modern women's cage often excludes the lasting joy and happiness because they really seem to hate men and even the thought of children. Just take a look at women's happiness and depression levels since the 60s, it's hard not to see something there.
You will have to tell us: How many times were you told to die, that your family would hate you, etc., etc.? I hope you got away from people like that. Women are still in cages, that is true. There is no replacement for a real mother. There is no replacement for a real father, either. These are home truths that we need to think about and acknowledge and act on.
@@joankonkle6972 are you questioning my lived experiences? How very dare you sir or Madame! Seriously though, do you honestly expect me to give you an exact number over more than 20 years to make you believe my experience is valid? Sorry, we didn't take screenshots then. If you want to know what it was like, just go on a feminist website (that still allows comments) and say I think I can raise my children better than daycare. Try it on Twitter. It's worse now than I got.
You're missing the point of what I was saying, I was raised that women had a CHOICE. By the 90s there was no choice or you were shamed (by other women) as being akin to hillbillies and/or right winger evangelicals (nothing wrong with that, but it was considered an insult to left leaning people) for just wanting to be moms and wives. We were shamed for making the choice.
I agree with the majority you said, except with the part where you said that women seem to hate men and children. What I noticed is that most women would still like to have children but they just don’t have enough time for them as they need to work. The hating men thing is quite understandable i think but of course women don’t hate the man just like that but more the patriarchal society. (Hope that makes sense. English isn’t my first language)
I also bought into the feminist creed in the 1980s and made a professional choice based on that creed that was wrong for me. I grew up and learned where my true happiness lay. I followed my happiness. But what you say is mostly quite true, there was a lot of pressure, and many women bought into it.
@@lisapop5219 My mom stayed home with us when we were little, went back to work because we needed the income when I was in junior high. She worked in day care. Very progressive & collaborative. Those families needed day care & didn't put off having kids. Feminism is the belief that women are as important to society as men, and we are.
I wonder if Ms Wharton's concern for, and interest in, the "American Woman" ever extended to the lives of Black, Native, even immigrant women?
Imagine the honour in which she would be held, today if only she had. Nevertheless, her historical place in American society
and the glimpses she allows, through her writings, of an age long-dead, is fascinating.
So true, but I guess she could only write about that which she knew: upper class society at the turn of the century.
you judge her from our times eyes. is there any woman of her time who did what you ask?
And if she had written about any other class of women, you would have been outraged that a “white upper class woman” should dare to speak of their experience.
40 lb gown for .........$30,000 ?
Adjusted for inflation, more like $300,000 🤔
And she only wore it once, and it weighed 40 pounds. Now that is decadence. But fascinating.
$750.00 a pound.
As a young person, I tried my best to read her work, but found it all to be founded on one long everlasting gripe. Maybe I was TOO young for her. Yet I loved George Eliot and still do, possibly because her tragedies were leavened by humanity and hope.
I don’t understand why it was believed that a woman shouldn’t write but why I don’t get it?
Is there anything funnier than Americans thinking that money can make one upper class? I think there were even debutantes balls at some point in their "history" 😂
Here's something funnier: your post.
Prime example: Donald Trump. I grew up knowing that money cannot buy class.
@@krmccarrell Certainly true of Hollywood and in the music industry.
Isn’t it funny that the Europeans still have kings and queens? So quaint. So pointless.
Having a rigid class system is not the flex you think it is. 😬
A lot of female writers used male names when they wrote.
Yep yep
It's hard to understand the speech and attitudes of her day, but drugs and drink were as prevalent then in certain circles. I prefer the past but alas would have been a kitchen maid or even less with my family tree. 😅
Women of The Gilded Age changed clothing an average of 12 times a day, donning appropriate costume for each codified ritual of it.
The men also had various clothing requirements per the activity. Dinner, shooting, golf, day, loungewear/smoking etc..
I had an ex like her own who used to ‘ yawn’ all the time. Just plain rude.
I would never want to house like that because it's not a home that's for sure I want a home where I still hear pitter-patter children I'm with my daughter and my great-grandchildren and I couldn't have a better life and we have the Dreamhouse a two-story home is hey she's worked hard for it is no big deal things could be worse and things could be better people sometimes I trapped into their own little sale because they don't know how to get out of there all body and know who they really are and get to know who they are as a person sad but so so true. Everyone's life and Daisy always have to go down your roads and you have to take you on a journey and summer good roads and summer bad road but thank God I've never had a dead end and hopefully I never do
I love your comment dear and nice to meet you 🌹
Edith Wharton died in 1937 and therefore would never have worn her hair and (according to photographs) never did wear her hair as they have dressed the actress's hair in this presentation.
It was so difficult being rich ... 😅
: )
lol I was raised very poor after I was 12,,,,,,cant imagine a home like this
I love your comment dear and nice to meet you 🌹
14:15, 18 inches is small, even moreso if your waste size is 30inches plus and there is no compromise, stop the white-wash because it intimates more honesty than even you can obviously bear, just count yourself lucky and be on your way...hovering over fast forward then, at least I have that option! Goodness.
No, it isn’t. My mother had a 17 inch waist when she married, and I had to let her dress out an inch when I wore it for my wedding, as my waist was 18 inches. Neither of us needed to lace for those measurements. Mother married in 1957 and I married in 1990. I would refer you to a UA-camr named Bernadette Banner who has a video on the wearing of a corset if you would like information without sensationalism.
@@99zanne Don't flatter yourself dear. The world record for smallest waist (corseted) is 15 inches. The same woman with no corset has a waist measurement of 21 inches.