50 pages • 1 hour read
Edith WhartonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
In 1870s New York, the established upper class prefers to squeeze into the little old music academy than build a new opera house, in order to keep out newly wealthy people.
Newland Archer attends a performance of famous real-life opera singer Christine Nilsson’s rendition of Faust. He arrives fashionably late, thinking of how he has just proposed and been accepted by the young May Welland. Archer has a high opinion of himself, considering himself more knowledgeable and better traveled than other members of New York high society. Still, he feels that he must conform to expectations.
Archer believes that May is too naive to understand Faust. He contrasts her negatively to a married woman with whom he was obsessed two years earlier: “if he had probed to the bottom of his vanity […] he would have found there the wish that his wife should be as worldly-wise and as eager to please” as his former mistress (Location 90). Meanwhile, a slim young woman styled like Empress Josephine catches his attention. Her presence causes a commotion and Archer’s acquaintances wonder at the Mingott family’s nerve at bringing her there.
By Edith Wharton
Ethan Frome
Ethan Frome
Edith Wharton
Roman Fever
Roman Fever
Edith Wharton
Summer
Summer
Edith Wharton
The Custom of the Country
The Custom of the Country
Edith Wharton
The House of Mirth
The House of Mirth
Edith Wharton
The Other Two
The Other Two
Edith Wharton
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection