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Xingu and Other Stories
Excerpt from Xingu: And Other Stories
He amuses me. Amusement, said Mrs. Plinth, is hardly what I look for in my choice of books.
He amuses me. Amusement, said Mrs. Plinth, is hardly what I look for in my choice of books.
444 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1916
About the author
Edith Wharton
1,692 books5,496 followersEdith 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 7, 2022
I read ‘Old New York’, a collection of four novelettes and liked it enough to seek out more short stories of Edith Wharton’s. So, I read this collection, and it was OK until I got to the last story, ‘Bunner Sisters’, and was worried at the beginning of it because it was 81 pages (that’s a longgggg short story!) and because the first page or two went really slowly. And then I ended up giving it 5 stars. I was engrossed in the story. The Bunner Sisters were two unmarried women who ran a millinery shop in a small hole-in-the wall location (and adjoining living quarters)and barely made enough money to earn a profit, but they did alright for themselves. And then along comes Mr. Ramy This story seemed different from what I was used to reading when reading Wharton...she writes about high society people and this a story about common folks. She did a damn good job if you ask me! 🙂 🙃
Other stories were more in line with what I was used to from Edith Wharton.
1. The eponymous story — Xingu — was funny...a bunch of stuck-up women who formed a book club and they got their comeuppance from a woman they made fun of behind her back because she did not conform to their lofty standards. ‘Xingu’ was originally published in Scribner’s Magazine, December 1911. (3 stars)
2. ‘Coming Home’ was a story about a soldier in World War One, his family, his fiancé, and a cruel German officer. It was originally published in Scribner’s Magazine, December 1915. (3 stars)
3. Autres Temps was about a woman from high society who was shocked about her daughter marrying and then divorcing in order to marry another man and that was unheard of in her social caste, but the times they were a-changing. It was originally published in The Century Magazine, July and August 1911, under the title ‘Other Times, Other Manners’. (2.5 stars)
4. The next story, ‘Kerfol’, was a ghost story, which took place in the 1600s..it was an enjoyable read. It was originally published in Scribner’s Magazine, March 1916. (3.5 stars)
5. The following story, ‘the Long Run’, was so-so and for the punch line that it had (or the take-home massage) it was too long. It was originally published in Atlantic Monthly, February 1912. (2.5 stars)
6. ‘Triumph of Night’ was a ghost story, and it was good, but I didn’t “get it”, and so that diminished by enthusiasm for it. It was originally published in Scribner’s Magazine, August 1914. (2 stars)
7. And the last story was ‘Bunner Sisters’. It was originally published in Scribner’s Magazine, October and November 1916. (5 stars)
Reviews
• https://bythefirelight.com/2012/02/01...
• http://www.smilingshelves.com/home/xi...
Other stories were more in line with what I was used to from Edith Wharton.
1. The eponymous story — Xingu — was funny...a bunch of stuck-up women who formed a book club and they got their comeuppance from a woman they made fun of behind her back because she did not conform to their lofty standards. ‘Xingu’ was originally published in Scribner’s Magazine, December 1911. (3 stars)
2. ‘Coming Home’ was a story about a soldier in World War One, his family, his fiancé, and a cruel German officer. It was originally published in Scribner’s Magazine, December 1915. (3 stars)
3. Autres Temps was about a woman from high society who was shocked about her daughter marrying and then divorcing in order to marry another man and that was unheard of in her social caste, but the times they were a-changing. It was originally published in The Century Magazine, July and August 1911, under the title ‘Other Times, Other Manners’. (2.5 stars)
4. The next story, ‘Kerfol’, was a ghost story, which took place in the 1600s..it was an enjoyable read. It was originally published in Scribner’s Magazine, March 1916. (3.5 stars)
5. The following story, ‘the Long Run’, was so-so and for the punch line that it had (or the take-home massage) it was too long. It was originally published in Atlantic Monthly, February 1912. (2.5 stars)
6. ‘Triumph of Night’ was a ghost story, and it was good, but I didn’t “get it”, and so that diminished by enthusiasm for it. It was originally published in Scribner’s Magazine, August 1914. (2 stars)
7. And the last story was ‘Bunner Sisters’. It was originally published in Scribner’s Magazine, October and November 1916. (5 stars)
Reviews
• https://bythefirelight.com/2012/02/01...
• http://www.smilingshelves.com/home/xi...
February 1, 2016
This collection of eight short stories was a nice surprise for me as I am not always a fan of short stories. I really liked and/or loved six of the eight. The other two were a bit strange but were equally entertaining and well written. Again as seems to be a recurring theme for Wharton several of the stories addressed the stringent societal rules of New York City's upper crust in the late 19th century and flaunted how they may be changing on one level, but maybe really not so much when carefully scrutinized at a deeper level. Another story addressed the revenge factor of those so devastated physically and emotionally by Germans, especially brutal German officers, who thoughtlessly carried out the destruction of Western Europe during WWI. Another was about working class women who dreamed of success and marriage and how heedless dreams could lead to ever more misery. So obviously all of those stories were pretty deep, thoughtful sketches of the culture and society of the turn of the century, but since people and their thoughts and habits tend to stay the same these themes of revenge, social climbing, heedless dreaming, etc. are just as current today as then. One thing Wharton's writing does is to make one think - to think of, think through and think why!
June 18, 2019
Xingu is a short story, but there aren't a lot of novels that begin with X for my reading challenge.
This was an amusing story in 3 acts. 1st act establishes the small town ladies literary lunch society (limited in size to 6 members because of the size of one of the members dining room). They are excited to have a famous author for their upcoming lunch, and peeved at one of the members (Mrs. Roby) who doesnt bother to read the newest books because she prefers old fashioned authors like Trollope.
Act 2: lunch with the author is unpleasant because she's snooty. When she scoffs at their literary pretensions, Mrs Roby says they've been so busy studying Xingu, the author pretends she knows what this is to avoid being embarrassed. The other ladies chime in to compound her embarrassment until she leaves.
Act 3: after, the other ladies look up Xingu and discover it's the name of a river in the Amazon. They are still not sure however if Mrs Roby belongs in the lunch club, however.
This was an amusing story in 3 acts. 1st act establishes the small town ladies literary lunch society (limited in size to 6 members because of the size of one of the members dining room). They are excited to have a famous author for their upcoming lunch, and peeved at one of the members (Mrs. Roby) who doesnt bother to read the newest books because she prefers old fashioned authors like Trollope.
Act 2: lunch with the author is unpleasant because she's snooty. When she scoffs at their literary pretensions, Mrs Roby says they've been so busy studying Xingu, the author pretends she knows what this is to avoid being embarrassed. The other ladies chime in to compound her embarrassment until she leaves.
Act 3: after, the other ladies look up Xingu and discover it's the name of a river in the Amazon. They are still not sure however if Mrs Roby belongs in the lunch club, however.
February 23, 2008
While she will always be most famous for Ethan Frome, it is in her short work that Wharton's spirit, and especially her humor, truly reveal themselves. The short story entitled “Xingu” is a case in point. It serves as a wonderful ridicule of the pretensions of polite society and as a rather stinging slam against Wharton's friend Henry James.
October 29, 2024
A collection of short stories, of different genres and styles. The title story, Xingu, is what attracted me to this Wharton collection in the first place: it’s a fine, witty, very incisive look at human nature: at our need to conform, to appear more erudite and sophisticated than we really are. This perceptiveness, this superb understanding and exploration of human nature are obvious in most of Wharton’s stories in this collection. In Autres Temps, for instance, where a woman returns to America, many years after having been cast out in the wake of a scandal. Or in The Long Run, where a man and a woman try to find a way to take their affair to its logical conclusion. Or, in the longest story in the book, Bunner Sisters, where the ups and downs, the trials and tribulations of two past-their-prime sisters are chronicled.
Other stories are somewhat different in tone: Kerfol is horror; The Triumph of Night is eerie in a way that could (or could not, I suppose) border on horror. The Choice has a touch of black humour to it, but only that: the merest hint, no more. Barring one story—The Long Run (which I found draggy and monotonous enough to have my attention wandering pretty much through all of it)—I found this book satisfying: absorbing, thought-provoking, and generally offering a multitude of insights into human nature. Highly recommended.
(Longer and more detailed review at my blog, here: https://madhulikareads.wordpress.com/...).
Other stories are somewhat different in tone: Kerfol is horror; The Triumph of Night is eerie in a way that could (or could not, I suppose) border on horror. The Choice has a touch of black humour to it, but only that: the merest hint, no more. Barring one story—The Long Run (which I found draggy and monotonous enough to have my attention wandering pretty much through all of it)—I found this book satisfying: absorbing, thought-provoking, and generally offering a multitude of insights into human nature. Highly recommended.
(Longer and more detailed review at my blog, here: https://madhulikareads.wordpress.com/...).
November 3, 2014
As the title suggests, this is a collection of Edith Wharton's short stories. Overall this is an enjoyable collection of short stories that is worth reading as many of the stories showcase the human condition. "Xingu" is a laugh-out-loud story of a pompous book club. "Coming Home" tells the tale of a wounded French soldier returning to his home near the front. "Autres Temps" considers how times change yet we remain stuck in our times. "Kerfol" is an old-fashioned ghost story with a great last sentence. "The Long Run" tells of love lost, and "The Triumph of Night" is an odd story concerning premonitions of evil. "The Choice" leaves one pondering over the choice that was made, and "The Bunner Sisters" finished up the book with a sad tale of devotion. Cautions: none.
July 2, 2023
I am so glad this was my introduction to Edith Wharton. I picked this up for the story Xingu which, with an unbidden image of Emily Gilmore and her DAR group in my mind, I laughed all the way through! Since the other stories came as a package deal, I had to finish the book and I found myself reading each one with delight. They are all different in topic and style but so enjoyable that I purchased two more of her short story collections, one containing her Ghost Stories which I'm looking forward to devouring in October!
September 21, 2018
A nice range of stories here. I enjoyed the social commentary stories especially the hypocrisy highlight in Xingu and Autre Temps, plus the more melancholic The Bunner Sisters. I'm not a fan of ghost stories so those were less to my personal taste.
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September 29, 2010Xingu
I thought this one was hilarious
I thought this one was hilarious
Read
November 16, 2010I don't usually enjoy short story collections but I found myself looking forward to reading these by Edith Wharton. I definitely liked her sense of irony.
May 19, 2017
I probably would have appreciated this book more if the version that I heard wasn't full of skips. It is so rare to have electronic versions skip.
June 25, 2022
Reading Wharton reminds us that society has always been willing to kick women to the curb -- even women do it to each other (looking at you, Ginni Thomas).
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews