AILSA CHANG, HOST:
It feels like a very modern problem. What I'm talking about is this disconnect we sometimes feel between the things we do in our everyday lives, like getting groceries or walking the dog, mundane tasks - that disconnect between those things and the horrors of, say, war, sickness and political upheaval that we can't help but see whenever we glance at our phones. Well, a newly published short story written more than 100 years ago wrestles with that exact same tension. It's from Edith Wharton, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist known for training a critical eye on the upper crust.
In this short story, the grand dam of a French chateau hosts a dinner party as the sound of cannon fire from the front lines of World War I rattles the windows. The story is called "The Men Who Saved The World," and you can find it in The Strand Magazine. Andrew Gulli, managing editor, joins us now. Welcome back to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, Andrew.
ANDREW GULLI: Great to be with you, Ailsa.
CHANG: Great to have you. So let's first hear a little more about this short story and the two women at the center of it. Tell us more about Milly Arden and Mrs. Upshall.
GULLI: Well, Milly is a young woman who's volunteering as a nurse to aid the wounded soldiers during World War I. And she seems to have been changed by some of the things that she's seen. And she's been invited to party from a society lady named Madge Upshall. And Madge is very much the Whartonian-type of older woman who is trying to keep up appearances and is...
CHANG: Right.
GULLI: ...Always knows how to say the right thing at the right time and is excellent at planning parties. Every detail must be perfect to the bouquets of flowers and the wonderful candlelight and the wonderful meals. And of course, they'll even be dancing, which is...
CHANG: Right.
GULLI: ...To the consternation of Milly Arden.
CHANG: I mean, she's shocked that there will be dancing. Can you just explain the context as to why?
GULLI: Well, the context would be that the room where probably they will be dancing had a rather long dining table, which Milly recalls had several amputations occur day and night when the war was in the thick of things. But Miss (ph) Upshall is looking at the wonderful advances made by the troops as a reason for everybody to have jocularity and to dance and to enjoy themselves.
CHANG: Right.
GULLI: Despite the fact that these advances are coming at a significant cost in death and bloodshed. But Madge thinks it'll be better for morale and better for everybody if everybody had a jolly old good time.
CHANG: Exactly. You write in your editorial for the magazine that the question this story asks is essentially, what is the cost of refusing to see the horrors beyond the softly curtained windows and who pays for it? Do you read an answer in Wharton's story to that question, any clues to how Edith Wharton might have felt about that question?
GULLI: I think she was, in a way, disillusioned by the war. I think she was an early proponent of an existential struggle for many countries in Europe against the invading Germans. But I think after seeing some of the casualties, seeing some of the bloodshed firsthand, she realized that there was a disconnect that people were just keen on living their life business as usual...
CHANG: Right.
GULLI: ...While other people were sacrificing. She looked and said, these are people who are forever changed by the war. And that's something that we've not seen in any of her previous works.
CHANG: What do you make of her title of this short story, "The Men Who Saved The World"? I kind of, like, expected Edith Wharton to be writing the title more, like, "The Men Who Saved The World" - parentheses - "Or Not." (Laughter) I mean, 'cause it's obvious the world's still in such disarray at the time that this story is unfolding.
GULLI: Exactly. And I think one of the reasons that it has remained unpublished and that she did not try to publish it is it has a more nuanced view of the war at that time and of war in general. And during World War I, there were very, very few people who had dared in the United States write something that was opposing the war because many people were thrown in jail for that. So I think that Edith Wharton probably wrote this more as a form of self-therapy...
CHANG: Yeah.
GULLI: ...Than of something that she had hoped to have published.
CHANG: Andrew Gulli, managing editor at The Strand Magazine, where you can find the newly published short story from Edith Wharton called "The Men Who Saved The World." Thank you so much, Andrew.
GULLI: Thanks, Ailsa. It was great chatting with you.
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