Customer Reviews

In Morocco

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

 

 

It's been along while since I read this book but after the negative review, I must read again.
I remember her descriptions of Morocco and the people being quite fascinating but I don't remember them being racist......maybe, this world of Moroc was so far from the culture she was accustomed. Maybe this book encouraged people to visit and find out for themselves. I loved Morocco and it's people, but I also enjoyed the book back then.
Moroc was the most exciting place I had been as of 2000.
Maybe, we've come a long way, Baby! Let's only hope!

Fans of Edith Wharton who are hoping to see her usual insightful wit will be disappointed with this book. Likewise will those hoping to learn something about the real Morocco. Instead, what this book provides is a fascinatingly nauseating example of racist, orientalist cliches: the eroticization, the emphasis on mystery, decreptitude, etc. One classic bit is the description of the souks full of "savages" "consumptive Jews" and "lusty slave girls." But my favorite is when a windstorm in the Djmaa el Fnaa suddenly appears, "stripping to the waist the slave girls scudding home to the souks." There are some peculiar twists to her vision of Morocco, but I won't go further. Buy this book if you are interested in such things. But first read Said's Orientalism, if this stuff is new to you. If you are planning to travel to Morocco, buy the Rough Guide and Culture Shock: Morocco.

This is what it says it is: a public domain text with hypertext navigation that allows the user to easily move from the contents page to the individual chapters and sections. Most public domain texts are just Project Gutenberg texts rendered into the Kindle format. This text was carefully constructed to make navigation easy.

I'm not sure it's fair to judge Edith Wharton's turn-of-the-20th-century impressions of Morocco with our turn-of-the-21st-century moral and political sensibilities.

That being said, I found this to be a fascinating account of the culture and geography of many places that I've personally visited in Morocco, and I found the contrast with my own contemporary impressions extremely valuable. Her accurate - if judgemental - rendition of an essentially feudal society that existed in such proximity to "modern" Europe barely 100 years ago is amazing. I haven't read anything else by Edith Wharton - even Ethan Frome! - but I'm motivated now to read more of her work and find out more about her apparently exceptional life.

Only 4 stars here because the text would have been much enlivened by the original illustrations (contemporaneous photos) that are missing from the Kindle version. I just may buy it in print.