Edith Wharton
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Dutiful Newland Archer, an eligible young man from New York high society, is about to announce his engagement to May Welland, a suitable match from a good family, when May's cousin, the beautiful and exotic Countess Ellen Olenska, is introduced into their circle. The Countess brings with her an aura of European sophistication and a hint of perceived scandal, having left her husband and claimed her independence. Her worldliness, disregard for society's...
2) Ethan Frome
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This amply annotated edition of Wharton's 1911 classic novella includes textual notes and documents, including Wharton's preface, letters, reviews, and early short story, "Mrs. Manstey's View." It is accompanied by the editor's comprehensive introduction and a wide array of readings on topics central to the novella: tragedy, health and fitness, sex and marriage, and turn-of-the-century New England poverty and isolation. Of her twenty-five novels and...
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"The tragic fall of Lily Bart, a beautiful socialite who loses her footing in the savage social-climbing world of New York high society in the nineteenth century. Lily Bart has no fortune, but she possesses everything else she needs to make an excellent marriage: beauty, intelligence, a love of luxury and an elegant skill in negotiating the hidden traps and false friends of New York's high society. But time and again Lily cannot bring herself to make...
4) Summer
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"Charity Royall, a New Englander of humble origins, begins a torrid love affair with aristocratic Lucius Harney against all societal norms." *** "The novel Wharton called her 'hot Ethan' is set in the Massachusetts Berkshires and delves into the thwarted dreams and sexual passions of a repressed rural woman." *** "Charity Royall, brought down from the Mountain when she was an infant, is a ward of Lawyer Royall. Lucius Harney becomes Charity's lover...
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Edith Wharton’s classic story of one woman’s quest for wealth and status after the turn of the twentieth century
Beautiful, selfish, and driven, Undine Spragg arrives in New York with all of the ambition and naiveté that her midwestern, nouveau riche upbringing afforded her. As cunning as she is lovely, Undine has but one goal in life: to ascend to the upper echelons of high society. And so with a single-minded tenacity,...
Beautiful, selfish, and driven, Undine Spragg arrives in New York with all of the ambition and naiveté that her midwestern, nouveau riche upbringing afforded her. As cunning as she is lovely, Undine has but one goal in life: to ascend to the upper echelons of high society. And so with a single-minded tenacity,...
7) The reef ;
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Everyman's library volume 201
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English
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Written in 1912 and set in and around London, "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...
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In this classic, a mother's past complicates her daughter's future in 1920s New York.
Trapped in an unhappy marriage with a controlling husband, Kate Clephane began an affair with a wealthy man, only to lose her daughter, Anne, and be exiled from New York society. Years later, after their entanglement has ended, Kate meets Chris Fenno in France. Although he is a much younger man, Chris is the love of Kate's life. However, their difficult circumstances...
9) Sanctuary
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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...
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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,...
11) The touchstone
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The first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize, for her novel "The Age of Innocence", Edith Wharton was discouraged by her mother from pursuing her writing at an early age. Despite this she would go on to produce a prolific body of work which included many novels and short stories. Characteristic to her work is the subtle use of dramatic irony and having grown up in a prominent New York family she would become one the most astute critics of pre-World War...
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"The Fruit of the Tree," sheds light on a highly controversial topic: labor conditions and factory reform. This, in combination with a love story and the ethical debate over euthanasia, made for mixed, positive reviews upon its publication. Conflicts abound in this turn-of-the century tale of love, ethical dilemma and class division.
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Though best known for having written novels such as The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth, American author Edith Wharton was also a master of the short story format. Regarded by many critics as her most accomplished collection of short tales, Crucial Instances brings together seven gripping and nuanced stories of the American upper glass in the Gilded Age.
14) In Morocco
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English
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The great American novelist Edith Wharton (1862-1937) here gives us her colorful and textured travel memoir "In Morroco" (1920). Still a deeply energized work, Wharton imbues the reader with a sense of wonder that served as the impetus for her travels into this exotic Northern African land. Edith Wharton made her name as a novelist closely associated with the prolific Henry James. Their personal and literary kinship may be seen in much of her long...
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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...
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In these powerful and elegant tales, Edith Wharton evokes moods of disquiet and darkness within her own era. In icy new England a fearsome double foreshadows the fate of a rich young man; a married farmer is bewitched by a dead girl; a ghostly bell saves a womans reputation. Brittany conjures ancient cruelties, Dorset witnesses a retrospective haunting and a New York club cushions an elderly aesthete as he tells of the ghastly eyes haunting his nights....
17) Bunner sisters
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English
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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...
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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...
19) Twilight sleep
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English
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Twilight Sleep is a novel by American author Edith Wharton and was first published in 1927 as a serial in the Pictorial Review before being published as a novel in the same year. The story, filled with irony, is centered around a socialite family navigating the New York of the Jazz Age and their relationships. This novel landed at number one on the best-selling list just two months after its publication and finished the year at number seven. Even...
20) Old New York
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First published in 1924, "Old New York" is a collection of four short stories set in the New York of the 1840s, 50s, 60s, and 70s by American author Edith Wharton. These stories are often considered a companion to Wharton's celebrated novel "The Age of Innocence", as many of the same characters and settings appear. "Old New York" is Wharton at her best as she explores the social issues that were often at the center of her works: infidelity, the class...