The Marne : a tale of the war

by Edith Wharton

The Marne : a tale of the war. 156 Pages.

Genres: Classics, Short Stories, Novella, World War I, France, Historical Fiction

59 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1918

About the author

Edith Wharton emerged as one of America’s most insightful novelists, deftly exposing the tensions between societal expectation and personal desire through her vivid portrayals of upper-class life. Drawing from her deep familiarity with New York’s privileged “aristocracy,” she offered readers a keenly observed and piercingly honest vision of Gilded Age society.

Her work reached a milestone when she became the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, awarded for The Age of Innocence. This novel highlights the constraining rituals of 1870s New York society and remains a defining portrait of elegance laced with regret.

Wharton’s literary achievements span a wide canvas. The House of Mirth presents a tragic, vividly drawn character study of Lily Bart, navigating social expectations and the perils of genteel poverty in 1890s New York. In Ethan Frome, she explores rural hardship and emotional repression, contrasting sharply with her urban social dramas.

Her novella collection Old New York revisits the moral terrain of upper-class society, spanning decades and combining character studies with social commentary. Through these stories, she inevitably points back to themes and settings familiar from The Age of Innocence. Continuing her exploration of class and desire, The Glimpses of the Moon addresses marriage and social mobility in early 20th-century America. And in Summer, Wharton challenges societal norms with its rural setting and themes of sexual awakening and social inequality.

Beyond fiction, Wharton contributed compelling nonfiction and travel writing. The Decoration of Houses reflects her eye for design and architecture; Fighting France: From Dunkerque to Belfort presents a compelling account of her wartime observations. As editor of The Book of the Homeless, she curated a moving, international collaboration in support of war refugees.

Wharton’s influence extended beyond writing. She designed her own country estate, The Mount, a testament to her architectural sensibility and aesthetic vision. The Mount now stands as an educational museum celebrating her legacy.

Throughout her career, Wharton maintained friendships and artistic exchanges with luminaries such as Henry James, Sinclair Lewis, Jean Cocteau, André Gide, and Theodore Roosevelt—reflecting her status as a respected and connected cultural figure.
Her literary legacy also includes multiple Nobel Prize nominations, underscoring her international recognition. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature more than once.

In sum, Edith Wharton remains celebrated for her unflinching, elegant prose, her psychological acuity, and her capacity to illuminate the unspoken constraints of society—from the glittering ballrooms of New York to quieter, more remote settings. Her wide-ranging work—novels, novellas, short stories, poetry, travel writing, essays—offers cultural insight, enduring emotional depth, and a piercing critique of the customs she both inhabited and dissected.

Reviews

[Chrissie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Marne by Edith Wharton is named after the World War One battles along the Marne River in France. While the first battle in 1914 was considered a victory for the Allied Forces it at the same time led to a stalemate and four year of trench warfare on the Western Front.

The central character of the story, Troy Belknap, is on his annual summer vacation in France when the battle begins. His French tutor, with whom he is close and who has instilled in him love of the land and its history and culture, departs to fight in the war. Troy is a teenager; he yearns to fight but is too young. Wealthy Americans, he and his family return home. His heart remains with the French. He tells himself he will return to help in the fight to save France, a country that has come to feel as a second home.

The book, first published in 1918, is Edith Wharton’s response to the frustration she must have felt regarding the American attitude of indifference toward the war. The U.S. did finally join the war in 1917. This is clearly evident in how the novella’s elite socialites regard involvement in the war. Those who must cut short their sojourns in France grumble about personal difficulties in getting funds and irksome changes in travel plans, all of which is dripping with satire. As are the charity arrangements organized by women back in the States. More attention is paid to frivolous issues--fashion, gossip and competition among the ladies--than the real issues at stake. Troy observes and is disgusted. Clearly, it is he that voices the author’s views. She criticizes America’s delayed involvement in the war and she does this through satire. This view is not something I have read; it is simply how I interpret the story!

Another aspect of the story which I like is how well it draws the pride the French feel for their land, their culture and their history. I believe this reflects Wharton’s own love of France, a country where she spent many years of her life. This speaks to me because I love the country too. She beautifully describes the area around the Marne before the war.

This is a novella, and it feels as such. That it is only Troy who is aware of what is at stake if France is not liberated is simplistic.

The story ends with whimper, rather than a bang. I prefer a bang.

This story was not available at Audible, so I tested Librivox again. It is wonderful that the organization exists, otherwise I would not have been able to listen this. I downloaded using the Librivox app. However, the listening experience is not as good as when listening to an audiobook purchased from Audible. Between every chapter the story is interrupted by the information that what we are listening to is a Librivox recording. This is disruptive and wrecks the flow of the story. Depending upon how you use the app you can also get it without these interruptions but then the first few words of each chapter are missed. I was not particularly happy with either solution. Secondly, as I approached the end, radio advertisements were inserted. This annoyed me too. It is difficult to see how many minutes are left in the story. The text on the screen is VERY small; it is impossible to read if one has poor vision. Of course Librivox is free, so one has to expect some disadvantages.

Elisabeth Klett reads the audiobook. She read the first chapters too quickly. In the beginning of a story it is essential that the text is not read too fast; at the beginning there is so much information to absorb! She does slow down as one gets further into the book. Words are spoken distinctly. Klett’s narration, as a whole, I would give three stars; it’s pretty good.

***********

The Old Maid: The 'Fifties 5 stars
Bunner Sisters 4 stars
False Dawn 4 stars
Summer 4 stars
The Shadow of a Doubt: A Play in Three Acts 4 stars
The Reef 3 stars
The Glimpses of the Moon 3 stars
The Marne 3 stars
Xingu 3 stars
The House of Mirth 3 stars
The Eyes 2 stars
The Age of Innocence 1 star
Ethan Frome 1 star

Coming Home TBR soon
Fighting France. from Dunkerque to Belport TBR
French Ways and Their Meaning TBR
Edith Wharton TBR

[Bill on GR Sabbatical · Rating 4 out of 5]

Troy Belknap's privileged American upbringing, in the years leading to World War I, includes regular family trips to France, with which he falls in love. This novella portrays his efforts to come to the aid of his adopted country, beginning before he was old enough and before the U.S. had entered the war, through eventual service as an ambulance driver and actual combat at the Marne. Wharton skewers the wealthy Americans who blame officials of invaded France for not sufficiently attending to their comfort and convenience as they flee for home, then arrogantly intend to teach the French about democracy, war, and life, when the U.S. finally enters the fray. Elizabeth Klett's performance of the free LibriVox audiobook was excellent, I thought.

[Duane Parker · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lightly regarded and little read novella by Wharton that seemed hurried and incomplete. Published in 1918, the year America entered the war, it was an attempt to highlight what Wharton viewed as American indifference, at least up until that point. Also to counter the perception that France needed to be rescued and the French shown how to do the things the right way. That certainly rankled her because of her love for France, which she displayed in the young American character, Troy Belknap.

What is surprising about the perceived failure of this work is that it came between Summer and The Age of Innocence, two of her best known novels.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very touching novel by Edith Wharton.

Free download available at Project Gutenberg.

3* The House of Mirth
5* The Age of Innocence
4* Bunner Sisters
4* Ethan Frome
4* Summer
4* The Custom of the Country
3* The Reef
2* Madame de Treymes
3* The Quicksand
3* The House Of The Dead Hand
4* The Glimpses of the Moon
4* Afterward
3* Xingu
2* Fighting France: From Dunkerque to Belfort
4* The Touchstone
3* Writing a War Story
3* A Motor-Flight Through France
3* The Shadow of a Doubt: A Play in Three Acts
4* Au temps de l'innocence
4* The Marne
TR Twilight Sleep
TR The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton
TR A Son at the Front
TR The Writing of Fiction
TR The Buccaneers
TR The Fruit of the Tree
TR In Morocco

[Nancy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow, that was dreadful; a preposterous tale incompetently told, shocking from an author of Wharton's stature. Of interest only as a contemporary source for idiotic witterings about the war.

[Eileen · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars (liked a lot)

This is probably my favorite Edith Wharton book so far. In this novella, we are introduced to the story of 15-year-old Troy Belknap who is from a wealthy family in New York but yearns to serve in the area of France along the Marne River where critical World War I battles took place, known as The Marne. A well-rounded and well-written human interest vs. military focused war story. I highly recommend this one!

[Phillip Mclaughlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edith Wharton and the Great War

A very timely read on the 100th Anniversary of the Great War. What a sensational piece of fiction with an American protagonist, captures so well the hubris of America entering the war and teaching the old world with American institutions. I could not put this down...Highly recommend

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edith Wharton had been living in France for many years when WWI began. Like many in Europe, Wharton was frustrated and angry at America’s reluctance to enter the war and The Marne was written in response. The main character, Troy Belknap, is her voice against this hesitation, a call to save what she has come to love. This is a very emotional Wharton that I have not seen before. Through Troy, whose yearly visits to France with his parents, has given him a love for the country, there is something very personal that Wharton brings to this story.

Troy is very young when he first summers in France. His parents arrange a tutor for him in all the subjects that interest him and every year he sees this same tutor, Paul Gantier. As he grows older, his friendships and enjoyment with his studies grow. It is an easy life of long motor drives, sightseeing, archaeological trips and the lovely sights to stoke a precocious imagination.

As the family travels each summer they often stay in the same hotels and inns and Troy has become very attached to one particular family and looks forward to seeing them every year. He has an insatiable urge for knowledge and getting the most out of his summers in France. He calls France, “his France.” His love for the country is deep in both the past and present, loving history as well as attentive to the people he meets wanting to know their story. He is devastated the summer the Germans begin their march toward Paris when his tutor has to leave him to fight. He is too young to go himself and is angry that the US has not stepped in.

His family, like many foreigners, are stranded once the fighting begins. Some are able to get to England, but find the same issue there. Wharton does not hold back her contempt at the utter narcissism that they feel their plight should be taken into consideration above all others-“…We’ve really spent enough money in Europe for some consideration to be shown us…” For the first time in their lives they are asked to think of others and rather than see where or how they could help the country they use for status and reputation at home, they are indignant they aren’t taken into consideration first. Troy is outraged at their egotism spends as little time as possible with them.

The misery of feeling himself a big boy, long-limbed, strong-limbed, old enough for evening clothes, champagne, the classics, biology, and views on international politics, and yet able to do nothing but hang about marble hotels and pore over newspapers, while rank on rank, and regiment on regiment, the youth of France and England, swung through the dazed streets and packed the endless trains—the misery of this was so great to Troy that he became, as the days dragged on, more than ever what his mother called callous, sullen, humiliated, resentful at being associated with all the rich Americans flying from France.

Once back in New York City a sort of ‘one-upmanship’ is occurring with these same people who complained that they were not given priority in leaving, but are now telling anyone who would listen about their privations and hardships.

“The tragedy of it—the tragedy—no one can tell who hasn’t seen it and been through it,” Mrs. Belknap would begin, looking down her long dinner table between the orchids and the candelabra; and the pretty women and prosperous men would interrupt their talk, and listen for a moment, half absently, with spurts of easy indignation that faded out again as they heard the story oftener. As more of the once stranded civilians return home they have fresh tales to tell and Mrs. Belknap finds herself out-storied, out-charitied, and out-adventured. She is pushed aside to make room for others, people want something newer….

As soon as he turns 18, Troy returns to France as an ambulance driver. And one day he is met on the road by a truck load of American soldiers. America has finally joined with France and England against Germany! “There they went, his friends and fellows, as he has so often dreamed of seeing them, racing in their hundreds of thousands to the rescue of France; and he was still too young to be among them, and could only yearn after them with all his aching heart!”

But at the last moment, one of the trucks stops and a young man calls out to him to hop in the truck, “come and help!” And just like that Troy, without a moment’s hesitation, leaves the ambulance and becomes a soldier. As the truck rolls on he is given some instruction, though he is also filled with guilt about leaving his position. At the first battle he is wounded and brought to a field hospital. Regaining consciousness it turns out that was the great Battle of the Marne. The Allies had pushed back the Germans and the advance on Paris has been checked! But the oddest thing happened. Troy’s wound was severe and in semi consciousness he saw Paul Gantier, the young man who had been his childhood tutor, lift him up until he felt himself floating. Regaining consciousness at the hospital, the medics told him that his rescue had been incredible, but that no one knew his rescuer, not his name or where he had gone to. And then he just disappeared. A stunned Troy held his tongue-his tutor had died near the beginning of the war….

Published in 1918 with battles still raging, this is more a book about the attitudes at the home front than the war itself. And with the war still on, this book is published as a type of propaganda, guilt propaganda if there is such a thing, I would call it. And perhaps not directed at middle America, but to those of the upper classes who can make a difference, the ones who call the shots and who supposedly love France.

Wharton wrote another novel about the war and a few nonfiction. I will get to those at some point and will be interested to see if they are as passionate.

[Kayla Randolph · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t expect this little story to keep me as engaged as it did! It was a pleasant surprise. I shouldn’t have doubted Wharton.

That said, I think it should’ve ended after Chapter 11, perhaps with an added paragraph revealing how Troy saw/felt/imagined Paul Gantier lifting him off of the battlefield.

I fully expected the tale to end with Troy’s death once he finally reached the front lines. Ending the story with the implication that zeal for war, however well intended, will always end in tragedy would’ve packed more of a punch for me than the emphasis on patriotism.

[for-much-deliberation ... · Rating 3 out of 5]

Focusing on the life of Troy Belknap and presenting a general view of American life and opinion during the first world war...

[D. Dorka · Rating 4 out of 5]

1918-as kisregény (novella inkább?) az I. világháborúról. Ezzel le is írtam, hogy miért tartom kifejezetten fontos kisregénynek. Ez nem valamiféle visszaemlékezés sok évvel későbbről, hanem még frissiben megírt alkotás. Bár fikció, de mint ma megtudtam az internetről, Edith Wharton a szociális realizmus jegyében alkotott. Valószínűleg ezért is szeretem annyira a műveit, mert hiteles ember- és kornyomatok. Legalábbis én így érzem.
A történet egy kamasz fiú szemszögéből mutatja be az amerikai hozzáállást az I. világháborúhoz, ami nyilván mint 3 évig kvázi nézőként nem épp mindig a legempatikusabb vagy -körültekintőbb. Ezen kívül egy óda Franciaországhoz is, kissé talán piedesztálra emeli a francia nacionalizmust, természetesen az USA-beli mentalitással ellenben. Kicsit szemellenzősnek mondanám, de képes volt a szöveg elérni, hogy ezt inkább csak utána érezzem, olvasás közben viszont a karakter nézeteivel azonosuljak.
Az egyetlen, amit nem tudok hova tenni, az a vége. Kissé váratlan az a spiri felhang, ami ott kacsingat. De továbbra is úgy gondolom, hogy nem a cselekmény a fontos, hanem a kordokumentáció.

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short novella is one of the favorite things I've read of Wharton's (and I only have one novel to go to finish them all). There is some criticism that this book isn't a "book" at all, but rather a long short story, and one that was published hastily to make a point to Americans about the Great War. I can understand and sympathize with that criticism. I do think that this may have been more suited as a magazine article than a novel.

And still, I absolutely love the writing in this book. It is Warton at her descriptive best. The beauty of France, and her love for that country, just jump off the page with every paragraph of the first few chapters. The fell of living in a country at war is palpable. And if the book was intended to stir American sentiment to support the French cause, I suspect it did that for many readers.

I am fortunate that I found a first edition of this short volume at a used book store in Omaha. It is not an easy book to find outside of digital texts. And reading the edition with its original paper and binding made the experience even better for me.

[Sandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting, if somewhat unrealistic, example of war fiction. Less cynical and caustic than some of Wharton’s work, with some sentimentality displayed in the latter chapters. Appears to have been inspired by a deep love of France and respect for the efforts made by those American citizens who chose to act in support of France even before the United States officially entered the fray.

[Diem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very satisfying novella set during WWI. Still ruminating on which side of the Dulce et Decorum Est line it sits. Might be better left to sharper minds than mine to determine, so I'll be looking for some essays about it.

Have had "Over There" stuck in my head all day and night because of this reading.

[Melodie Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another wonderful book by Edith Wharton. I have become a fan over the last year as I listen to one book after another read by Elizabeth Klett for LibriVox. Whartons Sharp satire on society is so compelling. She really shows how glamorized the reality of war is and how people use it as a fad and capitalize on it in some way or another. It’s a poignant and beautiful book.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very recommendable novella

100 years after the end of World War I, we of this late entrant to the conflict know very little about it. This short story's a good start for becoming better acquainted…

[Calzean · Rating 2 out of 5]

A novella and not a great one either. The story seems to be highlighting America's indifference to WW1 and when they eventually entered the fray they came to show everyone how to do it properly.
The idea was good but the execution was lacking.

[Javier Dávila · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Marne is a novella too short to deepen in its terrible subject.
Inevitably, has echos of A son at the Front.
It's worth noting the fine description of both societies, French and American, and the changes in the general mood as the war unfolds.

[Mark Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slim little volume on the French battle in WWI. Not her best, but not bad.

[Lori · Rating 2 out of 5]

This isn't a collection of stories, but the novella. All in all, disappointing compared to everything else I've read by EW. It's dedicated to a soldier who died in WWI and I wonder if she wrote this as a tribute to a friend's son, or a relative as some sort of obligation--and her heart wasn't in it. The story concerns a young American, who enlists in the foreign legion to fight for France before the U.S. becomes involved in the war. With the exception of the young man, all of the other Americans are portrayed as out of touch with the horrors of war as they worry about getting the right dress for the season, or being able to travel comfortably through Europe. But maybe that was EW's point.

[Christopher Sutch · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short novel was obviously meant as patriotic propaganda, to inspire American involvement in France's affairs (even though it came out near the end of World War I). And that's the problem: all Wharton's usual care with representing the subtleties of social relations, her fine eye for character, her skill at writing interesting plot elements are all lacking in this work, pushed aside for the propaganda. It's really almost an outline of a more fully fleshed out work...except that the events, the characters, the unbelievable coincidences used to forward the plot are all extremely uninteresting and cliched. A minor detour in an amazing career.

[John Nichols]

This was a brief and excellent work that deals deftly with the attitudes of Americans going to France during World War I. It presents the United States as it 'comes into its own' and contrasts that idea of bringing enlightenment and civilization to the Old World with those of Troy Belknap, a boy who love France so dearly that he would die for her. Great book.

[Dotty Dye · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perfectly readable

[Alia Makki · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of those very rare occasions when Wharton failed to impress with her delicate subtlety, even when delivered in the form of audiobook and read by the talented Elizabeth Klett.

[Lindsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this! The ending is just amazing

[Cynthia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Troy is a brat. I choose to believe that Wharton made him that way as a critique of his type of American.