Edith Wharton

Seemingly happy in his comfortable, if repressive, world of upper class New York, Newland Archer finds himself questioning all his carefully cherished assumptions about life when he meets his fiancee's cousin, the mysterious, non-conformist Countess Olenska.

Edith Wharton was an American novelist, poet and short story writer whose works display her mastery over the realistic fiction genre. In 1922, two years after winning the Pulitzer Prize for "The Age of Innocence", Wharton wrote "The Glimpses of the Moon". The novel centered around two young newlyweds, who arranged their marriage in order to take advantage of their wealthy friends' generosity. However, things do not end quite as they planned when they...

Edith Wharton's A Son at the Front (1923) is a stirring rumination of family, art, and the shortcomings of possession. The story, which is set on the eve of the First World War reflects the author's own experience living in France when the "Great War" broke out. The delineation of Wartime Paris is one of great power and evocation, yet it is the immensely personal father-son relationship that is at the heart of this tragic novel. The novel begins in...

Seven short stories from one of the most celebrated authors of the early twentieth century have been updated with an eye toward readability for modern readers. The bones of the stories are just as she told them with no changes to plot or settings. Best of all the book includes the original unedited versions in appendices. The Hermit and the Wild Woman: One escapes from war, the other from a convent, only to find themselves together in their solitude. The...

Thousands of books on interior design have come and gone since the 1897 publication of this pioneering manual, but The Decoration of Houses remains, thanks to the insightful and inspiring advice of its co-authors. Before she became the Pulitzer Prize—winning author of “The Age of Innocence”, Edith Wharton was a society matron, remodeling a summer home in Newport, Rhode Island. With the able assistance of architect Ogden Codman, Jr., Wharton...

An American in Paris at the turn of the nineteenth century, John Durham pays court to an old flame, Fanny Frisbee, now married to the dissolute Marquis de Malrive. Devoutly Catholic, Fanny's husband is unlikely to grant her a divorce or relinquish custody of their young son, who is heir to the family title. When the Malrive family, urged by Fanny's enigmatic sister-in-law, Madame de Treymes, agrees to a divorce, John must decide whether or not he...

What begins as an ordinary event quickly shifts into the bizarre after the narrator, a wealthy bachelor, meets their friend, Lanvivain, at an old mansion. Thinking about purchasing the property, the narrator and Lanvivain explore the mansion at Kerfol, attracted to the vast and ordinate property. Lanvivain enthusiastically urges the bachelor to buy the property, declaring that it matches his personality exactly. The narrator, however, is unconvinced,...

Edith Wharton was an American novelist, poet and short story writer whose works display a mastery over the realistic fiction genre. One of her earliest and more experimental works was "Sanctuary". Written in 1903, the novella takes on a popular topic of debate in the early 1900s: nature versus nurture. Kate Orme marries a dishonest, sinful man who passes away, leaving her with a son. Fearing that he may inherit his father's immoral ways, Kate devotes...

This antiquarian book contains Edith Wharton's first serious novel, "The Valley of Decision." Within this text Wharton juxtaposes characters inspired by the anti-religious writings of Voltaire and Rousseau with the orthodox leaders of the day. As in many of Wharton's writings, it becomes evident that violation of societal conventions comes at a great personal cost. This seminal piece of literature would make for a worthy addition to any bookshelf,...

Edith Wharton 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 of social and psychological insight. She was also well acquainted with many of her era's other literary and public figures, including Theodore Roosevelt....