June 26, 2008: Page Turners 7 p.m.

Book: The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

Attendance: 13

Discussion:

We began the meeting with a few housekeeping details. I told the members that there had been a request for a public contact list (public among group members) and invited them to join it by putting a check next to their names my personal contact list or leaving it blank if they did not want to be included. I typed up the list the following day. We also discussed next year’s reading list. Our publicity person had told me that she would need the new list in September. As my voting procedure takes a few meetings I asked the group to bring suggestions for the list to the next meeting in addition to the suggestions I would be bringing. Fortunately, two Page Turners have been thinking ahead, and had recommendations for me already.

Next we got down to business by voting on the book. The opinions were more varied this month, with four voting thumbs up, three thumbs down, and four sideways. Two members refrained from voting, having not finished the book.

The main complaint about the novel was that its still was somewhat stilted and that the author tended to write in circles. One member asked if any of our upcoming books would be lighter reads than this one, to which the answer was a hopeful yes. We discussed a couple of Wharton’s other books, mainly The Age of Innocence, which I personally found more accessible than this one, and debated over whether or not The House of Mirth was a tragedy. I think most of us agreed that it was, and that the title was quite ironic.

We also talked about money and how those in the privileged class in the novel obtained their wealth. It seemed that many of the characters inherited their fortunes, but these legacies may have had their origins in railroading, banking, business, steel and iron, or the Stock Market.

For the remainder of the meeting we talked about the role of women in society and how that role has changed. Several members contributed stories of their college days in the forties and fifties and others talked about how it was expected that working women quit their jobs as soon as they got married or pregnant, which made for a very interesting end to the meeting. Flyers for upcoming programs and books for next month were also distributed.