Edna His Wife

Edna is a sadly unsophisticated wife. She was first attracted to Paul Jones by his handsome appearance and his thrilling rise to success as a brilliant young lawyer from an orphanage childhood. But after their marriage she finds that she is too self-conscious and unskilled in conversation to fit into her successful husband's circles, either in Chicago, where they spend the first years of their marriage, or in Washington where they live during the World War I years, or in New York, where he carries on an affair with another woman for fifteen years without arousing Edna's suspicions. Edna, His Wife demonstrates well Mrs. Barnes' skill in portraying the flavor of an era, but more than that, the novel presents two of her best characterizations in Edna and Paul, who are made poignantly real. These two become a caricature of the ideal couple, and point up most effectively the continuing plight of the stay-at-home wife. The first half of the book, covering the years from 1900 to 1914, is set in Blue Island and Chicago.