Xingu by Edith Wharton (1911)

Name: Xingu
Author: Edith Wharton

Mrs. Ballinger presides over Hillbridge's Lunch Club, a group of women devoted to communal displays of culture, and secures for it the coveted honor of hosting the celebrated novelist Osric Dane, author of "The Wings of Death." The other members—Mrs. Plinth, Miss Van Vluyck, Laura Glyde, and the timid Mrs. Leveret—each prepare studiously for the visit, having devoted a prior meeting entirely to dissecting Osric Dane's novel. Mrs. Roby, a member readmitted to the club on the strength of a scientist's praise but since regarded as an intellectual failure, admits she has not read the book at all, having lost her copy of Osric Dane's earlier novel overboard during a boating party in Brazil while reading Trollope instead. The other ladies regard her as an embarrassment to the club. At the luncheon, Osric Dane proves cold and unresponsive, deflecting the ladies' rehearsed observations with blunt, technical questions that leave them flustered and unable to recall what subjects they have lately studied. As Mrs. Ballinger flounders trying to name their current intellectual preoccupation, Mrs. Roby quietly supplies the word "Xingu." The other members seize on it with relief, and a discussion of "Xingu" ensues in which each lady, taking cues from the others, contributes vague and portentous-sounding remarks about its difficulty, its depth, its branches, and a source that is "hard to get at." Osric Dane, initially annoyed at not recognizing the term, grows increasingly engaged and flustered in turn, eventually abandoning her hauteur. When the group returns to pressing her about "The Wings of Death," Mrs. Roby announces she must leave early for a bridge engagement, since she has not read Osric Dane's books. To the club's astonishment, Osric Dane insists on leaving with her, eager to hear more about Xingu, and the two depart together. Left behind, the members first congratulate themselves on having impressed and unsettled the celebrated author, crediting Mrs. Roby with having provoked her into civility. But as they try to reconstruct what Xingu actually is, they discover none of them agrees: Mrs. Ballinger and Laura Glyde thought it was a subject of study, Miss Van Vluyck argues it is a language with dialects and branches, and Mrs. Plinth worries it may be an indelicate custom or rite. Mrs. Leveret's copy of "Appropriate Allusions" offers no help, and a household encyclopedia is sent for. Miss Van Vluyck, searching under "X," finally locates the entry and announces the truth: Xingu is a river in Brazil, rising in Mato Grosso, flowing north for over a thousand miles into the Amazon, with auriferous upper waters and numerous tributaries, its source discovered in 1884 by the German explorer von den Steinen after a difficult and dangerous expedition through tribal territory. The ladies realize with mounting mortification that every remark they and Mrs. Roby made about "Xingu"—its length, its branches, its depths, the difficulty of reaching its source—applies perfectly to a river, and that Mrs. Roby had drawn them into an elaborate hoax at their own expense, likely to embarrass them before Osric Dane, whom she has now presumably taken to a weekly bridge party hosted by Professor Foreland, the same man who once praised her. The members conclude Osric Dane was taken in as well, and that she and Mrs. Roby are at that moment laughing over the deception together. Outraged, the ladies declare the episode an unbecoming scandal and, led by Mrs. Plinth, insist that as club president, Mrs. Ballinger bears responsibility for either demanding Mrs. Roby's resignation or offering her own. The members depart, and Mrs. Ballinger, alone, sits down to write a letter beginning "My dear Mrs. Roby—" as the story ends.

By Edith Wharton · First published 1911 · Genre: Satire, Comedy, Social Critique · 10,821 words

First lines

Mrs. Ballinger is one of the ladies who pursue Culture in bands, as though it were dangerous to meet alone. To this end she had founded the Lunch Club, an association composed of herself and several other indomitable huntresses of erudition. The Lunch Club, after three or four winters of lunching and debate, had acquired such local distinction that the entertainment of distinguished strangers became one of its accepted functions; in recognition of which it duly extended to the celebrated "Osric Dane," on the day of her arrival in Hillbridge, an invitation to be present at the next meeting.

Open reader

What this Textopian page supports

Xingu is listed on Textopian as a novella by Edith Wharton, dated 1911 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: 1911 CE
Language: English
Genres: Satire, Comedy, Social Critique, Feminist Literature
Length: 10,821 words
Structure: 1 section, 259 paragraphs
Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)

Good citation fit

Work identity for Xingu by Edith Wharton
Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
Readability and classroom-planning context
Passage-specific claims should cite the exact /read/ URL for the relevant chapter or paragraph

Similar titles

Genres

Satire — The story uses humor, irony, and exaggeration to criticize the pretentiousness and superficiality of the society.
Comedy — The narrative includes humorous situations and dialogue, often at the expense of the characters' dignity or sophistication.
Social Critique — The narrative critiques the social norms and expectations of the time, particularly those related to class and intellectualism.
Feminist Literature — The story explores the roles, experiences, and agency of women in a patriarchal society.