Saturday 27 June 2009

House of Mirth

On a visit to London with friends yesterday I was struck by a painting of the glamorous Lady Colin Campbell in the National Portrait Gallery. I popped into Waterstone's to buy some of the books on my tbr list and the very same painting was on the cover of Edith Wharton's House of Mirth! There are some excellent Edith Wharton posts here and here.
Also saw a stunning arrangement of hydrangeas in a huge square cut glass vase in a London restaurant. Who would have thought of cutting hydrangeas for indoors?

8 comments:

Paperback Reader said...

Hydrangeas indoors are beautiful.
It is also a beautiful cover; I adore coincidences of that type!

Rachel (Book Snob) said...

What a lovely coincidence! While it's always a shame to me to see a Virago without that trademark green spine and header, they have certainly done an excellent job of choosing beautiful covers for their Whartons. The Age of Innocence has a gorgeous cover image too.

Anonymous said...

They're even lovely when they're dead! I have some in a vase with honesty.

Cath said...

Not sure if you've read House of Mirth before or not. If not, you're in for a real treat - I couldn't put it down!

callmemadam said...

Hated The House of Mirth!
I love to cut hydrangeas for indoors! If you leave them in a vase until the water has all evaporated, they will dry out naturally.

Vintage Reading said...

I hate being late to respond to comments but what with lots of end-of-term activity for my daughters I haven't sat down at the compute in a coherent frame of mind.

I have cut some of my hydrangeas and I'm going to let them dry. I'll have to invest in a tall glass vase. Can't wait to see the results. I liked the suggestion to combine them with honesty.

Oddly enough I remember loving The House of Mirth when I read it in the eighties and disliking The Age of Innocence which I read recently.

Dark Puss said...

House of Mirth was read, and commented upon, by the Cornflower Book Group. You may find the postings of interest.

http://cornflower.typepad.com/domestic_arts_blog/2008/03/the-house-of-mi.html

Vintage Reading said...

Dark Puss, hi, now that I've finished The House of Mirth I'm going to have a browse through the comments on Cornflower's blog. Can't think how I missed that post as I check out Cornflower regularly.