The Glimpses of the Moon [Unabridged] [Audio Cassette]

Edith Wharton (Author), Anna Fields (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1998

Set in the posh milieu that Wharton knew so intimately, The Glimpses of the Moon is a sweeping portrait of a couple caught up in the trappings of privilege-and driven by a reckless, all-consuming ambition....

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Contrary to the previously reviewed abridged recording (Audio Reviews, LJ 2/1/95), Anna Fields reads this edition with precision. The novel's premise is simple: a man and a woman who are financially strapped decide to marry to remain in the high society circles to which they have become accustomed. They will use their wedding gifts to better position one another's opportunity to remarry for money. The dilemma, of course, comes when they discover separately that their love for each other is far greater than the false, pretentious, and self-indulgent lives they are seeking. Wharton strikes a balance between the superficial and the genuine, and between dependency and freedom that allows the reader to observe the foibles and follies of life and learn from them. Fields has also recorded A Feast of Words: The Triumph of Edith Wharton (see Audio Reviews, LJ 2/15/98). Recommended for all audio collections.?Kristen M.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Long out of print, Wharton's novel opens with a sentence that seems to have been written for the opening voice-over of a movie: ``It rose for them--their honey-moon--over the waters of a lake so famed as the scene of romantic raptures that they were rather proud of not having been afraid to choose it as the setting of their own.'' But Nick and Susy Lansing, each suffering from a genteel lack of money, have married out of convenience rather than romantic rapture. Intending to live off the generosity of wealthy acquaintances, they have also agreed that each shall be free to pursue a more socially desirable mate. What they didn't anticipate is that they would fall genuinely in love with each other. As Wharton tells their story, the sharp irony of both her prose and her characters bleeds into pools of true feeling. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks; Unabridged edition (May 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786112646
• ISBN-13: 978-0786112647
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,278,804 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #27 in Books > Books on Cassette > Authors, A-Z > ( W ) > Wharton, Edith

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Honeymoon trials, May 11, 2010

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Glimpses of the Moon (Kindle Edition)

Edith Wharton won the Pulitzer in 1921, for her social romantic tragedy "Age of Innocence." What to do after a triumph like that?

Well, in Wharton's case, she went the opposite direction, with a gentle romance called "The Glimpses of the Moon." It's the cliched love-or-money storyline that's existed as long as love and money, but Wharton elevates it with some social satire and lushly sensual writing.

Nick Lansing and Susy Branch are young, attractive, clever, arty, and poor -- they are confidantes of the wealthy, but can't live like them. So Susy comes up with a scheme: they'll get married, and live for a year off the honeymoon gifts and guest houses -- and if either of them gets a better offer, they'll divorce immediately with no hard feelings.

All goes smoothly for the idyllic first months. But when staying in Venice, Nick finds that they are staying at a villa because Susy is helping the house's mistress meet up with her boytoy -- and that Susy's acid-tongued pal has just inherited a fortune. But despite their pact, Susy finds it increasingly difficult to imagine a life without Nick -- especially when he seems to be involved with a clever young archaeologist's daughter.

The story of "Glimpses of the Moon" is not the selling point of this onetime bestseller -- you can pretty much guess how it will turn out, and how many days the pact between Nick and Susy will last. In fact, it's kind of astonishing that Hollywood hasn't nabbed this one rather than the tragic "Ethan Frome" or the bittersweet "Age of Innocence."

But the beauty of "Glimpses of the Moon" is how it's presented -- Wharton's prose relaxes into a sensual feast of decayed villas, bright sunlight, rich colours and luxurious details. It slacks off as Nick and Susy's relationship deteriorates, but the first half is awash in beautiful imagery ("... a great white moth like a drifting magnolia petal"). And of course, we always have the overhanging symbolism of the moon.

And it wouldn't be a Wharton book without some social commentary -- in this case, about the idle wealthy eagerly snatching onto any trendy artist, illicit lover or amusement that will fill their empty days. And of course, the lesson that love should trump greed.

Wharton's knack for characterization doesn't hurt either -- Nick is a penniless artist hoping to keep this pact-marriage together, and Susy a social wit without many scruples, until she inadvertantly drives Nick away. The supporting characters could have a book devoted to each one as well -- the acid-tongued peer, a rather snotty young girl, and a desperate wealthy matron bouncing from one "toyboy" relationship to another.

"Glimpses of the Moon" is a simple boy-and-girl story, but with a clever social twist questioning what happens AFTER happily-ever-after. Romantic, sensual and sometimes tartly amusing.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorite love stories, August 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Glimpses of the Moon (Paperback)

I was completely spell bound by this book, you cant guess the end ,though i did try, You are in constant anticipation as to the next turn of events , and extatic one minute and ,holding you breath the next. what a fabulous ending.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A charming story, October 19, 2000

By 

Laura Blalock "Laura" (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Glimpses of the Moon (Signet Classics) (Paperback)

Susy and Nick are a married couple without enough money to live on. They've made a pact to help each other mooch off their friends so that they can lead as luxurious a life as possible, as long as possible, and to part painlessly when their luck runs out. Right away, Susy falls afoul of Nick's scruples, which she didn't know he had. (Possibly he didn't know either, or at least, they had been unexamined and unexpressed.) The couple separate, and Susy embarks on a sort of journey in which she (rather belatedly) develops her own ethical compass. It's a sweet, uplifting story, if a bit predictable.

We also see a theme that Wharton develops further in "The Children": in these stories, the children of the very rich are sometimes neglected physically and emotionally. Their education and their spiritual and moral development are terribly neglected. In a way, Susy's and Nick's troubles might be derived from their own childhood neglect. This would explain why they are fully adult before being troubled by questions of ethics and morals, beyond simply trying to hold to what society will tolerate.