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I read this a few years ago and need to reread it. I liked her view of the French and there are parts that I found quite cryptic at times (written in the early 1900's)

I have always loved how Wharton writes. She captivates me. This book was a little different because it is non-fiction. Still, just to hear her well-expressed insights was relaxing.

The most interesting and surprising part of this book to me was how she described the differences between French and American women. I would have thought she would have explained the French women were more sophisticated because ... I don't know.... because of some sort of liberal exposure or how they wore their hair. Rather, she lays it out clearly: she claims that it is due to the fact that French women have on-going interactions with men that keep them intellectually alive and interesting.

That was a surprise to me. She said that in America right when women are reaching the emotionally and intellectual peak, they become housewives who are surrounded mostly by other women, and are thereby hindered. She says the French "salon" where male visitors are received (and female, alike), and where conversation is an art, keeps the intellect of the woman alive, with ideas and discussions of politics, culture and cleverness. Wharton emphasizes that the French are the masters of the art of it.

As well, she explains that with the history of France and it's invasions, that the concept of tradition is one that is probably rather foreign to us on US soil, as we have not had our lands invaded and taken away from us. And so, the traditions that we may sometimes find slow or tedious there, they treasure.

And as for the French being rude, she tied that back to those very traditions. She says that since foreigners may not know to say "Bonjour" to the shopkeeper when they enter the shop as is "tradition," when they are treated coldly they think the French are rude, when really they perhaps feel like things weren't being done as they "should be."

---lots more to it. A short read. If you enjoy France or want some insight on the culture, Wharton always has some insights.

My paternal grandmother was French, and I think the way I live and think and love the things I do, I have to be French right to the marrow of my bones. Reading this book is like reading a biography written about me. Fascinating.

in need of editing. i prefer wharton's fiction.

Written at the time of World War I, this was a effort to explain a culture that might look, on the surface, close to American, but is really quite different. The book reveals perhaps as much about Wharton, as it does about the French. Surprising to the reader, this book is not so out-of-date. Nowadays it seems anyone who has spent any time at all in France writes a tome...witty, serious, analytical, take your pick..about the culture. This book, in spite of its age, holds up as well as some of those books which also romanticize the French culture. Enjoyable and some interesting insights along the way.

If you like more scientific non-fiction this will probably irritate you, but if you like to dream about romantic notions like a culture having an innate ability to appreciate art, you might enjoy it. I am in the latter group...I think that even if this book might be speculative and perhaps a bit outdated, it is a fun daydream, and there are many quotable bits.

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This book was a little surprise. I found it when I was searching the library for geographical and language information about France. I really like Wharton's writing style. It is definitely early 20th century, but so elegant and measured. Her wit is subtle but carries through each little essay in this book. I agree with the introduction that this book isn't so much about who the French really are, but how Edith Wharton saw them. And she loved the French people very much. Her insights into the French culture are eye-opening. Her description of how, compared to French women, American women are infants attending a Montessori school was intriguing. I had to keep reading to find out why she thought that. She also does not flinch from describing what Americans have called French flaws, such as carrying on traditions that have lost their meanings. Wharton empashsis the overall French traditoin is a rich one, which is more than one can say about Americans who do not seem to remember yesterday let alone their roots. OK. She didn't actually say that. I am paraphrasing heavily, but I think she might agree.

I don't know how accurate Wharton was in her description of the French during and after WW1, but I sense that there are nuggets of truth there that carry on to today. I hope to travel to France some day and find out.

It is a good reminder to read a book so contemporary and so dated. How Americans viewed France, Great Britain and even America 150 years ago made me remember, in Mark Twain's words "“You tell me whar a man gits his corn pone, en I'll tell you what his 'pinions is.” We are completely the products of the little pond we swim in.

More specifically, though just a little because I don't want to ruin it, are Wharton's opinions on American women, French women, art and education..."They [The French] are puzzled by our queer fear of our own bodies, and accustomed to relate openly and unapologetically the anecdotes that Angle-Saxons snicker over privately and with apologies."

And it goes on from there, about money and country and everything else. Great observations, many I found to still be true, presented in clear, easy prose.

Wharton lived in France during the last 25 years or so of her life, and it seems this book was written early in the stay. It is very short, not more than a few hours reading, but worth the investment as a mirror between Americans and the French, Americans now and those a century ago, etc.

I got this book at a random library book sale a while ago and ofc I picked it up because A. Edith Wharton and B. France

It’s insane about how many of Wharton’s observations about France and their work culture (and culture in general) hold true over 100 years later
Also to that effect, the differences between Americans and the French

I particularly enjoyed the chapter about French women and comments on marriage— I love love love studying marriage culture and didn’t know a lot about this time period (my knowledge of it is a bit earlier with Napoleonic codes); also love studying family culture— Wharton postulates that marriage in France is for the purpose of producing the family which maybe isn’t true today but also maybe it is? I don’t know contemporary marriage culture

Oh! And blackberries! I love the whole thing about superstition about blackberries and how the French like wouldn’t eat them— this certainly mostly no longer exists but I want to do a deep Google dive and find someone else who writes about this

Farrow’s pedigree and his own talent encourage curiosity to read this incredible cover-up, payoff laden account of sexual predators, headlined by
Harvey Weinstein.
Sex, power, money... a recipe that usually silences, and frightens women, here tells how the boys club also suppresses and supports behavior that makes these events so despicable.
Ronan Farrow’s sister, whether we believe her or not, had to have sensitized him to the unthinkable within his own family, and beyond. He interviewed,cross checked, investigated, double backed, was spied on, followed, and was shut out.
Don’t all men have Mothers? Many have Sisters, and daughters- and yet so many enable and encourage. And isn’t the bad boy myth a bit boring by now?
Thank you Mr. Farrow. Stunning, thorough- Journalistic reporting and writing ESSENTIAL to democracy and ethics.
I’m stunned at the lengths, time, and energy that these “boys” have gone to to be bad. Maybe HW’s sentence in jail of 23 years, Matt Lauer’s $20 million dollar a year job loss and Charlie Rose’s banishment will influence better ethics and more energetic Me too enforcement, not entitlement.