Synopses & Reviews
Originally serialized in The Red Book Magazine in 1922, The Old Maid is an examination of class and society as only Edith Wharton could undertake. The story follows the life of Tina, a young woman caught between the mother who adopted her—the beautiful, upstanding Delia—and her true mother, her plain, unmarried “aunt” Charlotte, who gave Tina up to provide her with a socially acceptable life. The three women live quietly together until Tina’s wedding day, when Delia’s and Charlotte’s hidden jealousies rush to the surface. Says Roxana Robinson in her Introduction, “Wharton weaves her golden, fine-meshed net about her characters with inexorable precision.” This Modern Library Paperback Classic is set from the text of the original magazine publication.
Reading Group Guide
Originally serialized in
The Red Book Magazine in 1922,
The Old Maid is an examination of class and society as only Edith Wharton could undertake. The story follows the life of Tina, a young woman caught between the mother who adopted her—the beautiful, upstanding Delia—and her true mother, her plain, unmarried “aunt” Charlotte, who gave Tina up to provide her with a socially acceptable life. The three women live quietly together until Tina’s wedding day, when Delia’s and Charlotte’s hidden jealousies rush to the surface. Says Roxana Robinson in her Introduction, “Wharton weaves her golden, fine-meshed net about her characters with inexorable precision.” This Modern Library Paperback Classic is set from the text of the original magazine publication.
1. Note the manner in which the author repeatedly describes rooms, furniture, and clothing. What sort of atmosphere is she
attempting to evoke?
2. If The Old Maid were a drama, the significant male characters– Joe and Jim Ralston, Clement Spender, Lanning Halsey– would seem to have been purposely kept offstage. Why does Wharton do this? Some critics comment on Charlotte’s failing to share the “blame” for Tina’s birth with Clem Spender, choosing instead to accept the burden of her situation all alone, acting almost like a martyr. However, Charlotte did willingly have an affair with Spender. Do you think Charlotte is being unreasonable in her martyrdom? Do you think she is simply acting as the society of her day would expect her to act, or does she gain
satisfaction from her selflessness?
3. Consider the repeated references to Delia’s “ormolu clock represent[ing] a shepherdess” and a shepherd stealing a kiss from her. What significance does this clock play in the story? What is it meant to tell us about Delia’s past, about her aspirations? Does this clock hold any special meaning for Charlotte?
4. Consider Edith Wharton as an author in the 1920s writing about the 1850s. Does she seem to be representing the era objectively, or commenting upon it? What meaning does the story have to twenty-first-century readers, who are even further removed than Wharton’s audience was? Is The Old Maid simply a period piece, or does it have something to say even now?
5. When Delia derails Charlotte’s marriage, Wharton, delving into Delia’s thoughts, says: “Had she done right? Had she done wrong? And would she ever know?” Do you believe that Delia doesn’t, at that moment, truly know her motivations, truly know whether she’s done right or wrong? Why do you think that Wharton leaves the issue so open-ended?
6. The Old Maid explores the tragic results of a woman’s acting on her sexual impulses, and details the so-called double standard, in which women are punished for actions no worse than what is deemed appropriate when men do them. And yet it is also a work in which two victimized women are locked in combat against each other. What, do you believe, is Wharton’s stance on women’s sexuality? And can this novel be read as a work of feminism?