French Ways and Their Meaning [Paperback]

Edith Wharton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2, 2012

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1919. Excerpt: ... IV INTELLECTUAL HONESTY I MOST people, in their infancy, have made bogeys out of sofa-pillows and overcoats, and the imaginative child always comes to believe in the reality of the bogey he has manufactured, and toward twilight grows actually afraid of it. When I was a little girl the name of Horace Greeley was potent in American politics, and some irreverent tradesman had manufactured a pink cardboard fan (on the "palmetto" model) which represented the countenance of the venerable demagogue, and was surrounded with a white silk fringe in imitation of his hoary hair and "chin-beard." A Horace Greeley fan had long been knocking about our country-house, and was a familiar object to me and to my little cousins, when one day it occurred to us to make a bogey with my father's overcoat, put Mr. Greeley's head on top, and seat him on the verandah near the front door. When we were tired of playing we started to go in; but there on the threshold in the dusk sat Mr. Greeley, suddenly transformed into an animate and unknown creature, and dumb terror rooted us to the spot. Not one of us had the courage to demolish that supernatural and malevolent old man, or to dash past him into the house--and oh, the relief it was when a big brother came along and reduced him into his constituent parts! Such inhibitions take the imagination far back to the childhood of the human race, when terrors and taboos lurked in every bush; and wherever the fear of the thing it has created survives in the mind of any society, that society is still in its childhood. Intellec- o^ lal honesty, the courage to look at things as ^they are, is the first test of mental maturity. ] "ill a society ceases to be afraid of the truth in the domain of ideas it is in leading-strings, morally and mentally. The singular superiority of th...

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This volume marks the first in a series of collaborations between the publisher and Edith Wharton Restoration, Inc., a group dedicated to promoting and preserving Wharton's works. A facsimile of the original 1919 edition, this offers her firsthand observations on French life?as charming as Paris in the spring?that she collected when living in the City of Lights.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 26 pages
• Publisher: General Books LLC (January 2, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0217818609
• ISBN-13: 978-0217818605
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,701,605 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fine introduction., October 6, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: French Ways and Their Meaning (Paperback)

This delightful little volume is a compilation of articles written for American troops bound for France in World War One. While their effect on the average doughboy may be questionable, they give a powerful and invaluable insight into one of the most perceptive minds of the age.

Wharton, in her most engaging and always readable style, discusses First Impressions, and examines issues of Reverence, Taste, Intellectual Honesty, and Continuity, and, in her essay on the New Frenchwoman, reveals perhaps more about herself than her subjects.

Highly recommended as a fine introduction to the author.

(The numerical rating above is an ineradicable default setting within the format of the site. This reviewer does nor employ numerical ratings).

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Good book, poor print quality, July 26, 2007

By 

jaedworks - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: French Ways And Their Meaning (Paperback)

It's important to know that this edition (Publisher: Kessinger Publishing, LLC (April 10, 2007)) is a bound photocopy. That is, it has an ordinary softcover binding, but most of the pages are blurry photocopies of the original edition. (All of this is explained in a note at the start of the book, but is not mentioned in the ordering information.)

The background of the pages is dark, dotted gray and the print is not clear. Many of the pages also have underlining and notes (that is, the original pages that were photocopied have these marks). The dark gray background affects about three fourths of the pages; perhaps half the pages are marked with underlines or comments.

Needless to say, all of this affects the book's value. Most of the book is physically hard to read because of these problems, which are not (currently) mentioned in the book's description information.

My one star is for the physical problems with this particular edition, not the contents of the book itself. (Unfortunately, Amazon doesn't have any way to differentiate between them.) The book is hard to find and people who are interested in it may well be willing to put up with the ugly physical presentation in order to get an affordable copy, but you should be informed before you buy it that for reading purposes this isn't any better than a bad fax or photocopy of a real book.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good primer on French culture., February 27, 2006

By 

S. Gue "Rennisance man" (Barboursville, WV USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: French Ways and Their Meaning (Paperback)

Edith Wharton was a very observant writer and a great novelist. Her observations on the French in most cases are right on target. However, people traveling to France for work or pleasure need to understand that she is writing about a France in the early part of the 20th centur before and during World War I. When a person writes about a culture there observations only pertain to that particular time and that particular place. Another, thing to rember she is also writes about upper-class french life, which is a problem I find with almost all books on the French. Other then those two critices this is a very entertaining and insightful book on the French.

On parting coment, remeber that when someone writes about a diffrent culture they are using generalizations that may be true of the culture but not everyone in it.