South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
‘Wharton Plot’ steeped in historical fact, vivid fiction
New York City in 1911 was undergoing a revolution of culture change. The Gilded Age, roughly the
1870s to late 1890s, is over; Prohibition and the Jazz Age are still ahead. New ideas such as motorized taxi cabs are beginning to permeate the city.
Mariah Fredericks uses this evocative background to show a portrait of early
20th Century author Edith Wharton in the fascinating historical “The Wharton Plot.” Fredericks continues her string of mysteries that reimagine real and imagined women by melding characters in the context of the times. “The Wharton Plot” also gives a close look at New York high society as well as publishing, precarious even in 1911, and the treatment of female authors, their talents often underrated, the shocking idea that a woman, such as Edith Wharton, dare negotiate her royalties.
Above all, “The Wharton Plot” is a very personal look at this famous novelist, her struggles as a writer, her crumbling marriage and her life of solitude.
It’s been five years since Edith’s “raging success,” “The House of Mirth,” was published, sealing her reputation as a dry wit with wry social observations. But her publisher wasn’t enthusiastic about her more recent works that featured textile mills, spinal injuries, euthanasia. The response at Scribner’s and from readers had been “anemic.” The publisher also isn’t used to a strong woman, finding this “sharp-eyed rogue” difficult.
Edith is coping with her husband’s mental health problems, an indiscreet former lover and a deadline she missed months ago. She’s deemed old at 49. During a meeting with one of Scribner’s editors at the Belmont Hotel, she’s introduced to novelist David Graham Phillips, who brags that the book he just finished will be explosive to New York society. “The public will not soon forgive me for this one,” he says. (Astute readers may see a correlation to Truman Capote and his “Swans.”) The nicest things Edith says about him are “odious,” “hideous,” “an absolute twaddle.”
When David is shot a few days later as he leaves New York’s Princeton Club, Edith fixates on his killer. The case energizes her, giving her something to focus on rather than her own troubles. She’s even more intrigued when his sister asks her to read the manuscript, maybe help get it published. Then Edith receives cryptic notes like those David received before his death.
Fredericks presents a complete look at Wharton, showing her fortitude and flaws, intelligence and idiosyncrasies, spirit and strength. Often unpleasant, her prickly personality is grating. But she also has immense compassion, and a soft spot for little dogs. Wharton socializes with the Vanderbilts, but is aware these may be tenuous relationships. She tended to be “buried in clothes, barricading herself in a profusion of lace and furs, pearls roped like armor.” Her writer’s block may be attributed to her dissatisfaction with New York’s changes, “she had lost the feel of it. It had grown beyond her.” Apparently, Edith overcame her feelings about New York City with her popular 1920 novel “The Age of Innocence,” which won the Pulitzer Prize.
Fredericks smoothly incorporates real people in “The Wharton Plot.” David was a real person. Edith often visits her close friend author Henry James and calls mystery author Mary Roberts Rinehart for advice about being an amateur sleuth.
Solid plotting, vivid characters and a touch of humor make “The Wharton Plot” a winner, and may inspire readers to rediscover this author’s timeless novels.
Behind the plot: David Graham Phillips was a novelist and muckraking journalist who didn’t shy away from exposing corruption and reveled in writing truthfully about society in his novels. Along the way, he collected many enemies. He also is credited with helping to bring a change in the U.S. Constitution with the passage of the 17th Amendment, allowing voters to elect U.S. senators instead state legislatures.
Mary Roberts Rinehart is credited with introducing the “had I but known” category of mysteries, “meaning, if characters knew what horrors awaited them … they would never have ventured forth.” She also is considered to have initiated “the butler did it” trope. Her books were on the national New York Times bestsellers list for almost 40 years straight.