These 20 short stories and novellas offer an exquisite portrait of Old New York, spanning from the Civil War through the Gilded Age (New York Times). “Edith Wharton . . . remains one of the most potent names in the literature of New York.” —New York Times 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, 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.
This unique collection is a rich representation of the works of one of the greatest 20th-century American writers, best known for her novels depicting the stifling conformity and ceremoniousness of the upper-class New York society into which she was born.
This special ebook edition includes four of Edith Wharton's best-known novels: The Age of Innocence, The House of Mirth, Ethan Frome, and Madame de Treymes.
Library of America presents the first volume in a landmark two-volume collector's edition of the incomparable stories of an American master Born into an upper-class New York family, Edith Wharton broke with convention and became a professional writer, earning an enduring place as the grande dame of American letters. This Library of America collection (along with its companion volume, Collected Stories: 1911–1937) presents the finest of Wharton's achievement in short fiction, drawn from the more than eighty stories she published over the course of her career. Opening with her first published story—the charming "Mrs. Manstey's View," about a disruption in the life of an elderly apartment-dweller—this first of two volumes presents a writer, already at the height of her powers, beginning to explore the concerns of a lifetime. In "Souls Belated," two lovers attempt to escape the consequences of their adultery—a subject to which Wharton returns throughout her career. In "The Mission of Jane" (about a remarkable adopted child) and "The Pelican" (about an itinerant lecturer), she discovers her gift for social and cultural satire. Perhaps the finest of her ghost stories, "The Eyes," with its Jamesian sense of evil, is also included, along with two novella-length works, "The Touchstone" and "Sanctuary," revealing the dazzling range of Wharton's fictive imagination. Also included in this edition are a chronology of Wharton's life, explanatory notes, and an essay on the texts. LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.
These carefully chosen selections from Edith Wharton's travel writing convey the writer's control of her craft. Wharton disliked the generality of guidebooks and focused instead on the "parentheses of travel"--the undiscovered hidden corners of Europe, Morocco, and the Mediterranean. Included is an excerpt from Wharton's unpublished memoir, The Cruise of Vanadis, as well as front line depictions of Lorraine and the Vosges during World War I. Photos.
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).
From first to last, poetry was part of Edith Wharton's writing life. Whilerarely (after early youth) her primary focus, it always served her as a medium for recording the most vivid impressions and emotions, an intimate journal of longings and regrets. "Poetry was important to Wharton," writeseditor Louis Auchincloss, "because it enabled her to express the deeply emotional side of her nature that she kept under such tight control, not only in her life but in the ordered sweep of her fiction." In later years her poetry also engaged with the public passions of wartime, as she found herself involved with the plight of Allied soldiers in France. Her first models were Romantic, but in the course of her life she absorbed the influences of Symbolism and Modernism; and throughout her poetic career she showed a care for form even in her most private utterances, as in the erotic ode "Terminus," never published in her lifetime. This volume collects the bulk of Wharton's significant poetry, including much work previously uncollected or unpublished.
In American Literature Edith Wharton is much beloved. Her stories are exquisite whether they be novels or short stories. A wonderful experience to read.
Edith Wharton’s haunting classic Ethan Frome is set in a small, isolated town in Massachusetts, exploring the depths of human emotion and the profound impact of choices made in the face of societal constraints. The story revolves around the titular character, Ethan Frome, a worn-down and introverted farmer whose life is bound by duty and responsibility. Trapped in a loveless marriage with his sickly and bitter wife, Zeena, Ethan's life takes an unexpected turn when his cousin, Mattie Silver, arrives to help with household chores. As Mattie's presence breathes new life into Ethan's monotonous existence, a powerful attraction blossoms between them. This volume is part of the Mothers of the Macabre series, celebrating the gothic horror masterpieces of pioneering women writers who played a pivotal role in shaping and advancing the genre. Edith Wharton's masterful prose paints a vivid portrait of the harsh and unforgiving New England landscape, mirroring the emotional turmoil and restraints placed upon her characters. Ethan Frome is an essential read for fans of classic gothic horror.
Edith Wharton, the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction with her novel The Age of Innocence, was also a brilliant poet. This revealing collection of 134 poems brings together a fascinating array of her verse—including fifty poems that have never before been published. The celebrated American novelist and short story writer Edith Wharton, author of The House of Mirth, Ethan Frome, and the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Age of Innocence, was also a dedicated, passionate poet. A lover of words, she read, studied, and composed poetry all of her life, publishing her first collection of poems at the age of sixteen. In her memoir, A Backward Glance, Wharton declared herself dazzled by poetry; she called it her “chiefest passion and greatest joy.” The 134 selected poems in this volume include fifty published for the first time. Wharton’s poetry is arranged thematically, offering context as the poems explore new facets of her literary ability and character. These works illuminate a richer, sometimes darker side of Wharton. Her subjects range from the public and political—her first published poem was about a boy who hanged himself in jail—to intimate lyric poems expressing heartbreak, loss, and mortality. She wrote frequently about works of art and historical figures and places, and some of her most striking work explores the origins of creativity itself. These selected poems showcase Wharton’s vivid imagination and her personal experience. Relatively overlooked until now, her poetry and its importance in her life provide an enlightening lens through which to view one of the finest writers of the twentieth century.
The Touchstone is a novella by the American writer and novelist Edith Wharton that follows the story of the lawyer Stephen Glennard. In the beginning of the narrative, Glennard finds himself impecunious and unable to afford to marry his beautiful fiancě, Alexa Trent. In desperation, a London magazine advertisement brings back to his mind the romantic letters that his dead ex-lover used to send him. Since the author of those letters, Margaret Aubyn, has posthumously become a famous novelist, the documents can surely be converted to quite a fortune once sold to avid publishers. This is what Glennard actually does by the end after removing his name from the letters. However, soon after marriage, his guilty conscience starts to torture him along with the ghost of the dead author which seems to be unleashed after the publication of the letters. Glennard starts to imagine that the people around him have learnt about his secret. Among these, the one he is most concerned about is his wife. He thinks that he does not deserve her love since he feels that he has betrayed her too. Yet, unexpectedly, when he finally confesses his secret to her, she decides to forgive him and help him recover from his psychological torments.
A definitive collection of short stories by the author known for her insight into the lives of women and men trying to reconcile the desires of the heart with the demands of society, in a volume that also includes an introduction by the Booker Prize-winning author of The Hotel du Lac. Reprint.
This haunting anthology is an enthralling collection of chilling tales infused with Edith Wharton's masterful exploration of human psychology and the hidden recesses of the human heart. As a keen observer of human nature, Wharton weaves her ghostly tales with remarkable subtlety and psychological depth. Her ghosts are not mere apparitions but poignant manifestations of guilt, regret, and unrequited desires. Through her elegant prose and sharp wit, Wharton delves into the darkest corners of the human psyche, exploring themes of forbidden passions, societal constraints, and the persistent power of the past. Each setting serves as the backdrop for chilling encounters with the spectral realm. The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton is a testament to Wharton's versatility as a writer. The first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, she imbues her tales with atmospheric tension, challenging the reader to question what lies beyond our mortal existence.
Or, rather, Ned answered, in the same strain, "why, amid so much that's ghostly, it can never affirm its separate existence as THE ghost." And thereupon their invisible housemate had finally dropped out of their references, which were numerous enough to make them promptly unaware of the loss.
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