The Fruit of the Tree [Paperback]

Edith Wharton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 12, 2009 | ISBN-10: 1437887473 | ISBN-13: 978-1437887471

the story's introductory:IN the surgical ward of the Hope Hospital at Hanaford, a nurse was bending over a young man whose bandaged right hand and arm lay stretched along the bed.His head stirred uneasily, and slipping her arm behind him she effected a professional readjustment of the pillows. "Is that better?"As she leaned over, he lifted his anxious bewildered eyes, deep-sunk under ridges of suffering. "I don't s'pose there's any kind of a show for me, is there?" he asked, pointing with his free hand--the stained seamed hand of the mechanic--to the inert bundle on the quilt.Her only immediate answer was to wipe the dampness from his forehead; then she said: "We'll talk about that to-morrow." "Why not now?" "Because Dr. Disbrow can't tell till the inflammation goes down." "Will it go down by to-morrow?" "It will begin to, if you don't excite yourself and keep up the fever." "Excite myself? I--there's four of 'em at home----" "Well, then there are four reasons for keeping quiet," she rejoined. She did not use, in speaking, the soothing inflection of her trade: she seemed to disdain to cajole or trick the sufferer. Her full young voice kept its cool note of authority, her sympathy revealing itself only in the expert touch of her hands and the constant vigilance of her dark steady eyes. This vigilance softened to pity as the patient turned his head away with a groan. His free left hand continued to travel the sheet, clasping and unclasping itself in contortions of feverish unrest. It was as though all the anguish of his mutilation found expression in that lonely hand, left without work in the world now that its mate was useless. The nurse felt a touch on her shoulder, and rose to face the matron, a sharp-featured woman with a soft intonation. "This is Mr. Amherst, Miss Brent. The assistant manager from the mills. He wishes to see Dillon." John Amherst's step was singularly noiseless. The nurse, sensitive by nature and training to all physical characteristics, was struck at once by the contrast between his alert face and figure and the silent way in which he moved. She noticed, too, that the same contrast was repeated in the face itself, its spare energetic outline, with the high nose and compressed lips of the mover of men, being curiously modified by the veiled inward gaze of the grey eyes he turned on her. It was one of the interests of Justine Brent's crowded yet lonely life to attempt a rapid mental classification of the persons she met; but the contradictions in Amherst's face baffled her, and she murmured inwardly "I don't know" as she drew aside to let him approach the bed. He stood by her in silence, his hands clasped behind him, his eyes on the injured man, who lay motionless, as if sunk in a lethargy. The matron, at the call of another nurse, had minced away down the ward, committing Amherst with a glance to Miss Brent; and the two remained alone by the bed. After a pause, Amherst moved toward the window beyond the empty cot adjoining Dillon's. One of the white screens used to isolate dying patients had been placed against this cot, which was the last at that end of the ward, and the space beyond formed a secluded corner, where a few words could be exchanged out of reach of the eyes in the other beds. "Is he asleep?" Amherst asked, as Miss Brent joined him. Miss Brent glanced at him again. His voice betokened not merely education, but something different and deeper--the familiar habit of gentle speech; and his shabby clothes--carefully brushed, but ill-cut and worn along the seams--sat on him easily, and with the same difference.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...a good literary soap opera." -- Library Journal --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Edith Newbold Jones Wharton was born into an aristocratic, socially prominent family in New York City on January 24, 1862. Her parents, George and Lucretia Jones, were descendants of successful English and Dutch colonists who had made fortunes in shipping, banking, and real estate, which allowed them to live on their inherited wealth. Edith had two older brothers named Frederic and Harry who were twelve and sixteen years when she was born. As a child she was schooled by private tutors and governesses at home in the United States and in Europe, where the family lived for six years after the American Civil War. Returning to New York at the age of ten, young Edith enjoyed the privilege of using her father's extensive library and read extensively. She made up stories that were acted out for her nanny.

After making her debut in society in 1879, Edith married Teddy Wharton, a wealthy Boston banker twelve years older than she, in 1885. With homes in New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, they lived a life of relative ease. Although she had had a book of her own poems published at the age of sixteen, it was not until after she was married that Wharton began to write prolifically. She contributed a few stories and poems to HARPER'S, SCRIBNER'S, and other magazines throughout the 1890s, and in 1897 she collaborated with architect Ogden Codman Jr. on THE DECORATION OF HOUSES. Her next two books, THE GREATER INCLINATION (1899) and CRUCIAL INSTANCES (1901), were collections of stories.

Wharton's first novel, THE VALLEY OF DECISION, was published in 1902. Her next book, THE HOUSE OF MIRTH (1905), analyzed the stratified society in which she had been raised and its reaction to social change. The book was critically acclaimed and won her a wide audience. Over the next two decades she wrote such novels as THE FRUIT OF THE TREE (1907), THE REEF (1912), THE CUSTOM OF THE COUNTRY (1913), SUMMER (1917), and THE AGE OF INNOCENCE (1920), a depiction of upper-class New York society in the 1870s that won a Pulitzer Prize. Wharton's best-known work i the narrative ETHAN FROME (1911), which explores the grim realities of the New England farm life she had observed from her comfortable home in Lenox, Massachusetts.

Wharton lived almost exclusively in France after 1907. She divorced her husband in 1912, discovering that he had taken money from her to support a mistress in Boston. She never remarried. During World War I, Wharton wrote reports for American newspapers. She assisted in organizing the American Hostel for Refugees, and the Children of Flanders Rescue Committee, taking charge of six hundred Belgium children who had to leave their orphanage at the time of the German advance.

Among her later novels are TWILIGHT SLEEP (1927), HUDSON RIVER BRACKETED (1929), and its sequel, THE GODS ARRIVE (1932). An autobiography, A BACKWARD GLANCE, was published in 1934. Edith Wharton continued to write until a stroke took her life on August 11, 1937. She is buried in the American Cemetery at Versailles. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 420 pages
• Publisher: IndyPublish (January 12, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1437887473
• ISBN-13: 978-1437887471
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not your average Wharton novel, but well worth reading!, February 15, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Fruit Of The Tree (Paperback)

I'm not sure why two positive reviews, including one that appears to be a piece of advertising for something called "Republica Publishing," show up with no stars. At any rate, this is one of Wharton's most interesting novels, although it doesn't have the symmetrical structure of THE HOUSE OF MIRTH and THE AGE OF INNOCENCE. If you're interested in a different work by Edith Wharton, one that involves industrialism, professions for women, euthanasia, divorce, and a host of interesting events, try THE FRUIT OF THE TREE.

18 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Laacoon., March 5, 2000

By 

Austin Elliott "godwinwoll" (Cairo, New York USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fruit of the Tree (Hardcover)

"The Fruit of The Tree",Edith Wharton's third novel,remains the most misunderstood of all her writings.It has usually been criticized,even by those who admire it,as "brokenbacked" in structure and unsatisfying with its inclusion of the seemingly contoversial subjects of labor reform and euthanasia in a work that examines marriage and satirizes the idle class.This is primarily the reason "The Fruit of The Tree" has not been published in ninety years;hopefully,readers will rediscover a memorable book with its fascinating portrait of turn of the century America with themes which are still timely.It tells the story of a young nurse,whose intelligence and maturity attracts a brilliant young doctor working to reform deplorable labor conditions for the poor.Despite the nurse's admiration for the doctor's progressivism and her growing love for the doctor's person,he becomes infatuated with the gentle elegance of a beautiful and rich society girl-the nurse's best friend.The society girl supports the doctor's work financially to the great animus of her friends and advisers and eventually becomes smitten with him.They marry,only to discover their incompatibility when the doctor's new schemes for reform are baulked by his wife's love of comfort and security.The doctor by this time realizes that the nurse loves him and that he reciprocates.He argues with his wife and they seperate;the wife left alone breaks her spine in a riding accident and being attended by her friend,the nurse,begs her to kill her.The nurse seeing that her case is desperate(this is a century ago,remember)and influenced by the doctor's support of euthanasia-does so.The nurse falls under suspicion with the public and even the doctor suspects her of killing his wife because of her love for him.They marry,but she is haunted by the fact that despite her protestations of innocence,her husband tacitly believes her culpable."The Fruit of The Tree",subtly depicts the price one pays for following conscience and being ahead of one's time.The novel is not "about" labor reform or euthanasia but uses these to show how today's controversial ideas are usually tomorrow's accepted facts;that the progress of our civilization,accepted as a matter of course, is at the cost of the toil and suffering of others.Bitter is the fruit,indeed.I cannot rate,"The Fruit of The Tree" among Edith Wharton's greatest works,however.The style of the book while good,never reaches the sustained brilliance which she achieves in "The House of Mirth","The Custom of The Country" and "The Age of Innocence",works of which the prose is unrivalled in English fiction. Nevertheless it is a fine novel,and deserves recognition for its well integrated artistry. END

5.0 out of 5 stars Underrated, March 6, 2011

By 

H. Curtler "Mercer" (Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Fruit of the Tree (Paperback)

I cannot comment on this particular edition of the novel, but the novel itself is highly underrated. I believe it to be one of Wharton's best. Not only does she deal with the usual absurdities of Old New York society and its vapid "irresponsible pleasure-seekers," but she takes on unethical businessmen who exploit their workers and treat them like scum. And at the heart of the novel is a moral dilemma of immense proportions as the strongest female character in the novel, a nurse -- and one of her best characters -- struggles with the decision to give her patient (and friend)an overdose of morphine to relieve her of unbearable pain. In the meantime, a young, ambitious doctor catches her in the act of overdosing the patient and proceeds to blackmail her from thence forward -- until the "truth comes out" about the event in the end. It is a complex plot, but deftly handled and an exhibition of Wharton's extraordinary literary skills.

Wharton is not as deep as, say, George Eliot. But she is exceptionally observant, immensely skilled as a writer, and deeply concerned with serious social and moral issues. She is clearly one of the greatest novelists to have set pen to paper, male or female, and this is one of her best novels -- if not the best.