Jonathan Franzen’s observation that “she wasn’t pretty” (which he considers a “potentially redeeming disadvantage”) has, predictably, drawn a lot of angry comment. Yet, observes Laura Miller, “if Wharton’s looks didn’t have some significant impact on her life, she’d be a very unusual woman indeed, for any period of history. … And if her life is relevant to her work, then I’m sorry to say that her looks probably are, too.”