French Ways and Their Meaning

FRENCH WAYS AND THEIR MEANING by EDITH WHARTON. Originally published in 1919. PREFACE: This book is essentially a desultory book, the result of intermittent observation, and often, no doubt, of rash assumption Having been written in Pans, at odd moments, during the last two years of the war, it could hardly be more than a series of disjointed notes, and the excuse for its publication lies in the fact that the very conditions which made more con secutive work impossible al o gave unprece dented opportunities for quick notation The world since 1914 has been like a house on fire All the lodgers are on the stairs, in dishabille Their doors are swinging wide, and one gets glimpses of their furniture, reve lations of their habits, and whiffs of their cooking, that a life-time of ordinary inter course would not offer Superficial differ ences vanish, and so how much oftener do superficial resemblances, while deep ...