when the novelist wrote in French

“It was tea time at the Hôtel Nouveau-Luxe.” This is the first sentence. It doesn’t get any simpler. When she writes in French, Edith Wharton (1862-1937) does not look for Proust at two o’clock. The American had settled in Paris in 1907. This friend of Henry James made short work of the company. Very quickly, she understood everything.

The Directors shows penniless socialites struggling to introduce their wealthy compatriots to more or less declassed aristocrats – or vice versa. This is not always easy. “For almost ten years, Jean Le Danois had led this boring and ambiguous life of launching nouveau riche into the Parisian world.” An unexpected inheritance complicates things. Small lies slip into conversations. We are hatching dark plots. We meet in secret. Living rooms are full of potential prey. The most interesting encounters often take place on liners from the United States. These rustics…