Expiation by Edith Wharton (1929)
Mrs. Paula Fetherel, a New York author, dreads the arrival of newspaper reviews of her new novel, "Fast and Loose," fearing they will scandalize society just as her uncle, the Bishop of Ossining, is visiting. She confides to her cousin, Mrs. Bella Clinch (herself a modestly successful writer of natural-history books), that her husband John has embarrassed her by proudly and naively championing the book and eagerly awaiting reviews via a newspaper clipping service. Paula insists she wrote the daring, socially critical novel — deliberately titled to signal its provocative content — as a serious act of moral courage, likening herself to Ibsen, Tolstoy, and Flaubert, and worries about disgracing her husband's name, which she used openly rather than hiding behind a pseudonym. Mrs. Clinch, wry and unillusioned about the literary marketplace, teases her that scandal sells and that mild reviews will disappoint her far more than harsh ones would. The Bishop arrives before any reviews have come in. He describes his frustration that his own pious book, "Through a Glass Brightly" (written to raise money for a chantry window), is not selling despite his friend Mrs. Gollinger's approving review, and he muses that being denounced for immorality would help sales enormously. He then turns to Paula's novel, expressing concern over its title, "Fast and Loose," which he fears will mislead and offend readers like Mrs. Gollinger, and gently pressures Paula, through his rhetorical authority, into an apologetic retreat from her earlier defiance. Before she can fully explain herself, her husband John bursts in with the first clipping — a review from the "Radiator" that praises the novel, despite its alarming title, as a "distinctly pretty story" utterly inoffensive and lacking force, much to Paula's mortification. Weeks later, Mrs. Clinch visits Paula again, having finally read the book, and finds her cousin despondent: every review has called it harmless and pleasant, including one from the Bishop himself, who nonetheless publicly preached against it while privately distributing copies to friends. Mrs. Clinch suggests this was professional jealousy on the Bishop's part, since his own book isn't selling, and jokes that Paula should get the Bishop to formally denounce her book from the pulpit to boost sales, since scandal — not literary merit — is what drives the public to buy books now. Five months later, "Fast and Loose" has become a runaway bestseller (150,000 copies, complete with the author's portrait on advertising placards), evidently boosted by the Bishop's public denunciation. Traveling to Ossining with the admiring novelist Archer Hynes, Paula is recognized and fawned over by fans, including members of a "Woman's Psychological League," and by Mrs. Gollinger, who reveals that the Bishop has come to credit his sermon against Paula's novel with somehow prompting the anonymous donation that funded the cathedral's long-awaited chantry window. At the window's unveiling ceremony, the Bishop delivers a florid address on the moral power of fiction, hinting that a novel was instrumental in inspiring the window's donation. Paula, assuming he is about to credit her scandalous book, is first indignant, then astonished, then indignant again when he reveals that it was actually his own "Through a Glass Brightly" that inspired the anonymous donor. Archer Hynes, watching Paula's reactions rather than the window, leans over and guesses the truth — that Paula herself anonymously donated the chantry window's funds. She begins to deny it, but the denial slips into an indignant protest that it wasn't the Bishop's "silly book" that prompted the gift after all — implicitly confirming Hynes's guess. The text ends here.
By Edith Wharton · First published 1929 · Genre: Literary Fiction, Drama, Romance · 5 chapters · 11,772 words
First lines
"I CAN never," said Mrs. Fetherel, "hear the bell ring without a / shudder."
Her unruffled aspect -- she was the kind of woman whose emotions never / communicate themselves to her clothes -- and the conventional background / of the New York drawing-room, with its pervading implication of an / imminent tea-tray and of an atmosphere in which the social functions / have become purely reflex, lent to her declaration a relief not lost on / her cousin Mrs. Clinch, who, from the other side of the fireplace, / agreed with a glance at the clock, that it _was_ the hour for bores.
What this Textopian page supports
Expiation is listed on Textopian as a novella by Edith Wharton, dated 1929 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Novella
- Author: Edith Wharton
- Date: 1929 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Literary Fiction, Drama, Romance, Social Critique
- Length: 11,772 words
- Structure: 5 chapters, 206 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
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- Work identity for Expiation by Edith Wharton
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
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Genres
- Literary Fiction — The narrative focuses on complex characters and psychological exploration, typical of literary fiction.
- Drama — The story contains dramatic elements, including conflict and tension between characters.
- Romance — Romantic relationships and their complications are central to the plot.
- Social Critique — The narrative critiques societal norms and expectations, a common feature of social critique.
Tags
Guilt · Redemption · Family Secrets · Social Class · Marriage · Infidelity · Deception · Moral Ambiguity · Psychological Insight · Character Study · Tragic Love Story · American Literature