Another book left behind by my mother. Edith Wharton was definitely one of my mother’s favorite authors so when I picked this up, I was curious about what drew her to this writer. I suspect Edith Wharton’s positive outlook on life was an inspiration to my mother. This book shows how Edith Wharton was born to create. I struggled with all the portions of the book that just seemed like name dropping. I enjoyed her descriptions of Western Mass and the countrysides of France and England. Her chapter on WWI was most interesting; she described her first hand experiences of living through the war years. I do want to read a few more of her novels after reading about they came into being.

As folks say, a must read for Edith fans, a fascinating look into her varied life and insights into the plots and characters from her world at the turn of 19th-20th Century that make her tales so rich.

I love Edith Wharton. Love her books. Admire and want to write like her.
I picked up this book to try to learn about becoming a writer. Wharton barely addressed her creative process in this book - she spent much more time on Henry James in her own memoir! And I'm a little alarmed by what she did write. Her characters and scenes sprang from her mind fully formed, fictitious people with their own names and histories. Is that normal? Because that's sure not how my mind works. Maybe I'm not cut out to be a fiction writer after all.
Unlike her fiction, this book probably made most sense to her contemporaries. She peppers the pages with names and places that no doubt were instantly recognizable 80 years ago. I got a little tired of reading about So-and-so, the countess, and the French countryside, because I felt I had nothing to hang on to.
And then I realized that I had the same life in Egypt. Literati, adventure, archaeologists, journalists, the lure of travel. The details may be different, but she filled her life with the stories that I only lived for 2 years.

Picked this book up at a sale because I really knew little about the author. What a delightful use of language. Her descriptions of the times was so interesting. Not a quick read but worth it.