I think what pissed me off most about this book is Campton randomly taking up an interest in clay at the very end, but trying to act as if he's liked it this whole time.

I love Edith Wharton but this is an awful, awful book.

"An anti-war masterpiece", says the back cover. More like a call to arms:

1. It reflects strong nationalism and anti-German sentiment which is often propaganda (Germany as "a nation of savages who ought to be hunted off the face of the globe like vermin").

2. It calls repeatedly for America to join in the war, which at one point leads Campton to say "Can't we let our government decide all that for us? What else did we elect it for, I wonder?" which is completely at odds with earlier statements (which resonated for me) about not wanting doddering old statesmen deciding to throw away young men's lives while in the comfort of their cigars and easy chairs.

3. The mindset of George and others evolves from indifference to believing that war was a moral necessity, and that they must not only go to war, but fight on the front line.

The plot is completely predictable and plods along behind the front amidst the rich who we care nothing about. There are coincidences such as the Spanish clairvoyant appearing in Paris which are absurd. Repeated references to George having been a Frenchman accidentally by birth and hence bound unjustly to fight in the war are overdone - here Wharton should have made the point once and deftly, and let the reader reflect on its irony.

The father, Campton, is self-centered and shallow, and yet he is the character with whom Wharton would like us to empathize. His feelings of isolation on a "desert island" as travel war restricted, his need to "jog on without a servant" which was "very uncomfortable", and his need to have to "paint all the unpaintable people" because of the war all are ludicrous, as are his angst at selling sketches and later his difficulty in immersing himself in his painting. My, what hardships! They are completely uninteresting and ring hollow.

Wharton "writes what she knows": life in Paris among the well-to-do while World War I raged, but the reader longs to have the narrative transported to the front. She "writes what she knows", but in this case she knows very little about war, and did not create a novel with any significant emotional impact.

Quotes, starting with my favorite which appeared early on and which I took great delight in:

"Aeroplanes throwing bombs? Aeroplanes as engines of destruction? He had always thought of them as kind of giant kite that fools went up in when they were tired of breaking their necks in other ways. But aeroplane bombardment as a cause for declaring war?"

On isolation:
"His misfortune had been that he could neither get on easily with people nor live without them; could never wholly isolate himself in his art, nor yet resign himself to any permanent human communion that left it out, or, worse still, dragged it in irrelevantly."

On the history of civilizations rising and ultimately falling:
"All civilizations had their orbit; all societies rose and fell. Some day, no doubt, by the action of that law, everything that made the world livable to Campton and his kind would crumble in new ruins above the old. Yes - but woe to them by whom such things came; woe to the generation that bowed to such a law! The Powers of Darkness were always watching and seeking their hour; but the past was a record of their failures as well as their triumphs."

On Beauty:
"But after all there is the same instinct in us, the same craving, the same desire to realize Beauty, though you do it so magnificently and so - so objectively, and I ...' she paused, unclasped her hands, and lifted her lovely bewildered eyes, 'I do it only by a ribbon in my hair, a flower in a vase, a way of looping a curtain, or placing a lacquer screen in the right light. But I oughtn't to be ashamed of my limitations, do you think I ought? Surely every one ought to be helping to save Beauty; every one is needed, even the humblest and most ignorant of us, or else the world will be all death and ugliness. And after all, ugliness is the only real death, isn't it?"

On saying good-bye:
"They clasped hands in silence, each looking his fill of the other; then the crowd closed in, George exclaimed: 'My kit-bag!' and somehow, int he confusion, the parting was over, and Campton, straining blurred eyes, saw his son's smile - the smile of the light-hearted lad of old days - flash out at him from the moving train. For an instant the father had the illusion that it was the goodbye look of the boy George, going back to school after the holidays."

(My rating is more of a 3.5)
One of Wharton’s less popular novels, the book was apparently out of print for many years until the Northern Illinois University Press put out a paperback edition with a useful introduction by Shari Benstock in 1995. I guess the book was still not popular, as I found my copy in a $1 bin.

In many respects, it is a strange book. Although the topic, of a family with a son in the army during the horrific first world war, seems familiar enough to gain a readership, the details of the story probably didn’t attract American readers. The family depicted are American ex-pats in Paris: a father who has become a successful artist, his divorced wife who re-married a very wealthy and prominent banker, and the titular son, who is required to join the French army due to his birth on French soil. The main conflict arises from his parents’ attempts to keep him safe back in headquarters rather than in the trenches, nominally due to his weak lungs. The son’s view, only gradually revealed, is very different.

The novel is good at exploring the psychology of the father, who is the protagonist, and in particular the conflict he feels between protecting his son at all costs and his knowledge that his son should do his part along with all the others who are suffering and dying. There is a parade of dead sons throughout the novel, from those of prominent citizens to those of the poor concierge in the father’s apartment building. He begins to question why they should suffer and not his own family, which is obviously in conflict with his desire to protect his son.

The agonies of wealthy ex-pats in this peculiar situation (being Americans when the US was not yet in the war) probably did not speak to American readers very well. And when the novel came out, the interest in reading “war novels” was low (the introduction informs us). Nonetheless, the book is worth reading even if it is not Wharton’s best. She makes the wise artistic choice not to make the boy’s parents very sympathetic (though this may also have hurt sales). Even so, you can’t help sympathizing with their love and concern for their only son and understand the conflict between this and their evolving understanding of joint dedication and sacrifice.

It is worth noting that Wharton was actually in Paris during this period and received awards from the French government in her work helping war refugees. She knew what the city was like and recreates people’s varying reactions to the horror, ranging from throwing themselves into war activities to becoming completely numb to deciding that “normal life should go on” and resuming their usual social activities. I also found it useful to be reminded how much people felt at the time that the German attacks were uncivilized and illegal, requiring a response to end all that. Of course, the novel displays no inkling that all that would not be ended, but it is useful to remember what people thought as they told themselves they were fighting the war to end all wars.

Super good. Not what I would recommend for the first foray into Edith because it's not her normal subject matter, but it's still super good. While it's still very characteristic of her writing and her opinions (and I love her), it's just not *fun* like her society novels (for obvious reasons). But it's extremely well-rounded; she has enough time and makes use of it to really explore all of the contradictory feelings that you can have about war and, for example, your son's involvement in it. And how easy and natural it is to vacillate between an extreme plunge into humanitarian efforts and engaging with the war every day, and pulling away and trying to forget it all (and feeling bad about both of those, somehow!).

Also, I can't fully articulate what the difference is, but there's a difference here in a woman's perspective on war that I haven't seen before in the (exclusively?) male-created war media I've engaged with. Edith is at her best when she's roasting the frivolities of society, and she skewers the frivolous society people here who can only manage to keep on by "ignoring" the war (cause uh, they are in no way actually involved). The decorum of when it's appropriate to have bridge games again and flowers is the kind of day-to-day concern that some people did have, and I hadn't thought about that before.

This was a convergence of topics with which I have lately become obsessed. But the obsessions had separate origins and I've only recently understood them to overlap. When you think of the great novels that draw on WWI for source material, you don't think of Edith Wharton. That's mostly about timing and misogyny. And it's unfortunate because this is such a powerful and underdeveloped perspective on that event. Excellent from cover to cover.

The story for me is a 3, but the wonderful narration by the great Richard Poe elevated the book to a 4. The book did what any good book does; it made me feel something. I can’t ask for anything more.

I don’t believe that Edith Wharton wrote this.

The vibes were not immaculate.

A different perspective of the great war.

I've never read a book about a divorced couples son going to war. What seemed almost a contest in concern. It also portrayed a mindset about war that was so different from now but she gave an insight into another time. How in the world could you get people into those trenches? I am now going to re-read Helprin's "A Soldier Of The Great War".

I can see why this novel is less popular than other Wharton novels. The main character is difficult to like and the world of Paris in WWI is not nearly as well drawn and dazzling as her New York novels. I will admit that I had a very difficult time keeping characters straight throughout this novel. Other than the main character and his son, others moved in and out through a fog and weren't particularly memorable.

I did appreciate the story more and more as it went on though. While Campton is not always a likable character, I think Wharton wrote a very real character who has some admirable qualities and also exhibits some miss judgement, prejudice, and unlikable qualities. His investment in how dramatically the war should be affecting all lives in contrast with much of the rest of his connections who find they are living as if nothing is happening is certainly a quality that reminds me of how very often we can ignore major world events or injustices because our own lives are unaffected.

Wharton was certainly in the thick of the action surrounding WWI, so this is a world and era she knows well. I suspect that, were I to know many of the key French personalities of that era I would see reflections in many of her characters. I don't think I will ever enjoy Wharton's war novels as much as her society novels and stories, but I am learning to value them a great and thoughtful writing from someone who's work has endured.

This is not the edition I listened to, but it is the only audiobook in the data base. I listened to the Librivox recording.

It is indeed a shame that this wonderful novel by such a great writer is so little known today. I have read many of the World War I era novels, but I had never hard of A Son at the Front until I chanced across it and I am glad I did.

Instead of being the typical 1920s novel about the war or a soldier in it, this novel focuses instead on the families back home. Campton, a now famous artist, whose ex-wife remarried a rich banker before his art took fame, is concerned about his only son George, being sent to the front. Campton, and the step-father, who despite his remoteness, cares deeply for his step-son, conspire to keep George in a safe headquarters job, away from the trenches. Along the way a panoply of other characters appear, giving a rich depiction to the social life in France as the war continued to rage and expand.

Despite his family's efforts, George feels the young man's need to serve in the action, and manages be assigned to a mission at the front, where he is badly wounded. His step father and father rush to return him to a hospital and recover, stunned to find the boy had been involved with an older married woman.

While the book's ending is predictable, and the weakest part of the story, overall this is a very good work. There are many rich sentences and passages that presage how good of a writer Wharton was. The fact that Campton is such a disagreeable character adds tremendous realism to the novel. Not every character is heroic in real life, and too many novels are too idealistic.

Anyone who enjoys the literature of the first world war will enjoy A Son at the Front and it really is a shame this book is not more widely known and read.