The Age of Desire
Author: Jennie Fields
Genre:
Release Date: August 6, 2012
Description:
For fans of The Paris Wife, a sparkling glimpse into the life of Edith Wharton and the scandalous love affair that threatened her closest friendship.
They say behind every great man is a woman. Behind Edith Wharton, there was Anna Bahlmann—her governess turned literary secretary, and her mothering, nurturing friend.
When at the age of forty-five, Edith falls passionately in love with a dashing younger journalist, Morton Fullerton, and is at last opened to the world of the sensual, it threatens everything certain in her life but especially her abiding friendship with Anna. As Edith’s marriage crumbles and Anna’s disapproval threatens to shatter their lifelong bond, the women must face the fragility at the heart of all friendships.
Told through the points of view of both women, The Age of Desire takes us on a vivid journey through Wharton’s early Gilded Age world: Paris with its glamorous literary salons and dark secret cafés, the Whartons’ elegant house in Lenox, Massachusetts, and Henry James’s manse in Rye, England.
Edith’s real letters and intimate diary entries are woven throughout the book. The Age of Desire brings to life one of literature’s most beloved writers, whose own story was as complex and nuanced as that of any of the heroines she created.
They say behind every great man is a woman. Behind Edith Wharton, there was Anna Bahlmann—her governess turned literary secretary, and her mothering, nurturing friend.
When at the age of forty-five, Edith falls passionately in love with a dashing younger journalist, Morton Fullerton, and is at last opened to the world of the sensual, it threatens everything certain in her life but especially her abiding friendship with Anna. As Edith’s marriage crumbles and Anna’s disapproval threatens to shatter their lifelong bond, the women must face the fragility at the heart of all friendships.
Told through the points of view of both women, The Age of Desire takes us on a vivid journey through Wharton’s early Gilded Age world: Paris with its glamorous literary salons and dark secret cafés, the Whartons’ elegant house in Lenox, Massachusetts, and Henry James’s manse in Rye, England.
Edith’s real letters and intimate diary entries are woven throughout the book. The Age of Desire brings to life one of literature’s most beloved writers, whose own story was as complex and nuanced as that of any of the heroines she created.
Review:
The Age of Desire is a work of literary fiction that chronicles the inner life of American author Edith Wharton, her close friendship with a woman named Anna, and a scandalous love affair that threatens to destroy their bond. Being a current graduate student working on my degree in Literature, I jumped at the chance to read a book that detailed more of the private life of Wharton - one of America's greatest female writers.
Fields did a impeccable job with her novel. Her writing style flowed effortlessly and I was transported back in time alongside Edith from the very first page. The descriptions of the time and the various settings of the novel were done in such a way that I could simply close my eyes and I could vividly imagine the scene unfolding around me.
The characters in the book were very realistic and believable. They all had unique personalities and flaws that made them easy to identify with - I felt as if I knew them all personally, like I was taking part in the narrative myself. The author wrote the character of Wharton with such earnestness that even her mistakes and character flaws make the reader love her and sympathize with her. We feel her every emotion with intensity and vigor. All the characters are written with this amount of depth, so the heroine doesn't feel over-developed and the other characters are just as rounded, which I feel make the story all the more enchanting.
The novel swept me away from the first page and didn't release it's hold until the last word. There aren't many times when a piece of literature makes a lasting impression on a reader, but this is one that I will be thinking and speaking about for a long time to come. Fields did a wonderful job bringing not only the past to life, but making an iconic American figure come alive before our very eyes. It is an enthralling look into history and a beautifully written piece of literary fiction. I highly recommend this novel to lovers of literary and historical fiction.
Q&A with
Jennie Fields, author of
THE
AGE OF DESIRE
The relationship between Edith and Anna
is very complex. Did you always plan on making their troubled friendship central
to the book, or did it grow out of your research?
It wasn’t until
three months into the writing of the book that I decided to add a secondary
protagonist, someone who could view Edith objectively. Anna Bahlmann seemed the perfect character as
she was with Edith on and off since her days as Edith’s governess until the
year Anna died in 1916. To have kept
Anna with her so long, I assumed they must be very close, but biographers had
hardly mentioned her.
Then after I’d
already written many chapters of the book, a miracle occurred. Over 100 letters from Edith to Anna which had
been moldering in an attic came up for auction at Christies! Everything I
supposed about their relationship was true.
They were loving and close since Edith’s childhood, and she trusted Anna
with a great deal. I grew more and more
intrigued with this shadowy figure.
Questions began
to arise. Why, for instance, during the
summer after the onset of Edith’s affair with Morton Fullerton, was Anna
suddenly sent to Europe on a trip that was considered a gift from Edith? Earlier, in letters to other people, it was
clear Edith was upset and even annoyed when Anna wasn’t around to help her, so
why was it arranged for them to be suddenly so much apart? Though I have no
hard evidence that Anna was disturbed by Edith’s relationship with Fullerton,
many events suggested she’d been sent away.
I wanted Anna to be the book’s conscience. If Edith was unhappy, disturbed by her
splintering relationship to Morton, it made sense she’d send Anna off on a
trip.
Another
intriguing coincidence is that I had created a warm alliance between Anna and
Teddy. After I’d written most of the
book, I found letters from Edith to others that said that Anna was a calming
influence over Teddy on his worst days, the only one patient enough to sit with
him, that he was asking for her—exactly as I had written it.
Anna supports Edith’s writing as a
typist, early reader, and—in a way—editor. Did Edith ever include Anna in her
Acknowledgements? How did Anna’s involvement in Edith’s work complicate their
relationship?
Though she
never acknowledged Anna publicly as far as I know, in letters directly to Anna,
she thanked her. In fact, in one letter
early in Edith’s writing career, she sent Anna the check she received for a
story saying, “The story is so associated in my mind with the hours that we
spent in writing it out together, & I owe its opportune presentment &
speedy acceptance largely to the fact that you were here to get it written out
at a time when I could not have done so, that I have a peculiar feeling about
your having just this special cheque & no other as a souvenir of our work
together.”
In her
published biography, A Backward Glance,
she spoke warmly about her relationship to Anna when she was a child “my
beloved German teacher, who saw which way my fancy turned, and fed it with all
the wealth of German literature, from the Minnesingers to Heine.”
But in a later
autobiographical fragment that was never published she said, “My good little
governess was cultivated & conscientious, but she never struck a spark from
me, she never threw a new light on any subject, or made me see the relation of
things to each other. My childhood & youth were an intellectual
desert.”
If she is referring
to Anna in this sentence, (I hope she is not) it saddens me a great deal. In any case, I believe Edith saw Anna as
something of a servant. She certainly
did straddle Edith’s world and the world of the household staff, as beloved and
essential as she seemed to be. At the
same time, Edith generously took Anna on foreign trips, out to dinner and to
the theatre with her. Without Edith, her
life might well have been merely that of a teacher.
As I have
written Anna, she sees her place in life as a helpmate and accepts that Edith
is the chosen one. She is proud of her
association with Edith and content with her place in life.
Edith Wharton is one of your favorite
writers. How did that influence your writing?
Well, I must say,
I felt very conscious of the language I used.
I wanted it to be appropriate to the era, hard-working and beautiful all
at once. I could never dream of writing
as exquisitely as Edith. I often get
chills when I read her writing. If
angels could write, they’d write as she did.
The music of her language is instructive and breathtaking. But I tried to write in a way that I felt
might please her. Also, I often started
my writing sessions by reading a few pages of one of her books. I never get tired of her books, no matter how
often I read them.
The book follows Edith’s sexual
awakening. What was it like writing sex scenes for such a well-known writer?
Not many people
know this, but when Edith died, among her effects, her literary executor found
some pornography that she’d penned.
There was nothing shy about this work.
It was bold, shocking, and also, of course, exquisitely written. While I did not use any of the language of
this piece (named Beatrice Palmato, for those who are curious—and yes, it’s on
the internet) it did instruct me as to how she viewed sex and passion, and gave
me insight into what excited her.
Paris figures heavily into the book. What did the city mean to
Edith? What’s your relationship to Paris and did it figure into the writing of the book?
Edith adored Paris. It
was everything that New York wasn’t: culturally oriented, worldly,
beautiful. She found New York society
closed and stifling. She blossomed when
she finally moved to France full-time, and her devotion to France is clear in
how she helped the women of France during World War I with her workrooms and
charities. (France awarded her the Cross of the Legion of Honor for her work
during the war.) She had loved Paris as a child, and even more as an adult. And of course, she fell in love with Morton
while in Paris. That would forever insure a place for Paris in her heart.
There was a period where I did not like
Paris. I found it jostling and sad. But about the time I began the
book, I also began a new relationship to Paris, and fell in love with it all
over again.
By the end of the book, Edith’s husband
Teddy is not a very sympathetic character. Did you know much about Teddy when
you began this project? Did you find yourself taking sides?
I knew nothing
of Teddy when I took on the project, but it wasn’t long before I discovered
that he suffered in later life from Manic Depression at a time when people
didn’t know what to make of that or how to treat it. Truthfully, I see Teddy as a very sympathetic
character who married a woman unsuited to him, and then, distraught, fell
victim to mental illness (which seemed to run in his family.) If Teddy could have spent his later years at
the Mount with his pigs and horses, he might have been a much happier man. Edith was an intellectual. Teddy was anything but. Yet,
he adored Edith. And for a long
time, he was a kind and patient husband to her.
Thinking of Teddy’s life saddens me.
You were an advertising creative
director before becoming a novelist. Both are creative, but in different ways.
How did your past career help in your current one?
My advertising
career has affected my fiction writing in myriad ways. For one thing, I am always conscious of
trying to tell a story in the least words possible. After years of cramming twenty thoughts into
thirty seconds, one gets pretty good at writing minimally! Advertising also taught me to be disciplined,
to work well under strict deadlines, and to work every day. What I loved in advertising also interests me
in my fiction: to solve puzzles. The tighter the strictures of the assignment,
the more intrigued I am. I love being creative in a small box. This came into
play with this book. I had to tell a
story that already existed but I had to shape it into a book. It was a Rubik’s Cube. The elements were all there, but they needed
to be twisted into the right order to create a satisfying pattern. Also, I was forced to read between the lines. Edith kept such clear diaries; her life was
mapped out almost daily. But what really happened at the theatre that
night? Why did Anna leave at that time
for New York? Why did Morton act the way
he did? It was a delicious puzzle and I
very much enjoyed solving it to my satisfaction. I hope I’ve done Edith’s life justice.
What’s your writing regimen?
Generally, I
walk in the mornings and do errands. I
write in the afternoons. Usually I read
starting at 1 or 2 pm. (While I was
working on THE AGE OF DESIRE I
always read something by Edith). Then, with a strong cup of tea I get down to
work by three. I write in my writing
room, a large old sleeping porch with windows on three sides overlooking my
backyard. I sit in a comfortable chair
with an ottoman, my MacBook Pro on my lap.
I rarely write more than three hours at a time, usually less. But it’s extraordinary what three dedicated
hours can generate as far as pages. If I
get five good pages a day, I’m thrilled.
But not every day can be a successful day. I always take weekends off—perhaps a holdover
from my years in advertising. My brain
needs time to recharge!
What’s next for you?
I am writing a
book about a woman caught up in the radical anti-war movement of the
1960s. She is a woman in her late
thirties who married young and had no youth.
She goes back to college, and gets drawn into the Weather
Underground. I’ve always been intrigued
with how people who were advocates of anti-violence could justify their
increasingly violent activities.
About the Author:
The publisher has generously offered two (2) paperback ARC copies of The Age of Desire to giveaway on my blog. US entries only please!
No comments:
Post a Comment