Customer Reviews

The Fruit of the Tree (Literary Classics)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

"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

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.

As another reviewer said, a three star Wharton is really 10 stars compared to most other fiction material...of any age. There are enough lengthy synopsis type reviews of this book...another one is not necessary. But I will make a couple additional points:

1) This should not be the first Wharton novel you read. It is just not compelling from the first to last page the way her 'big 3' (Innocence, Mirth, and my fave, Custom of the Country)are. The first half drags from too much time spent with excessive ruminating in the heads of the characters as she lays out their complexities and story line. However...

2)The last third of the book more than makes up for it...and the final turn in the last chapter is right up there with her best. So it deserves 4 stars after all. Again...if you haven't read other Wharton works, don't start with this one. Not her best, but a worthwhile read if you stick with it.

I had never heard of The Fruit of the Tree until it turned up in an Edith Wharton anthology I bought from the Kindle store.

Like her best work, it is thought-provoking and contains timeless insights about human nature.

John Amherst is the assistant manager of a mill whose absentee owners value profit over the safety and well-being of their workers, but John has different ideas, and struggles with his boss the manager to achieve even the tiniest improvement. As the book opens, a worker named Dillon has had a hand caught in one of the carding machines, and lies in the hospital, perhaps about to lose his arm completely.

John meets two women who will change his life: a young nurse named Justine, who has been caring for Dillon; and the lovely young widow of the mill owner, who turns out to be Justine's old friend Bessy. Justine is clear-eyed about Dillon's condition and acknowledges that he will lose his arm despite the cheery prognostications of the mill doctor. Bessy is moved by the plight of the workers and comes to believe that she must take steps to improve their lot, against all the wishes of her late husband's business advisors. She and John are drawn together by this objective. But can they be happy together?

This novel touches and even dwells on some very important, serious social issues, including the professional status of women, the working conditions of laborers, and even euthanasia. It isn't at all what I expected from Wharton. But it is handled with her usual graceful language and eye for telling detail. I won't soon forget this book.