Edith Wharton
The first chapter in Book II was, to me, the most sporadic and confusing part of the entire novel. Some parts I enjoyed and understood well, but then the novel would jump to a completely unrelated scene and go into great detail about it, abandoning the original scene. So, Wharton began the second half of the novel, randomly in my opinion, with Selden on the Casino steps; we got no preface for his purpose there and no explanation of Lily's decision to sail with the Dorsets [we just assume she goes with them]. On page 150, Wharton left out Selden's reaction to the news of Lily Bart's sailing with the Dorsets and docking nearby, which was extremely annoying to me because the audience were privy to the thoughts of nearly every major character up until that point, and I think this was a major thought to leave unattended for the reader. Later, we learned of Selden's resolve to not see Miss Bart because it was too difficult and she would most likely reject him yet again. He claimed that "he could trust himself to return gradually to a reasonable view of Miss Bart, if only he did not see her," (Wharton, page 153). I loved this contradiction of Selden's view of Lily which totally made sense and was very well written of Edith Wharton. [Throughout the novel, I realized that her diction, syntax, and writing overall is very beautiful and thought-provoking, but I am not as fond of the plot. Her jumping around is a annoying, and she often leaves out important pieces of the plot, which I suppose can be construed as part of her style.] However, other sections of chapters 1 and 2 made hardly any sense to me, such as on page 155-6 where Wharton rambles on about the "tyranny of the stomach" and on page 160 when Mrs. Fisher discusses the "nearest thing to smash." Both parts really confused me, so I reread the passage, yet I was just as confused the second time. This probably comes from the hundred year difference between the novel's publication and our study of it this summer.
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