His Second Wife

by Ernest Poole

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Genres: Classics

115 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1918

About the author

Ernest Poole graduated from Princeton University in 1902. He worked as a journalist and was active in promoting social reforms including the ending of child labor He was a correspondent for the Saturday Evening Post in Europe before and during World War I.

His novel The Harbor (1915) is the work for which he is known best.It is set largely among the proletariat of the industrial Brooklyn waterfront, and is sympathetic with socialism. It is considered one of the first American fictional works to present a positive opinion of trade unions.

Poole was the first recipient for the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1918 with his novel, His Family.
He died in Manhattan, New York on January 10, 1950.

Reviews

[Petra · Rating 3 out of 5]

A slow but interesting story of change and what matters to the individual.

Ethel moves from a small town to NYC after the death of her father. The change of lifestyles and attitudes makes her search for identity, character and place. What does she want from Life? Where can she find it? How can she achieve her fulfilment? How can she be happy and content.

She struggles through the stages of finding her way. She is alone. Can she find her way to a solid, good, true lifestyle?

[Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

"My dear, it's not what you say that interests men, it's how you look and what you have on...You need just one thing, money. And you can't do anything about that, you have to wait for your husband."—thirty-one year old Amy Lanier to twenty-two year old sister Ethel Knight.

This interesting quote very early in His Second Wife pretty well focuses on the main point of the novel. Set in upper middle class early 20th Century New York City it also features second wives, feminism, absence of God, materialism versus idealism, the large city, servants, children, multiple marriages, "round robin" letters, summers at the seashore, private detectives, Paris, and the importance of friends. Like The Harbor and His Family, there is a missing woman who is both wife and mother, resulting in a very paternalistic family structure. The opening quote pretty well reinforces this idea.

Emily at the age of twenty-two is forced by the death of her father to move from a small town southern Ohio environment to New York City to live with sister Amy and her husband Joe. We see a clash between two sisters who have quite different views of wealth and idealism and how to attain them. The oppressiveness of the city makes accomplishment of either goal difficult. And very soon Ethel finds herself married—to a recently widowed man. Being a second wife brings enough problems that Ethel must deal with, but soon many other struggles come crashing down on her. She is facing all of this alone in the large city. Not only does she need resolutions to the challenges, but more than anything she needs a friend. And she needs to learn how to "fit in" with a city that is not often kind to strangers.

Though set in 1918-1920 there is no mention of the Great War, Prohibition, or the 19th Amendment, though there is a passing nod to the suffrage movement. In this sense, the novel could be considered quite timeless, as many of the issues that rise in the novel are still relevant today.

[Sara]

Young girle into new city have after that ahaspand.Died her sis how be the first wive.Then start the serch agd friend in this big city.And then began to fight the gohst of first wive and bring the art in her hasband and win in the end..Mor Q and mor anser that boring a little to have it.