Un joven norteamericano, residente en París con su familia, se enamora de una aristócrata francesa de tamaño medio que está separada de su impresentable marido y tiene un hijo. Desde el punto de vista de él y de su familia, basta con divorciarse y ya está. Pero la familia de ella, y ella misma, no lo ven tan claro. Surge la hermana del marido, que da título a la novela, a modo de mediadora, pero nunca acabará de ser completamente sincera con el americano ni, de paso, tampoco con el lector. En este juego de tradiciones, intereses, recelos y medias palabras, nuestro simplón ultramarino se pierde una y otra vez. Con esta novelita breve, Wharton plantea, quizá con cierta ingenuidad, el contraste entre ambos mundos y el resultado es bastante entretenido pero no llega a ser profundo, que seguramente era lo que la autora quería. ( )

Madame de Treymes is perhaps Edith Wharton's most Jamesian novella or short novel. Set in early Twentieth century Paris, it tells the story of a young American who becomes intrigued by a young American woman, married to a French aristocrat. He is aware that he had known her as a youth friend, Fanny Frisbee, but at that time he had no interest in her. However, when he encounters her in Paris she proves to be irresistable. He falls in love with her, hopes to achieve her divorce, so he can marry her. The key to this plot is Madame de Treymes, Fanny's sister-in-law.

As the title indicates, the novella is mainly centered on Madame de Treymes. Like James, Wharton seems to suggest that the psychology of the ancient, French aristocrats is much more sophisticated, and devious than that of the relatively simple American, while the latter's motives are more pure. As in James, Madame de Malrive in this novella is unhappily married to an impoverished aristocrat, however, the reasons for staying with him are quite different. Madame de Treymes reads like a light version of The Portrait of a Lady. ( )

John Durham, while he waited for Madame de Malrive to draw on her gloves, stood in the hotel doorway looking out across the Rue de Rivoli at the afternoon brightness of the Tuileries gardens. His European visits were infrequent enough to have kept unimpaired the freshness of his eye, and he was always struck anew by the vast and consummately ordered spectacle of Paris: by its look of having been boldly and deliberately planned as a background for the enjoyment of life, instead of being forced into grudging concessions to the festive instincts, or barricading itself against them in unenlightened ugliness, like his own lamentable New York. But to-day, if the scene had never presented itself more alluringly, in that moist spring bloom between showers, when the horse-chestnuts dome themselves in unreal green against a gauzy sky, and the very dust of the pavement seems the fragrance of lilac made visible-to-day for the first time the sense of a personal stake in it all, of having to reckon individually with its effects and influences, kept Durham from an unrestrained yielding to the spell. Paris might still be-to the unimplicated it doubtless still was-the most beautiful city in the world; but whether it were the most lovable or the most detestable depended for him, in the last analysis, on the buttoning of the white glove over which Fanny de Malrive still lingered.

2. Madame De Treymes by Edith Wharton
published: 1906
format: Kindle ebook (calling it 87 pages)
acquired: November, read: Jan 5-15, time reading: 2:14, 1.5 mpp, rating: 3
genre/style: Henry James style semi-classic, locations: Paris, theme: Wharton
about the author: 1862-1937. Born Edith Newbold Jones on West 23rd Street, New York City. Relocated permanently to France after 1911.

Our latest in the Litsy Wharton theme, published in 1906. This was her 3rd novella, and 5th longer work for fiction, all since 1900.

A cultural clash in Paris between American New York City elite and French nobility and some intermarriage. The novel is marked by gorgeous prose and terrific characterization. Wharton does a good job of making this a nice read with a lot going on under the surface. But it is limited by an only ok plot, and mainly of really wealthy people being really wealthy. The cultural tension is American faux-purity and cluelessness mixing with French sophistication. Also, there is subtle of a lack of sincere emotion. But, unlike in House of Mirth, the tension is not on the wealth itself. Still, I really enjoyed this.

2022
https://www.librarything.com/topic/337810#7726305 ( )

His sense of strangeness was increased by the surprise of his companion's next speech.
You wish to marry my sister-in-law?" she asked abruptly; and Durham's start of wonder was followed by an immediate feeling of relief. He had expected the preliminaries of their interview to be as complicated as the bargaining in an Eastern bazaar, and had feared to lose himself at the first turn in a labyrinth of “foreign” intrigue.

I started my year of reading Edith Wharton with this novella, first published in a magazine in 1906, because it was the only one of her books on the shelf last time I went to the library. The copy I read has large print, wide borders and several blank pages between chapters, and it's still a slim book that didn't take much more than an hour to read.

The story is about a straightforward and honourable American man who wishes to marry the estranged American wife of an aristocratic Frenchman. Although long separated from her husband, Madame de Malrive is sure that her husband's family will find a way to prevent her from getting a divorce, even though as a Protestant it is not against her religion, and she enlists her sister-in-law Madame de Treymes to help persuade the rest of the family.

It's not much of a spoiler to say that things do not go well for the protagonist. It is obvious from the beginning that the marriage will never happen, and the publishers of my book quote a review on the back cover that gives it away too. I think that the strength of this novella lies in the gloomy atmosphere and the weight of tradition and family hanging over Madame de Malrive, rather than the plot. ( )