A Slow Read

The House of Mirth
Chapters III & IV

These two chapters were a slow read for me-mostly because I was constantly turning back pages and rereading paragraphs over and over again in order to keep the story straight. Wharton writes in such a convoluted manner, foreshadowing certain events and the emergence of characters almost constantly; however, though at times I find it hard to follow, once I reread and flip back pages, I am never unimpressed at her cleverness of diction and manner of explaining the plot.
As a reader, I have traditionally enjoyed an author who fully explains the background story. That way, when characters start to interact with one another, I am aware of all the necessary facts in order to dissect their relations with each other. However, when reading Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth, Wharton's plot unfolds through the dialect of the characters. Often times a name will come up in general narration or even dialect and I will not fully understand who the character is until a couple pages later when a couple of the characters are discussing him/her, and all is made clear. For instance, Wharton mentions Mrs. Peniston in Chapter I in a conversation between Selden and Bart where Selden says, "'When I do come, it's not to loook at Mrs. Peniston's furniture" (Wharton, 5). At the time, the only implication I picked up on was that Miss Bart lived with Mrs. Peniston.  A few paragraphs later, one learns that Mrs. Peniston is Bart's aunt when Wharton states, "...if they had been in her aunt's drawing-room...." (Wharton, 6). However, it was not until Chapter III that Wharton offers to the reader a full explanation of the role of Mrs. Peniston in Lily's life. At last, the reader comes to a full understanding of what was hinted at in Chapter I. This is a constant yet rewarding occurence while reading The House of Mirth.