The Long Run
First published in:
The Atlantic
Setting:
The Cumnors' house, a country house
Plot:
I
The story starts with the returning of an un-named narrator who returns to New York after he has been away from New York for twelve years. He gets invited to a dinner party at the Cumnor’s house where he meets his old friend Halston Merrick. The narrator is very surprised about the fact that Merrick became conventional and dull, which he recognizes during their first conversation. Their first conversation does not last very long but the narrator likes to be near Merrick and think about old times. Due to the lack of interest in Merrick’s words the narrator looks around and sets his eyes on a woman about forty-seven years old. Merrick tells him that the lady is Mrs. Reardon. The narrator knows her under the name “Paulina Trant”, which she was named during her marriage to Mr. Philip Trant. The narrator is also surprised how worndown Mrs. Reardon looks like. Merrick leaves and invites the narrator for the weekend to his small house.
II
The next weekend the narrator visits Merrick at his house in Riverdale. Before going to bad, Merrick gives the narrator some written examples of himself to read and on the next day they talk about it. During this talk, the narrator realizes the change Merrick has made during the last years. In the afternoon the narrator thinks that Merrick ought to have married, but Merrick explains that he had passed up the opportunity.
III
Merrick tells the narrator his story. After his father died, he took over the Iron Works, although he wanted to sell it. He had no joy in life until he meets Mrs. Paulina Trant. Although he already knew her, something was different after the first real meeting at a Cumnor’s diner. There was a special connection between them, and they knew that they had to meet again. After that they meet regularly and their feelings for each other grow deeper. Paulina Trant, however, was married and therefore they do not live their love but only share a deep friendship and were happy. One day Paulina’s husband decides to go on a long journey with his wife. Paulina’s preparations for the travel leads to a fading apart of Merrick and Paulina. To Merrick it seems like Paulina has already gone. Two weeks before her leaving they talked about their feelings and came to the understanding that they cannot go on like that.
IV
Before Paulina’s departure they meet again one evening in Merrick’s house in the country. Paulina explains, that she has come to stay with him, but Merrick is afraid to ruin Paulina’s reputation. They argue about the advantages and disadvantages of Paulina giving up everything. Nevertheless, Merrick is not interested in Paulina’s arguments and is afraid of the future which will be ahead of them, if Paulina stays with him. Merrick does not want to make such a decision impulsively and realizing that, Paulina then leaves.
V
After Paulina left, Merrick goes on which his normal life and decided to not sell the Iron Works. He turns back in his old routine and had a brief affair with another married woman. But that was not what he wanted.
After two years, the Trants came back to New York. And another year later Philip Trant is killed in an accident. Merrick is happy because he thinks that Paulina is now free for him to marry. One evening he is visiting her to propose but leaves without having done so. He tells the narrator, that he has no explanation for his behavior.
VI
Paulina then marries Reardon but worst of all, Merrick often meets Paulina and her husband because they are friends. To sum it up, one could say that Merrick stays unhappily single whilst Paulina is again trapped in a new conventional marriage.
Narrative structure:
The short story “The Long Run” is written in first person narration. The narrator tells his story, while we do not get to know much about the narrator himself, but more about the narrator’s friend Merrick. The first part of the story is written in a first-person narration from the point of view of the narrator. Then it changes in another first-person narration which you can call also a first-person monologue, because Merrick only talks about himself and tells his and Paulina’s story to the narrator (Mantex). This structure highlights “bad faith and failure” (Mantex).
Merrick’s account of events is largely a first-person monologue, but it is preceded by the narrator’s framing of the story by his enthusiastic account of Merrick’s positive qualities in earlier life. But then the narrator is returning to New York after an absence of twelve years, and is shocked to find that Merrick, whilst the same in outward appearance, has changed for the worse (Kornetta).
The narrator gets the impression that Merrick had bad luck in his life and due to his wrong decisions, he lives an unhappy life.
Sources, research articles and further reading:
Kornetta, Reiner. Das Korsett im Kopf. Ehe und Ökonomie in den Kurzgeschichten Edith Whartons. Ed. Uwe Baumann and Friedl, Herwig. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Europäischer Verlag der Wissenschaftler, 1996. Print.
Mantex. “The Long Run.” mantex information design. 2019. 2019. Web. 22. Oct. 2019. <https://mantex.co.uk/the-long-run/>.
Singley, Carol J. A Historical Guide to Edith Wharton. Ed. Margaret Smith. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2003. Print.
Wharton, Edith. “The Long Run.” The Atlantic Monthly Group. 2019. The Atlantic. February 1912. Web. 24. Oct. 2019. <https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1912/02/the-long- run/376204/>.
Wharton, Edith. “The Long Run.” The Collected Short Stories of Edith Wharton. Volume II. Ed. Richard Warrington Baldwin Lewis. New York: A Charles Scribner´s Sons Book Macmillan Publishing Company, 1989. 301-324. Print.
Wharton, Edith. The New York Stories of Edith Wharton. Selected and with an Intro- duction by Roxana Robinson. Ed. Roxana Robinson. New York: New York Review Books classic, 2007. Print.
Image used:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a4/Sargent_Portrait_of_Lady_Helen_Vincent_1904.jpg/220px-Sargent_Portrait_of_Lady_Helen_Vincent_1904.jpg