Amusement & Respectability.

When I first acquired a crimson, winter scarf, I couldn't stop thinking of Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton.

book cover. scarf photo.

My mind always flashes to that pivotal scene: red scarf of passion amidst the snowy, innocent backdrop, with Ethan and Mattie sledding down the hill before, spoiler alert!, crashing into an elm tree and irrevocably destroying both their lives.  It was dramatic; it was tragic; it was quite possibly the most exciting scene I read in 11th grade Honors American Literature.  But, I should probably qualify that by saying most of the things we read were unbearably dull, so this novel was, to me at least, akin to a turtle racing against slugs.  Oh dear, was that too harsh?  My apologies.

model natalia vodianova as edith wharton

A short feature on Edith Wharton was included in the massive September issue of Vogue.  This author's life was anything but dull.  I cannot imagine cranking out essentially a novel a year, let alone creating a house on top of that, but she did just that when she designed her magnificently elegant country house, the Mount.

jeffrey eugenides as henry james on left; jack huston as morton fullerton on right; elijah wood as her chauffeur.

Her personal life was filled with dashing men.  One of her closest friends, novelist Henry James, encouraged her affair with the bisexual Morton Fullerton by telling her to "Live it all through."  The letters she wrote to Fullerton revealed a more romantic and fanciful side of herself, one that she would have preferred to keep under wraps.

wharton with one of her many dogs and her secretary.

I adore this mixing of the literary and the fashion world. For Wharton, this feature thrust her into the public's eye in a "cool" way.  And my, what a fashionable entrance she made.

junot diaz as diplomat walter berry in the middle; jonathan safran foer as architect ogden codman, jr.; and others.

wharton with her friends henry james and theodore roosevelt, as played by james corden.

What I liked most about this shoot is that they chose to have actual novelists play the parts of several key figures in Wharton's life: Jeffrey Eugenides, author of The Virgin Suicides and Middlesex, as one of Wharton's closest friends and fellow novelist Henry James; Junot Díaz, writer of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, as friend Walter Berry; and Jonathan Safran Foer, of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, as her architect Ogden Codman, Jr.

They seem to be insinuating that these three authors are the heirs of Wharton's literary greatness, and yet the wonderful Wharton herself is portrayed by a model.  A model.  Why couldn't she be portrayed by a current female author of amazing quality?  I understand it is a fashion magazine, and perhaps the most important facet is to show off the clothes, but beautiful writers like Gillian Flynn, of Gone Girl, or Téa Obreht, of The Tiger's Wife, could have done that just as well and elevated the overall feature.

Nonetheless, the spread is beautifully regal and sophisticated.  And I do love the dogs they included throughout.

{ all Vogue photos here on their site. }