Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton, the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize, vividly reflects on her public and private life in this stunning memoir.With richness and delicacy, it describes the sophisticated New York society in which Wharton spent her youth, and chronicles her travels throughout Europe and her literary success as an adult. Beautifully depicted are her friendships with many of the most celebrated artists and writers of her day, including her close friend Henry James.In his introduction to this edition, Louis Auchincloss calls the writing in A Backward Glance “as firm and crisp and lucid as in the best of her novels.” It is a memoir that will charm and fascinate all readers of Wharton’s fiction.

A two day's struggle over the treacherous trails in a well-intentioned but short-winded "flivver," and a ride of two more on a hired mount of unamiable temper, had disposed young Medford, of the American School of Archaeology at Athens, to wonder why his queer English friend, Henry Almodham, had chosen to live in the desert. Now he understood. He was leaning against the roof parapet of the old building, half Christian fortress, half Arab palace, which had been Almodham's pretext; or one of them. Below, in an inner court, a little wind, rising as the sun sank, sent through a knot of palms the rain-like rattle so cooling to the pilgrims of the desert. An ancient fig tree, enormous, exuberant, writhed over a whitewashed well-head, sucking life from what appeared to be the only source of moisture within the walls. Beyond these, on every side, stretched away the mystery of the sands, all golden with promise, all livid with menace, as the sun alternately touched or abandoned them. Young Medford, somewhat weary after his journey from the coast, and awed by his first intimate sense of the omnipresence of the desert, shivered and drew back. Undoubtedly, for a scholar and a misogynist, it was a wonderful refuge; but one would have to be, incurably, both.

Penned in 1899 by Edith Wharton, this short story features the proper Mrs. Carstyle; her husband, Mr. Carstyle; and their daughter, Irene, who are all are taken with their guest and an eligible bachelor named Vibart. Narrator John Chancer is a film and television actor with professional readings of many audiobooks to his credit. Public Domain (P)2015 Blackstone Audiobooks

No descompasso entre seus desígnios juvenis e as rígidas regras do Bom Gosto e do Bom-tom que balizam a velha Nova York no fim do século XIX, está o abastado advogado Newland Archer. Prestes a se casar com a inocente May Welland, ele conhece a prima de sua noiva, a condessa Olenska. Apaixonado por ela e exasperado pelas restrições do mundo a que pertence, Archer vagará em busca da verdadeira felicidade ao mesmo tempo que procura amadurecer, imerso nas tradições que se vê obrigado a seguir. “Um estudo das complexas e íntimas relações entre coesão social e crescimento individual”, como destaca na introdução Cynthia Griffin Wolff, ensaísta e especialista na obra da autora, A época da inocência é um olhar generoso para o passado; com maturidade, Wharton busca compreender os valores que guiaram a sociedade dos Estados Unidos até a Primeira Guerra Mundial, para então saudar a nova era que estava começando. Com ecos do herói Christopher Newman, de O americano, de Henry James, e da trama de Anna Kariênina, de Tolstói, A época da inocência foi adaptado para o cinema em 1993 por Martin Scorcese.

Este romance, que ganhou o prémio Pulitzer em 1920, desenha com fina acidez os códigos da elite nova-iorquina no final do século XIX. É uma sociedade elegante, exclusiva, incomodada pelo regresso da condessa Olenska, que se separou do marido na Europa e traz consigo um perturbante sopro de independência.

"Bunner Sisters," written in 1892 but not published until 1916 in Xingu and Other Stories, takes place in a shabby neighborhood in New York City. The two Bunner sisters, Ann Eliza the elder, and Evelina the younger, keep a small shop selling artificial flowers and small handsewn articles to Stuyvesant Square's "female population." Ann Eliza gives Evelina a clock for her birthday. The clock leads the sisters to become involved with Herbert Ramy, owner of "the queerest little store you ever laid eyes on." Soon Ramy is a regular guest of the Bunner sisters, who realize that their "treadmill routine," once so comfortable, is now "intolerably monotonous."

El día de Año Nuevo la familia Parrett está reunida en su suntuoso comedor, brindando con champán, cuando, de repente, alguien se da cuenta de que hay un incendio en el edificio de enfrente, el Hotel Fifth Avenue. Mientras observan cómo huespedes y servicio huyen entre el humo y las llamas, ven salir por la puerta del hotel a la señora Lizzie Hazeldean acompañada de un soltero muy conocido entre la alta sociedad de Nueva York, Henry Prest. Y a partir de aquí es fácil ponerse a hacer conjeturas: ¿Acaso estaban juntos en el hotel? ¿Su marido convaleciente sospecha algo? ¿Logrará ella dar una explicación creíble a una sociedad que castiga las aventuras extraconyugales con el ostracismo y el rechazo?

Què estem disposats a fer per amor? Aquesta és una història d’amor i engany en l’alta societat novaiorquesa de la Gilded Age. El dia de Cap d’Any la família Parrett està reunida al seu sumptuós menjador, brindant amb xampany, quan, de sobte, un d’ells s’adona que hi ha un incendi a l’edifici del davant, l’Hotel Cinquena Avinguda. Mentre observen com tothom fuig entre el fum i les flames, veuen sortir per la porta de l’hotel la senyora Lizzie Hazeldean acompanyada d’un solter prou conegut entre l’alta societat de Nova York. I a partir d’aquí és fàcil posar-se a fer conjectures: Estaven junts a l’hotel? Se n’assabentarà el seu marit convalescent? Aconseguirà ella donar una explicació creïble que justifiqui la seva aparició en unes circumstàncies tan sospitoses?

Procedente del áspero y salvaje ámbito de "la Montaña" y acogida de pequeña por el matrimonio Royall, la joven Charity vive ahora con su tutor ya viudo, el abogado Royall, en North Dormer, un minúsculo pueblo de Nueva Inglaterra roído por el tedio. La visita de Lucius Harney, un joven arquitecto, despierta en ella la ilusión del amor y del deseo, así como la de una nueva vida lejos de la asfixiante atmósfera local y de los incómodos requerimientos de su tutor. Sin embargo, el curso de los acontecimientos y la clara, aunque dolorosa, conciencia de su posición y de sus intereses llevarán a Charity a aceptar una inapelable lección de realidad.

The classic novel of despair, forbidden emotions, and sexual undercurrents set against the austere New England countryside Ethan Frome works his unproductive farm and struggles to maintain a bearable existence with his difficult, suspicious and hypochondriac wife, Zeena. But when Zeena's vivacious cousin enters their household as a hired girl, Ethan finds himself obsessed with her and with the possibilities for happiness she comes to represent. In one of American fiction's finest and most intense narratives, Edith Wharton moves this ill-starred trio toward their tragic destinies. Different in both tone and theme from Wharton's other works, Ethan Frome has become perhaps her most enduring and most widely read book.

On a bleak New England farm, a taciturn young man has resigned himself to a life of grim endurance. Bound by circumstance to a woman he cannot love, Ethan Frome is haunted by a past of lost possibilities until his wife's orphaned cousin, Mattie Silver, arrives and he is tempted to make one final, desperate effort to escape his fate. In language that is spare, passionate, and enduring, Edith Wharton tells this unforgettable story of two tragic lovers overwhelmed by the unrelenting forces of conscience and necessity. Included with Ethan Frome are the novella The Touchstone and three short stories, "The Last Asset," "The Other Two," and "Xingu." Together, this collection offers a survey of the extraordinary range and power of one of America's finest writers.

One of Edith Wharton’s few works of fiction that takes place outside of an urban, upper-class setting, Ethan Frome draws upon the bleak, barren landscape of rural New England. A poor farmer, Ethan finds himself stuck in a miserable marriage to Zeenie, a sickly, tyrannical woman, until he falls in love with her visiting cousin, the vivacious Mattie Silver. As Mattie is forced to leave his household, Frome steals one last afternoon with her—one that culminates in a ruinous sled ride with unspeakably tragic results. Unhappily married herself, Edith Wharton projected her dark views of love onto people far removed from her social class in Ethan Frome. Her sensitivity to natural beauty and human psychology, however, make this slim novel a convincing and compelling portrait of rural life. A powerful tale of passion and loss—and the wretched consequences thereof—Ethan Frome is one of American literatures great tragic love stories. Also included in this volume are four of Edith Wharton’s finest short stories: “The Pretext,” “Afterward,” “The Legend,” and “Xingu.” Kent P. Ljungquist, Professor of English at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, is the author of The Grand and the Fair: Poe’s Landscape Aesthetics and Pictorial Techniques, co-editor of the SUNY Press edition of James Fenimore Cooper's The Deerslayer, and editor of several reference works of American fiction. (back cover)

One of Edith Wharton s few works of fiction that takes place outside of an urban, upper-class setting, Ethan Frome draws upon the bleak, barren landscape of rural New England. A poor farmer, Ethan finds himself stuck in a miserable marriage to Zeenie, a sickly, tyrannical woman, until he falls in love with her visiting cousin, the vivacious Mattie Silver. As Mattie is forced to leave his household, Frome steals one last afternoon with her—one that culminates in a ruinous sled ride with unspeakably tragic results. Unhappily married herself, Edith Wharton projected her dark views of love onto people far removed from her social class in Ethan Frome. Her sensitivity to natural beauty and human psychology, however, make this slim novel a convincing and compelling portrait of rural life. A powerful tale of passion and loss—and the wretched consequences thereof—Ethan Frome is one of American literatures great tragic love stories. Also included in this volume are four of Edith Wharton s finest short stories: The Pretext, Afterward, The Legend, and Xingu. Kent P. Ljungquist, Professor of English at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, is the author of The Grand and the Fair: Poe s Landscape Aesthetics and Pictorial Techniques, co-editor of the SUNY Press edition of James Fenimore Cooper's The Deerslayer, and editor of several reference works of American fiction.

All’età di nove anni, Edith Wharton contrasse la febbre tifoidea e rimase confinata nel suo letto per settimane. La sua preghiera era: datemi dei libri da leggere. Fu cosí che la madre le diede una storia di fantasmi. A una bambina poco dotata d’immaginazione una storia del genere poteva fare poca o nessuna impressione, ma sulla piccola Edith ebbe un effetto dirompente: da quel momento si ritrovò a vivere in uno stato di terrore costante, con un senso di minaccia che accompagnava ogni suo passo, incapace di stare al buio, angosciata dalla solitudine. Dovette arrivare ai trent’anni perché, da donna pragmatica qual era diventata, trovasse l’unico modo efficace per gestire, da scrittrice, le proprie paure: diventare maestra nel genere letterario di quelle storie di spettri che tanto a lungo avevano infestato le sue notti. «Se il racconto vi manda un brivido gelato giù per la spina dorsale, ha fatto il suo dovere, e l’ha fatto bene» scriveva. Così Edith scrisse le sue storie del brivido, che apparvero in antologie accanto a Edgar Allan Poe e Henry James, in una produzione parallela ai suoi romanzi per tutta la vita: più di ottantacinque, e molte avevano per protagoniste presenze spettrali. La raccolta Fantasmi fu concepita nella sua forma attuale dalla stessa Wharton prima di morire ma, pubblicata postuma nel 1937, finì ingiustamente dimenticata. In questi piccoli capolavori ritrovati, sottilmente inquietanti, ora presentati nella nuova traduzione di Tiziana Lo Porto, si possono riconoscere tutti i temi cari alla sua letteratura: la crudeltà di certi destini femminili, la costrizione all’interno di matrimoni claustrofobici, lo sradicamento dal paese natio, la prepotenza delle convenzioni sociali. Avvolti nell’abito sontuoso che tanto bene le conosciamo: la prosa nitida e affilata che sa illuminare i territori nascosti della realtà quanto, insospettabilmente, quelli del soprannaturale.

Edith Wharton was devoted to the French people and their culture. During the First World War, while living in France and devoting herself to numerous war and relief efforts, she wrote several essays about the French and the unique attributes of their civilization, having in mind particularly the need for both Americans and the English to understand the ways of a people whose nation they were defending in the Great War. These pieces were first published in book form in 1919, under the title French Ways and Their Meaning.

No history of the American uncanny tale would be complete without mention of Edith Wharton, yet many of Wharton’s most dedicated admirers are unaware that she was a master of the form. In fact, one of Wharton’s final literary acts was assembling Ghosts, a personal selection of her most chilling stories, written between 1902 and 1937. In “The Lady’s Maid’s Bell,” the earliest tale included here, a servant’s dedication to her mistress continues from beyond the grave, and in “All Souls,” the last story Wharton wrote, an elderly woman treads the permeable line between life and the hereafter. In all her writing, Wharton’s great gift was to mercilessly illuminate the motives of men and women, and her ghost stories never stray far from the preoccupations of the living, using the supernatural to investigate such worldly matters as violence within marriage, the horrors of aging, the rot at the root of new fortunes, the darkness that stares back from the abyss of one’s own soul. These are stories to “send a cold shiver down one’s spine,” not to terrify, and as Wharton explains in her preface, her goal in writing them was to counter “the hard grind of modern speeding-up” by preserving that ineffable space of “silence and continuity,” which is not merely the prerogative of humanity but—“in the fun of the shudder”—its delight. Contents: All Souls’ The Eyes Afterward The Lady’s Maid’s Bell Kerfol The Triumph of Night Miss Mary Pask Bewitched Mr. Jones Pomegranate Seed A Bottle of Perrier

One of Edith Wharton's unjustly neglected novels, Hudson River Bracketed features two strong protagonists - Vance Weston and Halo Spear. The former is an undereducated young man who arrives in New York with a keen desire to write. Halo Spear is a brilliant, accomplished young woman who introduces Vance to literature and they form a deep bond, which flourishes and endures despite the hardships of Vance's life, the disappointments of Halo's - and their respective marriages.

In 1917, amid the turmoil of World War I, Edith Wharton, the author of The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth, travelled to Morocco. A classic of travel writing, In Morocco is her account of this journey through the country's cities and through its deserts. The Ecco Travels edition of In Morocco brings this previously rare and hard-to-obtain Edith Wharton classic back into print after an absence of many decades.

First published in 1905, The House of Mirth shocked the New York society it so deftly chronicles, portraying the moral, social and economic restraints on a woman who dared to claim the privileges of marriage without assuming the responsibilities. Lily Bart, beautiful, witty and sophisticated, is accepted by 'old money' and courted by the growing tribe of nouveaux riches. But as she nears thirty, her foothold becomes precarious; a poor girl with expensive tastes, she needs a husband to preserve her social standing, and to maintain her in the luxury she has come to expect. Whilst many have sought her, something—fastidiousness or integrity—prevents her from making a 'suitable' match.

Nella New York dei primi anni del secolo scorso, Lily Bart vive tra i sontuosi ricevimenti dell’alta società, i viaggi all’estero e i soggiorni nelle residenze degli amici. Le sue uniche doti sono la bellezza e l’intelligenza, che usa per muoversi in un ambiente ipocrita di cui vuole ostinatamente far parte e nel quale spera di trovare marito. Un sentimento forte e contrastato la lega a Lawrence Selden, giovane avvocato che vive del suo lavoro: Lily sa bene che non rinuncerebbe mai agli agi tra cui è cresciuta e che è stata educata a desiderare, tuttavia non riesce a staccarsi da lui. Inorridita dalla prospettiva della povertà, tenta di conquistare il rampollo di una celebre dinastia, ospite come lei di amici comuni, ed è allora che la parabola disegnata dalla sua vita tocca il culmine per poi iniziare un’inesorabile discesa. Incapace di vivere della rendita mensile che le passa la zia, la giovane donna si indebita al tavolo da gioco e chiede in prestito una consistente somma di denaro. La sua bellezza diventa arma di ricatto per gli uomini e motivo di cieca gelosia per le donne. Nel momento più tragico della sua vita, tuttavia, Lily acquista di colpo lo spessore di una figura eroica: la rettitudine e l’integrità morale, un tempo apparentemente insospettabili, le impediscono di vendersi al miglior offerente.

Al amable mundo de convenciones sociales estrictas en el que se mueve, aparentemente sin roces ni contrariedades, la alta sociedad de Nueva York de finales del siglo pasado, regresa de Europa la inquietante condesa Olenska. Independiente, osada, «diferente», Ellen involucrará muy pronto en su misterio a su joven primo Newland Archer y perturbará sin poder evitarlo el encanto de una vida social que ignora de manera voluntaria su inminente fin. En el fondo de esta extraordinaria historia de una gran pasión subyace el conflicto entre dos mundos : el de las viejas familias « patricias» norteamericanas y el de los nuevos ricos, quienes, al terminar la novela, se han apoderado ya de las costumbres y de los espíritus. Martin Scorsese extrajo de La edad de la inocencia una bellísima película que protagonizaron Michelle Pfeiffer, en el papel de la condesa Olenska, Daniel Day-Lewis y Winona Ryder

«La novela nos recuerda, por su precisión, el mecanismo de un reloj. Es un magnífico ejemplo de equilibrio narrativo. Al mismo tiempo, es un caso excepcional en la obra de Wharton. Por el ambiente en que se desarrolla la acción y por la especial simpatía con que la autora se acerca al personaje central, Las hermanas Bunner se destaca entre toda su producción. Su lectura revelará a quienes no hubieran tenido la oportunidad de conocer este texto un aspecto nuevo de la autora norteamericana y nos confirma el enorme talento que poseía.» Soledad Puértolas Ann Eliza y Evelina Bunner, las protagonistas de esta novela corta, regentan una modesta mercería en un barrio humilde de Nueva York. Un día, con motivo de su cumpleaños, Ann Eliza le regala a su hermana un reloj. Este humilde objeto será el causante de que los cimientos sobre los que se asientan sus vidas empiecen a tambalearse. Edith Wharton escribió esta conmovedora historia sobre la abnegación y el sacrificio en 1892, si bien no la publicó hasta 1916 en el volumen titulado Xingu and other stories. A pesar de su temprana fecha de redacción, los conocedores de su obra no dudan en considerarla una de sus creaciones más logradas. En ella quedan patentes tanto su habilidad a la hora de desarrollar una trama como su maestría para describir el ambiente en el que se desenvuelven sus narraciones y para plasmar las motivaciones, las dudas y los anhelos de sus personajes. Edith Wharton (de soltera Edith Newbold Jones) nació en Nueva York el 24 de enero de 1862 y falleció en la localidad de Saint-Brice-sous-Forêt, cerca de París, el 11 de agosto de 1937. Perteneciente a una familia de la alta sociedad neoyorquina, recibió una esmerada educación. En 1885 se casó con Edgard Robbins Wharton, de quien se divorció en 1913. Gran admiradora de la cultura europea, en 1907 estableció su residencia en Francia. Autora de novelas, relatos, poemas, libros de viajes y de decoración, entre sus obras podemos destacar La edad de la inocencia (Premio Pulitzer en 1921), La casa de la alegría, Las costumbres nacionales o Ethan Frome.

Edith Wharton firma una nouvelle magistral, que explota la que fuera una de sus obsesiones recurrentes: las opciones de la mujer de su tiempo y estatus en la tramoya social que la coarta. En 1850 la alta burguesía neoyorquina disfruta de una desentendida prosperidad. Delia, «reina» del endogámico clan de los Ralston, ultima los detalles de su vestuario para brillar en el acontecimiento social del año: el enlace de su prima Charlotte Lovell con Joe Ralston, que además sellará una alianza entre las dos familias hegemónicas de Nueva York. Cuando nada parece poder desbaratar tan idílico porvenir, una desquiciada Charlotte irrumpe en casa de Delia para desvelarle un secreto que alterará para siempre la placidez de sus vidas y que, de saberse, tumbaría los códigos éticos de los que ambas se han venido nutriendo. Los destinos de Charlotte y Delia quedan trágicamente atados bajo la inviolabilidad del secreto que comparten, consolidándose entre ambas una tormentosa relación en la que convergerán los celos, la compasión, el amor filial y la suspicacia.

Un libro elegante e sovversivo, sulla libertà e il suo prezzo in termini di solitudine e isolamento. Raffinato e spietato affresco dell’alta società newyorchese di fine Ottocento, L’età dell’innocenza racconta una comunità chiusa, fondata su una solida ricchezza immobiliare, governata da un ottuso moralismo, le cui rigide convenzioni ostacolano qualsiasi desiderio di affermazione del singolo. I ricchi personaggi che si aggirano per le pagine del romanzo vivono tutti nello stesso quadrilatero di strade e non concepiscono l’esistenza di un mondo esterno e diverso dal loro, che tuttavia preme attorno alla gabbia dorata in cui sono rinchiusi e rischia di spazzare via il loro ordine. Specchio di questa società, oggetto dell’aspra critica dell’autrice, è la storia d’amore impossibile tra Newland Archer, brillante giovane avvocato, e la contessa Ellen Olenska, che non può divorziare dal marito e non è libera di amare.

« Peu de vices sont plus difficiles à éradiquer que ceux qui sont généralement considérés comme des vertus. Le premier d’entre eux est celui de la lecture. » Dans ce texte paru en 1903 dans une revue littéraire américaine, la romancière Edith Wharton (1862-1937) dénonce l’obligation sociale de la lecture, nuisible à la littérature et fatale à l’écrivain.

«No se le había ocurrido todavía que quienes consienten en compartir el pan de la adversidad pueden querer todo el pastel de la prosperidad para ellos solos.» Edith Wharton Nick Lansing y Susy Branch son jóvenes, atractivos, brillantes: pagan «buenas cenas solo con buenos modales». Nick malvive de un menguante patrimonio familiar y de escribir artículos para una enciclopedia, aunque su ambición es ser novelista. Susy, hija de un padre derrochador ya fallecido, lleva desde los diecisiete años sabiendo «arreglárselas», y viviendo de prestado en las múltiples casas, en Nueva York y en Europa, de sus amigas millonarias. Ninguno de los dos tiene un centavo pero están enamorados y deciden casarse, con la condición de que se separarán amistosamente si en un futuro alguno de ellos encuentra «un partido mejor». Empiezan a celebrar su moderno pacto con una luna de miel en la villa que les deja un amigo en el lago de Como. No tardan, sin embargo, en surgir conflictos de «sensibilidad moral»: ¿se puede ser un parásito de una manera más lícita que otra? ¿Hay límites? ¿La moralidad puede ser sinónimo de arrogancia? ¿Hay vida y amor más allá del dinero y el lujo? Los reflejos de la luna (1922), publicada dos años después de que Edith Wharton ganara el Premio Pulitzer por La edad de la inocencia, plantea estos dilemas a través de una agitada trama de intrigas, humillaciones y malentendidos. Los personajes se verán envueltos en una comedia de enredo pero sin risas: la autora no se burla de ellos, pero los somete con exquisito rigor a dolorosos apuros, a las patéticas tribulaciones del no saber. Y el centro es siempre el temor a la soledad. Wharton aúna en esta novela su característica ironía y su talento para la crónica social de un modo realmente imponente. De ella Allan Dwan hizo en 1923 una adaptación cinematográfica, hoy perdida, en cuyo guión participó Francis Scott Fitzgerald.

John Durham, un elegante caballero neoyorquino, regresa a París con la intención de casarse con su amiga de la infancia, Fanny Frisbee, recién separada del lujurioso marqués de Malrive. A pesar del amor que ambos se profesan, madame de Malrive decide renunciar al prometedor matrimonio, pues teme que la puritana familia de su marido se oponga a su divorcio y que un posible escándalo perjudique el buen nombre de su hijo. Durham decide recurrir a la cuñada de su enamorada, madame de Treymes, que hasta ahora se había mostrado favorable a la unión. Pero las escalas de valores de la enigmática dama parisina y del inocente americano son tan diferentes que, a pesar de las buenas intenciones de ambos, desencadenarán un trágico e inesperado final.

Edith Wharton (1862-1937), born Edith Newbold Jones, was an American novelist, short story writer, and designer. She combined her insider's view of America's privileged classes with a brilliant, natural wit to write humourous and incisive novels and short stories. Wharton was well-acquainted with many of her era's literary and public figures, including Henry James and Theodore Roosevelt. Besides her writing, she was a highly regarded landscape architect, interior designer, and taste-maker of her time. She wrote several influential books, including The Decoration of Houses (1897), her first published work, and Italian Villas and Their Gardens (1904). The Age of Innocence (1920), perhaps her best known work, won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for literature, making her the first woman to win the award. Her other works include: The Greater Inclination (1899), The Touchstone (1900), Sanctuary (1903), The Descent of Man and Other Stories (1904), The House of Mirth (1905), Madame de Treymes (1907), The Fruit of the Tree (1907), The Hermit and the Wild Woman and Other Stories (1908), Ethan Frome (1912), In Morocco (1921), and The Glimpses of the Moon (1921).

The four novellas collected here, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Age of Innocence, brilliantly capture New York of the 1840s, '50s, '60s, and '70s. Originally published in 1924, this outstanding quartet includes False Dawn, about a rocky father/son relationship; The Old Maid, the best known of the four, in which a young woman's hidden illegitimate child is adoted by her best friend, with devastating results; The Spark, involving a young man and his moral rehabilitation -- "sparked" by a chance encounter with Walt Whitman; and New Year's Day, an O. Henryesque tale of a married woman suspected of adultery. Each reveals the codes and customs that ruled society of the time, drawn with the perspicacious eye and style that is uniquely Edith Wharton's. Pocket Books' enriched Classics present the great works of world literature enhanced for the contemporary reader. This valume reprints the orginal New York Times Book Review feature on Old New York, a piece that helps fix the stories in the contemporary critical landscape. Also included are critical perspectives, suggestions for further reading, and a visual essay composed of authentic period illustrations and photographs.

While visiting Rome with their daughters, two middle-aged women reminisce about their romantic rivalry for the dashing Delphin Slade. Although Mrs. Slade admits to falsifying the letter that led to her eventual marriage to Slade, Mrs. Ansley holds her own secret regarding the gentleman. Written by esteemed American author Edith Wharton in 1934, “Roman Fever” was adapted into a play, as well as two operas.

These short works display Wharton's talent as a satirist "skilled at dissecting the elements of emotional subtleties, moral ambiguities, and the implications of social constrictions" (Cythina Griffin Wolfe, from the Introduction). Roman fever (1934) Xingu (1911) The other two (1904) Souls belated (1899) The angel at the grave (1901) The last asset (1904) After Holbein (1928) Autres temps (1911)

Kate Orme es una mujer joven cuya dicha conyugal se rompe cuando se enfrenta cara a cara con el oscuro secreto que esconde su prometido, Denis Peyton, un hombre de fortuna, pero con un pasado gobernado por las mentiras y por los engaños. Cuando ambos tienen un hijo y Denis muere, Kate se convence de que el espíritu de su marido permanece en su joven vástago, traspasándole en cierto modo sus vicios morales. Se consagrará desde entonces a luchar para que eso no ocurra.

Souls Belated is a novel written by the renowned American author Edith Wharton. The story is set in the late 19th century and revolves around two characters, Lydia and Gannett, who are both in unhappy marriages. They meet on a train and strike up a conversation, which leads to a deep connection between them. Despite their mutual attraction, they decide to part ways and return to their respective spouses.However, fate brings them together again when they both find themselves at the same hotel in Germany. This time, they give in to their desires and begin a passionate affair. As they navigate their newfound love, they must also confront the societal expectations and moral codes that threaten to tear them apart.Souls Belated is a poignant exploration of love, marriage, and the constraints of society. Wharton's masterful prose and vivid descriptions transport readers to a bygone era and capture the complexities of human relationships. The novel is a timeless classic that continues to resonate with readers today.She stayed there for a long time, in the hypnotized contemplation, not of Mrs. Cope's present, but of her own past. Gannett, early that morning, had gone off on a long walk--he had fallen into the habit of taking these mountain tramps with various fellow lodgers; but even had he been within reach she could not have gone to him just then. She had to deal with herself first. She was surprised to find how, in the last months, she had lost the habit of introspection. Since their coming to the Hotel Bellosguardo she and Gannett had tacitly avoided themselves and each other.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.

She stayed there for a long time, in the hypnotized contemplation, not of Mrs. Cope's present, but of her own past. Gannett, early that morning, had gone off on a long walk--he had fallen into the habit of taking these mountain tramps with various fellow lodgers; but even had he been within reach she could not have gone to him just then. She had to deal with herself first. She was surprised to find how, in the last months, she had lost the habit of introspection. Since their coming to the Hotel Bellosguardo she and Gannett had tacitly avoided themselves and each other.

A naive girl from a humble background meets an ambitious city boy, and a torrid romance ensues. Despite her pride, independence, and honesty, Charity Royall feels shadowed by her past--especially in her ardent relationship with the educated and refined Lucius Harney. Can passion overcome the effects of heredity and environment? With its frank treatment of a woman's sexual awakening, Summer created a sensation upon its 1917 publication. Edith Wharton — the author of Ethan Frome and a peerless observer and chronicler of society — completely shattered the standards of conventional love stories with this novel's candor and realism. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author declared Summer a personal favorite among her works, and liked to refer to it as "the Hot Ethan." Over a century later, it remains fresh and relevant.

A naive girl from a humble background meets an ambitious city boy, and a torrid romance ensues. Despite her pride, independence, and honesty, Charity Royall feels shadowed by her past--especially in her ardent relationship with the educated and refined Lucius Harney. Can passion overcome the effects of heredity and environment? With its frank treatment of a woman's sexual awakening, Summer created a sensation upon its 1917 publication. Edith Wharton — the author of Ethan Frome and a peerless observer and chronicler of society — completely shattered the standards of conventional love stories with this novel's candor and realism. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author declared Summer a personal favorite among her works, and liked to refer to it as "the Hot Ethan." Nearly a century later, it remains fresh and relevant.

Winner of the 1921 Pulitzer Prize, The Age of Innocence is Edith Wharton’s masterful portrait of desire and betrayal during the sumptuous Golden Age of Old New York, a time when society people “dreaded scandal more than disease.” This is Newland Archer’s world as he prepares to marry the beautiful but conventional May Welland. But when the mysterious Countess Ellen Olenska returns to New York after a disastrous marriage, Archer falls deeply in love with her. Torn between duty and passion, Archer struggles to make a decision that will either courageously define his life—or mercilessly destroy it.

The Angel at the Grave is a short story by Edith Wharton. Edith Wharton ( born Edith Newbold Jones; January 24, 1862 - August 11, 1937) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1927, 1928 and 1930. Wharton combined her insider's view of America's privileged classes with a brilliant, natural wit to write humorous, incisive novels and short stories of social and psychological insight. She was well acquainted with many of her era's other literary and public figures, including Theodore Roosevelt. Wharton was born to George Frederic Jones and Lucretia Stevens Rhinelander in New York City. She had two brothers, Frederic Rhinelander and Henry Edward. The saying "Keeping up with the Joneses" is said to refer to her father's family. She was also related to the Rensselaer family, the most prestigious of the old patroon families. She had a lifelong friendship with her Rhinelander niece, landscape architect Beatrix Farrand of Reef Point in Bar Harbor, Maine. In 1885, at 23, she married Edward (Teddy) Robbins Wharton, who was 12 years older. From a well-established Philadelphia family, he was a sportsman and gentleman of the same social class and shared her love of travel. From the late 1880s until 1902, he suffered acute depression, and the couple ceased their extensive travel. At that time his depression manifested as a more serious disorder, after which they lived almost exclusively at The Mount, their estate designed by Edith Wharton. In 1908 her husband's mental state was determined to be incurable. She divorced him in 1913. Around the same time, Edith was overcome with the harsh criticisms leveled by the naturalist writers. Later in 1908 she began an affair with Morton Fullerton, a journalist for The Times, in whom she found an intellectual partner. In addition to novels, Wharton wrote at least 85 short stories. She was also a garden designer, interior designer, and taste-maker of her time. She wrote several design books, including her first published work, The Decoration of Houses of 1897, co-authored by Ogden Codman. Another is the generously illustrated Italian Villas and Their Gardens of 1904.

Wharton's final novel (completed by Marion Mainwaring after the author's death in 1937) revolves around American and British society in the 1870s. Told in large part through the eyes of American debutantes, the story portrays innocent, wide-eyed, almost ethereal girls who turn into socially conscious women with financial worries--unrecognizable even to themselves. The beginning sections quickly catch the listener's attention, with lush descriptions of rooms, clothes, and the heights of feminine beauty. We enter a world of intrigue: secrets, characters with past relationships that could prove fatal, and competition taken to its limits. Its literary value notwithstanding, this book might appeal to soap opera and romance fans. For more attentive listeners, it quickly becomes disconcerting as more and more characters with awkward British-sounding names are added. It's increasingly difficult to recall who's who without backing up the tape. Most libraries can pass on this one.-- Rochelle Ratner, formerly Poetry Editor, "Soho Weekly News", New York

Nan and Jinny St George have both wealth and beauty in generous supply. In the New York society of the 1870s, however, only those with old money can achieve the status of the elite, and it is here that the sisters seem doomed to failure. Nan's new governess, Laura Testvalley, herself an outsider, takes pity on their plight and launches them instead on the unsuspecting British aristocracy. Lords, dukes, marquesses and MPs, it seems, not only appreciate beauty, but also the money that New York's nouveaux riches can supply. A love story of love and marriage among the old and new moneyed classes, The Buccaneers is a delicately perceptive portrayal of a world on the brink of change.

Edith Wharton’s compulsively readable 20th century classic about the conquests of Undine Spragg, the glamorous and insatiable social climber—now with a new 2022 introduction by Brandon Taylor.Undine Spragg is beautiful—anyone in New York will admit to as much. But what is the point of beauty if no one can see you? The Spraggs left the Midwest in search of a glamorous life for their daughter. Now, cooped up in a gilded uptown hotel they can barely afford, they begin to fear their move to the big city was for naught. But Undine is determined. And Undine always gets her way. What follows is a tactical climb to the pinnacle of affluence and early 20th-century high society that will amaze and mortify. Witty and devastating, The Custom of the Country is an astute comedy of manners and a scathing satire of upper-class life that bites to this day. More than a century after its original publication, Edith Wharton’s 1913 masterpiece remains an un-put-downable showcase for one of the most memorable, controversial anti-heroines in American literature.

Considered by many to be her masterpiece, Edith Wharton's second full-length work is a scathing yet personal examination of the exploits and follies of the modern upper class. As she unfolds the story of Undine Spragg, from New York to Europe, Wharton affords us a detailed glimpse of what might be called the interior décor of this America and its nouveau riche fringes. Through a heroine who is as vain, spoiled, and selfish as she is irresistibly fascinating, and through a most intricate and satisfying plot that follows Undine's marriages and affairs, she conveys a vision of social behavior that is both supremely informed and supremely disenchanted. - Anita Brookner

Edith Wharton's The Decoration of Houses is an invaluable reference, one of the classic works on interior decoration, and a testament to the enduring style of one of America's greatest writers. Written in collaboration with celebrated American architect Ogden Codman, Jr., Wharton's first book is a comprehensive look at the history and character of turn-of-the-century interior design, moving from historical traditions to the distinctive styles of contemporary taste. Published in association with the Mount Press, this beautiful hardcover facsimile is carefully reproduced from the first edition published in 1897 and includes all 56 original plates-illustrating furniture, moldings, and interior styles of the 19th-century-and features décollage edges as well as a new introduction from renowned scholar Richard Guy Wilson. The Mount is a magnificent estate Edith Wharton designed and built in 1902 as a writer's retreat in the beautiful Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts.

""The Eyes"" is a short story written by Edith Wharton, an American novelist and short story writer. The story revolves around Mrs. Newell, a wealthy woman who is obsessed with her own beauty and the power it gives her over men. She is married to a much older man, Mr. Newell, who is blind and unaware of his wife's affairs. Mrs. Newell's obsession with her beauty leads her to manipulate and deceive those around her, including her husband and a young man named Ned Van Alstyne, whom she seduces and then discards. However, her actions have consequences, and she ultimately meets a tragic end. The story explores themes of beauty, power, and the consequences of one's actions. Wharton's writing style is known for its psychological depth, and ""The Eyes"" is no exception, delving into the complex motivations and desires of its characters. Overall, ""The Eyes"" is a compelling and thought-provoking read that offers insight into the darker aspects of human nature.Phil, my dear boy, really -- what's the matter? Why don't you answer? Have you seen the eyes?' Frenham's face was still hidden, and from where I stood behind Culwin I saw the latter, as if under the rebuff of this unaccountable attitude, draw back slowly from his friend. As he did so, the light of the lamp on the table fell full on his congested face, and I caught its reflection in the mirror behind Frenham's head.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.

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One might not expect a woman of Edith Wharton's literary stature to be a believer of ghost stories, much less be frightened by them, but as she admits in her postscript to this spine-tingling collection, "...till I was twenty-seven or -eight, I could not sleep in the room with a book containing a ghost story." Once her fear was overcome, however, she took to writing tales of the supernatural for publication in the magazines of the day. These eleven finely wrought pieces showcase her mastery of the traditional New England ghost story and her fascination with spirits, hauntings, and other supernatural phenomena. Called "flawlessly eerie" by Ms. magazine, this collection includes "Pomegranate Seed," "The Eyes," "All Souls'," "The Looking Glass," and "The Triumph of Night."

Set in the 1920s, Glimpses of the Moon details the romantic misadventures of Nick Lansing and Susy Branch, a couple with the right connections but not much in the way of funds. They devise a shrewd bargain: they'll marry and spend a year or so sponging off their wealthy friends, honeymooning in their mansions and villas. As Susy explains, "We should really, in a way, help more than hamper each other. We both know the ropes so well; what one of us didn't see the other might - in the way of opportunities, I mean". The other part of the plan states that if either one of them meets someone who can advance them socially, they're free to dissolve the marriage. How their plan unfolds is a comedy of errors that will charm all fans of Wharton's work.

First published in 1905, The House of Mirth shocked the New York society it so deftly chronicles, portraying the moral, social and economic restraints on a woman who dared to claim the privileges of marriage without assuming the responsibilities. Lily Bart, beautiful, witty and sophisticated, is accepted by 'old money' and courted by the growing tribe of nouveaux riches. But as she nears thirty, her foothold becomes precarious; a poor girl with expensive tastes, she needs a husband to preserve her social standing, and to maintain her in the luxury she has come to expect. Whilst many have sought her, something—fastidiousness or integrity—prevents her from making a 'suitable' match.

Edith Wharton’s full and glamorous life bridged the literary worlds of two continents and two centuries. Born in 1862 into an exclusive New York society against whose rigid codes of behavior she often rebelled, she lived to regret the passing of that stable if old-fashioned community and to appreciate the sense of personal identity its definitions provided. She became a prolific professional writer, author of more than forty published volumes, including novels, short stories (many of them tales of the supernatural), poetry, war reportage, travel writing, and books on gardens and house decoration. An expatriate in France for three decades before her death in 1937, she included among her many distinguished friends men as various as Henry James, Theodore Roosevelt, Kenneth Clark, and André Gide. The four novels in this Library of America volume show Wharton at the height of her powers as a social observer and critic, examining American and European lives with a vision rich in detail, satire, and tragedy. In all of them her strong and autobiographical impulse is disciplined by her writer’s craft and her unfailing regard for her audience. The House of Mirth (1905), Wharton’s tenth book and her first novel of contemporary life, was an immediate runaway bestseller, with 140,000 copies in print within three months of publication. The story of young Lily Bart and her tragic sojourn among the upper class of turn-of-the-century New York, it touches on the insidious effects of social convention and upon the sexual and financial aggression to which women of independent spirit were exposed. The Reef (1912) is the story of two couples whose marriage plans are upset by the revelation of a past affair between George Darrow (a mature bachelor) and Sophy Vener, who happens to be the fiancée of his future wife’s stepson. Henry James called the novel “a triumph of method,” and it shares the rich nuance of his own The Golden Bowl. The Custom of the Country (1913) is the amatory saga of Undine Spragg of Apex City—beautiful, spoiled, and ambitious—whose charms conquer New York and European society. Vulgar and voracious, she presides over a series of men, representing the old and new aristocracies of both continents, in a comedy drawn unmistakably from life. The Age of Innocence (1920) is set in the New York of Wharton’s youth, when the rules and taboos of her social “tribe” held as-yet unchallenged sway. A quasi-anthropological study of a remembered culture and its curious conventions, it tells the story of the Countess Olenska (formerly Ellen Mingott), refugee from a disastrous European marriage, and Newland Archer, heir to a tradition of respectability and family honor, as they struggle uneasily against their sexual attraction.

The Lady's Maid's Bell is a short story written by Edith Wharton, an American novelist and short story writer. The story was first published in 1902 and is set in the Victorian era.The story revolves around a young woman named Alice Hartley, who is hired as a lady's maid for the wealthy Mrs. Brympton. Alice is initially excited about her new job, but she soon realizes that her duties are not as glamorous as she had imagined. Mrs. Brympton is a demanding and difficult employer, and Alice finds herself working long hours and struggling to meet her mistress's expectations.One night, Alice hears the sound of a bell ringing in the middle of the night. She assumes it is Mrs. Brympton's bell and rushes to her room, only to find that her mistress is fast asleep. The bell continues to ring, and Alice discovers that it is coming from the room of the previous lady's maid, who died under mysterious circumstances.As the story unfolds, Alice becomes increasingly obsessed with the bell and the secrets it holds. She begins to investigate the death of the previous lady's maid and uncovers a shocking truth about Mrs. Brympton and her family.The Lady's Maid's Bell is a haunting and suspenseful tale that explores themes of class, power, and the dark secrets that lurk beneath the surface of polite society. Wharton's vivid descriptions and masterful storytelling make this a must-read for fans of Gothic literature and Victorian-era fiction.After a while I slept; but suddenly a loud noise wakened me. My bell had rung. I sat up, terrified by the unusual sound, which seemed to go on jangling through the darkness. My hands shook so that I couldn't find the matches. At length I struck a light and jumped out of bed. I began to think I must have been dreaming; but I looked at the bell against the wall, and there was the little hammer still quivering.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.

Opening on the French Riviera among a motley community of American expatriates, The Mother's Recompense tells the story of Kate Clephane and her reluctant return to New York society after being exiled years before for abandoning her husband and infant daughter. Oddly enough, Kate has been summoned back by that same daughter, Anne, now fully grown and intent on marrying Chris Fenno, a war hero, dilettante, and social opportunist. Chris's questionable intentions toward her daughter are, however, the least of Kate's worries since she was once, and still is, deeply in love with him. Kate's moral quandary and the ensuing drama evoke comparison with Oedipus and Hamlet and lead to an ending that startled the mores of the day.

Edith Wharton wrote about New York as only a native can. Her Manhattan is a city of well-appointed drawing rooms, hansoms and broughams, all-night cotillions, and resplendent Fifth Avenue flats. Bishops’ nieces mingle with bachelor industrialists; respectable wives turn into excellent mistresses. All are governed by a code of behavior as rigid as it is precarious. What fascinates Wharton are the points of weakness in the structure of Old New York: the artists and writers at its fringes, the free-love advocates testing its limits, the widows and divorcées struggling to hold their own. The New York Stories of Edith Wharton gathers twenty stories of the city, written over the course of Wharton’s career. From her first published story, “Mrs. Manstey’s View,” to one of her last and most celebrated, “Roman Fever,” this new collection charts the growth of an American master and enriches our understanding of the central themes of her work, among them the meaning of marriage, the struggle for artistic integrity, the bonds between parent and child, and the plight of the aged. Illuminated by Roxana Robinson’s Introduction, these stories showcase Wharton’s astonishing insight into the turbulent inner lives of the men and women caught up in a rapidly changing society.

The Other Two is a short story written by Edith Wharton, first published in 1904. The story revolves around a man named Waythorn, who has been married twice before and is now married to his third wife, Alice. Waythorn is a successful businessman who is determined to make his marriage to Alice work, despite feeling insecure about her past relationships. The story follows Waythorn's attempts to come to terms with the fact that Alice's ex-husbands, Haskett and Varick, are still a part of her life. He is uncomfortable with their presence, but Alice seems to be completely oblivious to his discomfort. Waythorn's attempts to assert his dominance and establish himself as the head of the household are constantly undermined by Alice's interactions with her ex-husbands. As the story progresses, Waythorn begins to realize that Alice's past relationships are not as innocent as he initially believed. He discovers that Alice had an affair with Varick while she was still married to Haskett, and that Haskett is still in love with her. Waythorn's jealousy and insecurity reach a boiling point, and he confronts Alice about her past. The Other Two is a poignant exploration of jealousy, insecurity, and the complexities of human relationships. Wharton's masterful storytelling and vivid characterizations make this short story a timeless classic that continues to resonate with readers today.The scene left Waythorn deeply shaken. Shamefacedly, in indirect ways, he had been finding out about Haskett; and all that he had learned was favorable. The little man, in order to be near his daughter, had sold out his share in a profitable business in Utica, and accepted a modest clerkship in a New York manufacturing house. He boarded in a shabby street and had few acquaintances. His passion for Lily filled his life. Waythorn felt that this exploration of Haskett was like groping about with a dark-lantern in his wife's past.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.

'If marriage was the slow life-long acquittal of a debt contracted in ignorance, then marriage was a crime against human nature.' Two moving stories of love, loss, desire and divorce, from one of the great chroniclers of nineteenth-century New York life. Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions. Edith Wharton (1862-1937). Wharton's works available in Penguin Classics are Ethan Frome, The Age of Innocence, The Custom of the Country and The House of Mirth.

Set mostly at a villa near Paris, "The Reef" is a story of complex morality and its intricately woven place in society. This narrative primarily follows George Darrow and Anna Leath, a young gentleman and a widowed lady who plan to marry. Both of them experience doubts about their union, with surprising outcomes. Darrow has a brief liaison with the delicate, generous Sophy Viner, a kind woman of the working class. She later meets Anna's stepson Owen Leath, who wishes to upset social conventions and marry her. When Anna discovers the intimate history of Darrow and Sophy, she worries about her stepson's affections and feels concerned about the alliance she herself is about to create. Wharton's talent for balancing emotional turmoil and all the social manners of her time is blended into this philosophical work that explores the metaphorical reefs in the hearts of women.

A young man scorns the love of a tortured novelist, only to have her words come back to haunt him from the dead. The Touchstone shows off the skills Wharton became famous for in later novels such as Ethan Frome and House of Mirth, particularly her piercing and delicious talent for satiric observation.

Sewn signatures, printed on 125gsm acid-free paper, and bound by Biddles in yellow wibalin cloth stamped in copper, with a silk ribbon marker and head and tailbands. 300 copies. Contents: 'Preface', 'The Fullness of Life', 'A Journey', 'The Duchess at Prayer', 'The Lady's Maid's Bell', 'Afterward', 'The Eyes', 'The Triumph of Night', 'Kerfol', 'Bewitched', 'Miss Mary Pask', 'A Bottle of Perrier', 'Mr Jones', 'Pomegranate Seed', 'The Looking-Glass', 'All Souls' ', 'An Autobiographical Postscript.'

This edition features a new introduction from Brandon Taylor. The Writing of Fiction by Edith Wharton contains brilliant advice on writing from the first woman ever to win a Pulitzer Prize -- for her novel The Age of Innocence. In The Writing of Fiction, Wharton provides general comments on the roots of modern fiction, the various approaches to writing a piece of fiction, and the development of form and style. She also devotes entire chapters to the telling of a short story, the construction of a novel, and the importance of character and situation in the novel. Not only a valuable treatise on the art of writing, The Writing of Fiction also allows readers to experience the inimitable but seldom heard voice of one of America's most important and beloved writers, and includes a final chapter on the pros and cons of Marcel Proust.

Three novels are contained in this title from the TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS series, each looking ironically at the affairs of the old and new wealthy American classes moving to Europe. Previous works by Edith Wharton include THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, ETHAN FROME and SUMMER.

Todos los muertos reúne una selección de cuatro cuentos de Edith Wharton, que se enmarcan en cuatro momentos de su obra —de 1901 a 1937—, y que abordan algunos de los temas más recurrentes de su escritura: la muerte, los fantasmas y los ritos paganos. En ellos es posible encontrar los elementos clásicos de la narrativa gótica, como el horror y lo sobrenatural, la persistencia fantasmagórica del pasado, los cementerios, los castillos y la brujería, pero también la presencia de una crítica constante hacia la condición subalterna de las mujeres en Occidente. A partir de ello, Wharton narra desde un gótico doméstico que gira en torno a diversas formas de denuncia y resistencia ante la dominación machista y religiosa, la condena de la sexualidad y las innumerables formas de invisibilización y violencia ejercidas contra las mujeres. Con una capacidad de fabulación extraordinaria, Wharton nos transporta a un castillo en ruinas custodiado por perros mudos que apenas se mueven; a la desesperación de una mujer que, luego de un accidente, queda abandonada en una mansión aislada del mundo; al horror de un vínculo determinado por el machismo dentro de una casona fantasmagórica; y a la persistencia del dominio de un marido sobre su esposa incluso después de muerta.

Edith Wharton's superb satirical novel of the Jazz Age, a critically praised best-seller when it was first published. Sex, drugs, work, money, infatuation with the occult and spiritual healing - these are the remarkably modern themes that animate Twilight Sleep. The extended family of Mrs. Manford is determined to escape the pain, boredom and emptiness of life through whatever form of 'twilight sleep' they can devise or procure. And though the characters and their actions may seem more in keeping with today's society, this is still a classic Wharton tale of the upper crust and its undoing - wittily, masterfully told.

The return of the beautiful Countess Olenska into the rigidly conventional society of New York sends reverberations throughout the upper reaches of society. Newland Archer, an eligible young man of the establishment is about to announce his engagement to May Welland, a pretty ingénue, when May's cousin, Countess Olenska, is introduced into their circle. The Countess brings with her an aura of European sophistication and a hint of scandal, having left her husband and claimed her independence. Her sorrowful eyes, her tragic worldliness and her air of unapproachability attract the sensitive Newland and, almost against their will, a passionate bond develops between them. But Archer's life has no place for passion and, with society on the side of May and all she stands for, he finds himself drawn into a bitter conflict between love and duty.

Nowy Jork, lata 70. XIX wieku. Newland Archer zaręczony jest z piękną i dobrze urodzoną May Welland - w ten sposób mają się połączyć dwie z najbardziej wpływowych rodzin w mieście. Tymczasem z Europy przyjeżdża hrabina Ellen Olenska, a wyższe sfery natychmiast zaczynają plotkować na jej temat. Piękna, tajemnicza Ellen uciekła od męża i pragnie wziąć z nim rozwód, co bulwersuje tutejsze konserwatywne środowisko. Ellen jest kuzynką uroczej i naiwnej May Welland, nie do końca orientującej się w układach i intrygach śmietanki towarzyskiej. Dziewczyna szczerze kocha Newlanda, ale ten zakochuje się w jej wyrafinowanej, światowej kuzynce i to z wzajemnością. Oboje jednak zdają sobie sprawę z tego, że ich związek wywołałby ogromny skandal... Znakomita powieść o hipokryzji, aluzjach, milczących porozumieniach oraz wszechwładnie panującym konwenansie, który rozdzielił dwoje kochających się ludzi. Na podstawie książki powstał głośny film Martina Scorsese pod tym samym tytułem.

The book is a satire of a pretentious ladies lunch and literature group set in the early 1900's. The 6 ladies are reminiscent of an elite high school clique where there is heavy competition and an odd man out. The story focuses on the visit of a famous guest author, that doesn't turn out quite as planned. The only topic presented that the guest will discuss is Xingu. The ladies all state that they have just studied it ... but have they and do they even know what it is?

The book is a satire of a pretentious ladies lunch and literature group set in the early 1900's. The 6 ladies are reminiscent of an elite high school clique where there is heavy competition and an odd man out. The story focuses on the visit of a famous guest author, that doesn't turn out quite as planned. The only topic presented that the guest will discuss is Xingu. The ladies all state that they have just studied it ... but have they and do they even know what it is?

อีธาน โฟรมจำต้องรับช่วงกิจการโรงเลื่อยจากบิดาและดูแลภรรยาซึ่งป่วยในบ้านที่ปิดกั้นจากผู้คน ชีวิตของเขาไม่ต่างจากเหมันต์แล้งเย็นยะเยือก แต่สายลมสดชื่นและแดดอุ่นยังพอได้มาทายทัก เมื่อเขาพบกับแมตตี้ ซิลเวอร์ หญิงสาวผู้ทำให้ความปรารถนาของเขาเต้นเร่าและฟื้นคืนชีวิต Ethan Frome (1911) เรื่องรักสามเส้าท่ามกลางหิมะหนา และสายลมหนาวที่รัฐแมสซาซูเซตส์ ผลงานเลื่องชื่อของ Edith Wharton เจ้าของรางวัลพูลิตเซอร์ ปี ค.ศ. 1921 ผู้ประพันธ์ The Age of Innocence (1920)