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Seven of Edith Wharton's novels have been adapted into films, two of which I've seen: The Age of Innocence, directed by Martin Scorsese - yes a big surprise - with Michelle Pfeiffer and Daniel Day-Lewis, and The House of Mirth with Gillian Anderson (who was in the long-running TV series The X-files).
Both were memorable films, good acting and good direction. But, I remember thinking how very tragic they both were. The House of Mirth is about a gambling addiction which gets the better of the clever protagonist, Miss Bart. The Age of Innocence is a more complicated story of society's requirements in marriage, divorce and children. Individualism is not rewarded in Wharton's society, and although old loves may never be forgotten, social cohesion and responsibility are what adults chose, or at least were supposed to choose.
It's interesting, because in real life, it didn't work that way for Edith Wharton. After 28 years of marriage, and several affairs, her husband eventually divorced her.
Wharton has also written a book called The Decoration of Houses, which I had revisited (no pun...) recently. That was when I got the idea to find her novels, and then remembered that I had actually seen two of them as films.
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Left: Third Floor Sitting Room
Right: The Dining Room
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A slide show explains the architectural and decorative decisions for the rooms in The Mount conceived and designed by Wharton herself.
Here are Wharton's impression of houses and women:
I have sometimes thought that a woman's nature is like a great house full of rooms: there is the hall, through which everyone passes in going in and out; the drawing room, where one receives formal visits; the sitting room, where members of the family come and go as they list; but beyond that, far beyond, are other rooms, the handle of whose doors perhaps are never turned, no one knows the way to them, no one knows whither they lead; and in the innermost room, the holy of holies, the soul sits alone and waits for a footstep that never comes.Once again, a little sad. Perhaps it is no wonder given the marriage she had.
All of the Mount's architectural details are original to the house or painstakingly restored. In 1982, most of the applied decoration in the drawing room, from the wedding cake of a ceiling (a demonstration of her disdain for "monotonous" overhead surfaces) to the decorative swags between the French doors, was reinstated after severe water damage. Those doors are key to her vision: An ardent gardener, Edith was an equally passionate (and prescient) believer in the modern notion of "indoor/outdoor" living; the room opens out onto an enormous marble-paved terrace overlooking her magnificently landscaped grounds.
The interior decorations, however, are complete fabrications. After Edith left for France in 1911, the building was a girls' school and then a theater company until 2002, when Edith Wharton Restoration, a nonprofit established in 1980, took over. That year, decorators were invited to reinterpret the interiors for a fundraising designer showcase. Fortunately for Wharton fans, Charlotte Moss hewed as closely as possible to the original scheme, right down to the fringe-trimmed tufted sage sofa and three separate "conversation" areas (one hidden from view).