Edith Wharton

Resignation Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton is known as the storyteller of the aristocratic families of Belle Époque America. It could be said that she is also a narrator of the feminine, often choosing women as the protagonists of her works - such as Lily Bart in The House of Joy. And undoubtedly she also showed interest in women as mothers, almost always from the perspective of how the relationship between an adult woman and her grown children unfolds. Kate Clephane left her wealthy husband twenty years ago, fleeing the oppressive life of the New York gentry. Her later semi-nomadic life, roaming France among expat groups with a dark past to hide, is not easy for Kate either. One day she receives a telegram from her daughter Anne, whom she left with a year to live, asking her to return home. Kate goes to the call of her unknown daughter to find a much more tolerant high society than the one she left decades ago. When her daughter places her in front of her house, as if she had never left, her entire old circle of relationships welcomes her without question or reproach. With nothing to fear from strangers, Kate can dedicate herself to discovering who her daughter is and reestablishing her truncated maternal relationship with her. Wharton sins here of a certain naivety: mother and daughter automatically come to love each other just because they are mother and daughter. There are no reluctance, there are no resentments, there is no logical feeling of prevention in the face of a stranger. The desire of their wills to appreciate each other from the beginning, and then gradually get to know each other, seems to be enough for both women to establish a cordial relationship. Kate Clephane becomes increasingly absorbed by her role as mother. In fact, Kate believes that the fact of having left home, as well as all her subsequent experiences, have basically been the preparation she needed to be able to carry out her task as a mother with responsibility. In any case, it is a huge relief for her to be no more than "the mother of." Hidden behind her daughter, Kate enjoys the quiet until young Anne decides to be engaged. Mrs. Clephane will have good reason to oppose her daughter's marriage, and with that opposition will start a subtle intrigue that will try to prevent it. However, La renunciation is not a novel of parlor intrigues, but expertly develops the inner conflict of a woman harassed by circumstances and the need to make a decision. The unfolding of that conflict gives Wharton the opportunity to present some interesting reflections on motherhood. It is evident that Wharton accommodates himself in The renunciation of judgments about the woman of his time, when a mother, just for the sake of being one, always had to put off for the benefit of her children. It is in fact in this postponement that the mother, even the woman in general, must seek fulfillment. But that reality does not detract from an interesting work, something predictable in some aspects, but with the mark of one of the best writers in American literature. Why buy this book: Because this period novel is not like the others, it has characters, context and details that will immerse you in the depths of this wonderful world, a book of those to begin with and not leave it until you finish reading it.