Reviews for Sixes and Sevens

The average rating for Sixes and Sevens based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-08-26 00:00:00 Kyle Nichols Edith Wharton stories are like brightly shining beads on a string, all in contrasting colours. When you read one story, you wish for the heroine to make different choices, to move in another direction, to live better. Then you engage with another girl or woman in the next novel, and you find her brutaly struggling in exactly the situation you wished upon the last novel's main character. I thought I was convinced that New York upper class life was the unhappiest state of mind possible, but of course I hadn't read Bunner Sisters and seen that vanity and folly are really not a privilege of the rich, and that bad choices derive from good intentions all the time, in all environments. The ease with which Edith Wharton moves between countries and social classes and dreams and hopes is astonishing. Susy Lansing and Lily Bart don't differ much from Evelina Bunner in the end. They want love and happiness but face the shallow desires and addictions of the ruthless world instead. In the end, chance decides on the "fate" of the heroine. If your baby is in Catholic heaven, you better make sure to buy a ticket for that ride as well, whether the rituals are meaningful to you or not. Marriage is both epiphany and catastrophe, the main goal of each woman's life and at the same time the end of life as an independent person. Almost a symbolical suicide a priori... And when nothing is left, the world still keeps moving.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-12-18 00:00:00 Nick Manning Edith Wharton wrote with ease of New York's high society, of which she was a part, but she could also portray the struggles of the lower classes with effect. The Bunner Sisters is the story of two sisters barely making ends meet in a small shop in their neighborhood. But they are happy with their companionship and their routine. Things change forever, and for the worse, when they meet a local clockmaker. Wharton reminds us that when you make poor choices, the results can be devastating, regardless of your status in society.