I did find “Afterward” by Edith Wharton in a slim volume all by itself and read it that way, but it is really a short story, not a book or even novella. Ethan Frome is one of my favorite books, though I don’t think I have read much else of hers (like The House of Mirth or The Age of Innocence). (For that matter, Ethan Frome would make fine holiday reading, though it be bleak. It’s extremely snowy and cold.) Nevertheless, I don’t think “Afterward” is her finest. And because of the distance of years, it comes across as predictable and wordy. It’s not actually holiday reading at all, unless you want to read it for Halloween instead of Christmas.

A couple has met with success in America and wants to retire in the English countryside. They are looking for a place that is remote and haunted, and their friend finds them the house but is unsure about the haunting. For though they say it is haunted, no one knows exactly the rights of it, since no one knows they have met with the ghost until long after their haunting. Which is kind of weird as a set-up and also tantalizing. Of course, they move right in.

Let me begin by telling you how you could read this story. You could get an audio version, which would include free audio recordings online. You could read it online for free at a couple different public domain depositories, like Project Gutenberg. You could buy a Wharton collection of short stories and read it from there, but for this particular story you are going to have to buy a larger, more complete volume, like Collected Stories 1891-1910, the first of two volumes in the set. In retrospect, I would have preferred a volume of more than one story, but honestly the Dover Thrift version (which does not contain “Afterward”) looks more like my jam. So maybe I should have read it online. Then I wouldn’t have shelled out moola for a crappy, home-published venture that I would rather have not supported. I take no issue with self-publishing. I take issue with the way some people accomplish it, like with zero care and zero time and attention. If you are going to snag a copy, I would try the one from the Seth’s Christmas Ghost Stories series, (Seth is an illustrator, I guess,) which you can buy direct HERE or find round and about. (Don’t be fooled by some versions on Amazon that say they are Seth’s but aren’t).

And by now I have pretty much said it all. “Afterward” is an obvious ghost story. It does contain some things I will always love about Wharton, like atmosphere, tension, and the characters (so moody and dark even when they’re not). It is earlier work, so maybe it’s not her best. Or maybe some qualities that were okay (or better) at the time are lost on us now. Like novelty. Creepiness. And sheer girth as far as words go (super long, descriptive paragraphs, etc.). Lack of action, really. Old fashioned language and structure.

And we have mention of a “shyster lawyer.” I’m not totally sure if when and how she used it would be considered anti-Semitic. Technically, I believe in this context it refers just to a crap lawyer, but people have gotten the German word mixed up with some Shakespeare and this was probably after Wharton would have been writing. So probably not anti-Semitic but it would set off some warning bells if you threw it in your short story, today.

And how is this a Christmas story? It takes place at various times of the year. And when it is Christmastime, there’s not much to that. Seth might be stretching to find Christmas ghost stories in the public domain at this point.

It was okay. I didn’t hate it. Wharton can write and there are some fun scenes amidst all the lollygagging. It’s barely hanging on to that 4-star review. But I’d rather be re-reading Ethan Frome.