The Other Two

伊迪丝·华顿 / 陈正宇Shanghai Translation Publishing House · ChinaAug 2026

4.0

Word count: 15K words
Chapters: 9

Summary

You cannot truly monopolize a person with a past... Waythorn, a New York banker, marries Alice, who is on her third marriage. He loves his wife deeply, yet harbors a hidden sense of superiority and unease toward her two former husbands, and tries to monopolize her. Life, however, ruthlessly tears open his illusions: first his frail stepdaughter Lily "draws in" the plain first ex-husband Haskett, and then the business world entangles him with the philandering second ex-husband Varick—and Waythorn realizes with alarm that these two men, whom he regarded as shadows of the past, are quietly seeping into his daily life.

Editor's review

The sharpest thing about Wharton's novel is how it turns the obsession with "monopolizing a person with a past" into a slow siege. Waythorn's superiority and unease are not presented through violent conflict but through his stepdaughter Lily drawing in the first ex-husband and the business world entangling him with the second, letting the two "shadows of the past" seep into daily life bit by bit. Wharton's method is cool and restrained; dialogue in social scenes and psychological undercurrents interlock, producing a suffocating sense of being slowly exposed by life itself. It suits readers of fiction interested in marriage, possessiveness, and middle-class respectability, and those who want to observe how Wharton advances relationships through limited scenes. This is not a plot-dense melodrama but a novel that requires attention to detail and tone.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy social novels of manners like Wharton's The Age of Innocence
Fiction readers interested in possessiveness, the past, and respectability in marriage
Literary enthusiasts accustomed to close reading of psychology and dialogue rather than strong plot
Literature students researching late-nineteenth-century upper-class New York society

Not a good fit for

Plot-driven readers expecting fast-paced conflict and clear reversals
Readers uninterested in marital ethics and social psychology
Beginners who need extensive historical background notes to enter the text

Reading tips

Pay attention to every scene in which Waythorn meets the two ex-husbands, and watch how his superiority turns into unease.
Separate the two threads—stepdaughter Lily and the business world—and see how they jointly squeeze Waythorn's imagination of his marriage.
Slow down at dialogue-dense passages; Wharton often hides key information in tone and pauses.
After finishing, revisit the opening account of Alice's "past" to reconsider where Waythorn's obsession comes from.

About the publisher

Shanghai Translation Publishing House China · Founded in 1978

Shanghai Translation Publishing House is a Chinese publisher oriented mainly toward translation and publishing. Its publications cover foreign literature, world classics and classic works, as well as social culture, folk literature and classical poetry. The database contains 2,618 titles, including Never Let Me Go, Les Misérables (2 volumes), Don Quixote (illustrated collector's edition), The Complete Comedies of Molière (4 volumes), The Complete Novels of Kafka (3 volumes), The Collected Works of Dostoevsky (9-volume set), Reason and Persons, and Oedipus Rex (Translation Classics). Its author resources include foreign writers such as Kazuo Ishiguro, Victor Hugo, Cervantes and Molière, as well as translators such as Zheng Kelu, Sun Jiameng, Li Jianwu and Zhang Kun. The publisher has brands such as "Translation Classics Selections" and "Translation Documentary," and emphasizes translated works in foreign literature and the humanities and social sciences, while also publishing bilingual dictionaries and foreign-language educational books. Public information is limited; the above is based on the book information in the database.

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FAQ

Is this book similar in style to The Age of Innocence?

Both belong to Wharton's observations of upper-class New York society, but this one focuses more on the psychological struggle within a marriage. It likewise advances through social scenes and dialogue, with a cool, restrained touch. If you like the social comedy of manners in The Age of Innocence, this will offer a similar reading experience, only with a narrower, more private focus.

Who are the "two others" in the title?

They are the two former husbands of the heroine, Alice. Waythorn tries to monopolize his wife's present but finds that her past keeps entering his life in the form of two concrete men. The novel unfolds precisely around how these "two others" seep into married daily life.

Is the plot slow?

It does not rely on strong plot; it advances through relationships and psychological change. If you are used to fast-paced narrative, the early sections may feel slow; but Wharton's scenes are tightly arranged and the dialogue is full of undercurrents. Approach it as a novel for close reading, attentive to tone and detail, rather than waiting for big events.

Do I need to understand late-nineteenth-century New York society?

Not necessarily, but a little knowledge helps in understanding the weight of marriage, respectability, and social circles. The novel itself provides enough information through scenes and dialogue for ordinary readers to enter smoothly; if you are doing research, you can supplement with background on Wharton's era.

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About the author

伊迪丝·华顿 Author

Edith Wharton was an American novelist active from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century; details of her life are limited in the public materials available here. This library holds seven of her works, including multiple editions of her representative novel The Age of Innocence, as well as The House of Mirth, The Other Two, and The Descent of Man and Other Stories. These works show that she excelled at depicting marriage, family, and social rules among New York's upper class, with a delicate and restrained style that often uses calm irony to reveal the tension between personal desire and social convention. Her writing emphasizes psychological portrayal and atmosphere, with carefully structured plots and elegant language. Her works are generally classified as foreign literature, and some editions are also used for English learning and inspirational reading. Wharton's fiction remains an important literary text for observing the social life and the situation of women in her era.

陈正宇 Author

Chen Zhengyu is a Chinese author whose works span a notably wide range of subjects. Public information about him is limited, and no systematic account of his life has yet appeared. Four of his works are held in the collection: narrative works with a foreign-literary flavor such as Plains, The Quality of Jinshan, and Two Others, as well as a practical programming and design title, Embedded Linux Interface Development Techniques. Judging from this list, his writing moves in two directions at once—literary creation, which emphasizes the unfolding of characters and situations, and technical writing, which addresses engineering practice and focuses on the principles and applications of interface development. This cross-disciplinary combination is unusual among authors and gives his readership a rather scattered profile. Because reliable background material is lacking, his career and creative development cannot be described further at present; only the categories of his existing works can indicate the shape of his writing.