Is the Mount's plight a bellwether? Certainly the economy doesn't bode well for any cultural institution. But Susan Wissler, acting director of Edith Wharton Restoration, and her recently laid-off publications director, David Dashiell, worry that the Mount's troubles speak to a larger trend toward über-commercialization. It's not cheap running a place like this—taking into account salaries, maintenance, upkeep, property insurance, housekeeping, and other concerns, the annual operating budget is $2.2 million—and though Edith Wharton Restoration raises half of that each year, for the balance they rely on public support, which has proved more and more difficult to come by. "The Mount is a work of art," Wissler explains. "Nobody expects the Mona Lisa to pay her way." She's optimistic, though, that some savior out there will step in.

The irony of the situation is not lost on Hermione Lee. As she concluded in her e-mail to me, "Edith and her husband Teddy sold the Mount when their marriage was breaking up, in circumstances of great pain, confusion and distress, just under a hundred years ago. It seems deeply and darkly ironic—as ironic as any Wharton novel—that the house should once again be undergoing financial and management troubles."