The Letters by Edith Wharton (1937)
Lizzie West, a poor young American teacher living at Mme. Clopin's Pension Suisse in Passy, climbs the hill to St.-Cloud to give lessons to little Juliet Deering, daughter of the American artist Vincent Deering and his invalid wife. When Lizzie goes to Deering to say she can no longer teach the neglected, unruly Juliet, the encounter ends in tears and a kiss, and Lizzie falls in love with him. Through the following months they meet on her free days at museums and galleries, though never alone under his roof, and their intimacy deepens without any spoken promise. Mrs. Deering dies suddenly while away at St.-Raphael; Deering, left with debts and needing to settle his wife's small American property, tells Lizzie he must leave for America and that Juliet will stay with relations there. Before he sails they spend an evening together at a restaurant, sealing an unspoken understanding; he begs for frequent letters, and she promises to write, wearing his farewell letters against her heart and hiding them under her pillow. His letters stop after his arrival in New York. Lizzie writes again and again, growing increasingly wretched, confiding partly in her fellow pension boarder Andora Macy, who eagerly plays messenger and consoler. Lizzie eventually sends a proud, self-protective letter releasing Deering from any obligation; it too goes unanswered. Two years later, Lizzie has unexpectedly inherited money from a rich relative, Hezron Mears, and moves in a comfortable new circle, half-heartedly considering marriage to the dull, respectable Jackson Benn. At a Paris restaurant she and her party unexpectedly encounter Deering, now visibly worn down by professional failure and hardship since his wife's death. He calls on her privately and, when pressed about his silence, claims he never answered her letters because his poverty made it unbearable to write anything but professions of love he couldn't act on; he says he even prayed she would hate him, but seeing her again made that impossible. Moved and disbelieving Benn ever mattered, Lizzie blurts out that she isn't engaged after all. The story jumps forward: Lizzie and Deering have been married three years and live at Neuilly with their two-year-old son and with Juliet, Andora still a devoted, sentimental fixture in the household. Sorting through old trunks retrieved from Deering's former New York lodgings, Andora and Lizzie find, inside a bag their son has been playing with, a packet of Lizzie's old letters to Deering from the period of his silence—every one still sealed, never opened. Lizzie realizes he never read them and had lied about their meaning so much to him; his account of anguished restraint was invented after the fact once he learned of her inheritance. Devastated, she bolts her door against him, imagines confronting him or leaving with her children, and watches him leave the house on an unexplained errand, fearing Andora has already exposed the discovery to him. But he returns having spoken to no one. As Andora, ignorant of what has actually passed, prepares to "speak for" her and denounce Deering, Lizzie—reflecting on three years of real, if imperfect, happiness built with a flawed man—stops her, murmuring that Andora understands nothing at all, and the narrative ends there without resolving what Lizzie will do next.
By Edith Wharton · First published 1937 · Genre: Epistolary, Drama, Historical Fiction · 7 chapters · 20,318 words
First lines
UP the long hill from the station at St. -Cloud, Lizzie West climbed in / the cold spring sunshine. As she breasted the incline, she noticed the / first waves of wistaria over courtyard railings and the high lights of / new foliage against the walls of ivy-matted gardens; and she thought / again, as she had thought a hundred times before, that she had never / seen so beautiful a spring.
What this Textopian page supports
The Letters is listed on Textopian as a novella by Edith Wharton, dated 1937 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: 1937 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Epistolary, Drama, Historical Fiction, Romance, Psychological Fiction
- Length: 20,318 words
- Structure: 7 chapters, 253 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for The Letters 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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Similar titles
- A Cup Of Cold Water by Edith Wharton
- The Letter by Edith Wharton
- The Reckoning by Edith Wharton
- The Touchstone by Edith Wharton
- The Twilight Of The God by Edith Wharton
- A Meeting by Edith Wharton
Genres
- Epistolary — The narrative is primarily conveyed through written correspondence.
- Drama — The plot unfolds through interpersonal conflicts and emotional tension.
- Historical Fiction — The story is set in a specific historical period and context.
- Romance — Romantic relationships and love are central themes.
Tags
Romance · Epistolary Novel · Classic Literature · American Fiction · Early 20th Century · Social Commentary · Upper Class · Marriage · Infidelity · Love Triangle · Family Drama · Secrets