New Releases by Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton is the author of Madame de Treymes by Edith Wharton (2021), The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (Illustrated Edition) (2021), The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton (2021), Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton Illustrated Edition (2021), The Age of Innocence Edith Wharton (2021).

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Madame de Treymes by Edith Wharton

release date: Aug 27, 2021
Madame de Treymes by Edith Wharton
John Durham, while he waited for Madame de Malrive to draw on her gloves, stood in the hotel doorway looking out across the Rue de Rivoli at the afternoon brightness of the Tuileries gardens. His European visits were infrequent enough to have kept unimpaired the freshness of his eye, and he was always struck anew by the vast and consummately ordered spectacle of Paris: by its look of having been boldly and deliberately planned as a background for the enjoyment of life, instead of being forced into grudging concessions to the festive instincts, or barricading itself against them in unenlightened ugliness, like his own lamentable New York. But to-day, if the scene had never presented itself more alluringly, in that moist spring bloom between showers, when the horse-chestnuts dome themselves in unreal green against a gauzy sky, and the very dust of the pavement seems the fragrance of lilac made visible-to-day for the first time the sense of a personal stake in it all, of having to reckon individually with its effects and influences, kept Durham from an unrestrained yielding to the spell. Paris might still be-to the unimplicated it doubtless still was-the most beautiful city in the world; but whether it were the most lovable or the most detestable depended for him, in the last analysis, on the buttoning of the white glove over which Fanny de Malrive still lingered.

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (Illustrated Edition)

release date: Aug 22, 2021
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (Illustrated Edition)
The Age of Innocence centers on one society couple's impending marriage and the introduction of a scandalous woman whose presence threatens their happiness. Though the novel questions the assumptions and mores of turn of the century New York society, it never devolves into an outright condemnation of the institution. In fact, Wharton considered this novel an "apology" for the earlier, more brutal and critical, "The House of Mirth". Not to be overlooked is the author's attention to detailing the charms and customs of this caste. The novel is lauded for its accurate portrayal of how the nineteenth-century East Coast American upper class lived and this combined with the social tragedy earned Wharton a Pulitzer - the first Pulitzer awarded to a woman.

The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton

release date: Jun 15, 2021
The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton
The Age of Innocence is a 1920 novel by American author Edith Wharton. It was her twelfth novel, and was initially serialized in 1920 in four parts, in the magazine Pictorial Review. Later that year, it was released as a book by D. Appleton & Company. It won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, making Wharton the first woman to win the prize. Though the committee had initially agreed to give the award to Sinclair Lewis for Main Street, the judges, in rejecting his book on political grounds, "established Wharton as the American ''First Lady of Letters''". The story is set in the 1870s, in upper-class, "Gilded-Age" New York City. Wharton wrote the book in her 50s, after she had established herself as a strong author, with publishers clamoring for her work

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton Illustrated Edition

release date: May 31, 2021
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton Illustrated Edition
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

The Age of Innocence Edith Wharton

release date: May 23, 2021
The Age of Innocence Edith Wharton
The Age of Innocence was originally published in 1920 as a four-part series in Pictoral Review, then later that same year as Wharton's twelfth novel. It went on to win the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, making Wharton the first woman to win the award. Upper-class New York gentleman Newland Archer is set to wed May Welland in a picture-perfect union when the bride's cousin, Ellen Olenska, returns from a failed marriage overseas. As Newland endeavors to help Countess Olenska be reinstated into the family's good graces, his affections for her grow. Newland soon finds himself torn between his desire to conform to the society he knows and his newfound passion for the forbidden Countess.

Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton Penguin Classic

release date: Feb 07, 2021
Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton Penguin Classic
The Age of Innocence is the twelfth novel by Edith Wharton, initially published in four volumes in the 1920's Victorian Review, and later published in book form by De Appleton in New York and London. She won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1921, making it the first novel written by a woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for fiction, so Wharton was the first woman to win the award. The story takes place in an upper-class community in New York City in the 1870s.Edith Wharton is an American writer, novelist, author and designer, born in New York into a family of wealth and influence, and died in France. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and Unreality, and was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1927, 1928 and 1930.Date and place of birth: January 24, 1862, New York, New York, United StatesDate and place of death: August 11, 1937, Pavillon Colombe, Saint-Brice-sous-Foret, FranceSpouse: Edward Robbins Wharton (married 1885--1913)Films: The Age of Innocence, Ethan Fromm, The House of Mirth, The Old Maid

The Writing of Fiction

release date: Jan 05, 2021
The Writing of Fiction
Essays on the craft of fiction writing from the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize, for her novel The Age of Innocence. In The Writing of Fiction,Edith Wharton, a prolific writer and one of the twentieth century’s greatest authors, shares her thoughts on fiction writing, devoting individual chapters to short stories and novels. She stresses the importance of writers putting thought into how they build their story, from selecting subject matter and fashioning characters to crafting situations and settings. She explores the history of modern fiction and the contributions of Honoré de Balzac and Stendhal. She even examines the difference between literary and commercial fiction, as well as the work of Marcel Proust. Although Wharton passed away in 1937, her advice here endures and is bound to inspire writers for ages to come. “In The Writing of Fiction Edith Wharton gives us not only a period-appropriate glimpse into the mind of an exceptionally creative writer but also an appreciation for the thoughtfulness and discipline she brought to her craft. We are fortunate she was willing to share her observations.” —Ralph White, author of Litchfield

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton Annotated Edition

release date: Dec 16, 2020
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton Annotated Edition
Ethan Frome was published in 1911, when Wharton was already an established and successful writer. She lived primarily in Paris between 1905 and the outbreak of World War II, and these years were productive. She was growing more self-assured in her art, and during the writing of Ethan Frome she felt control and confidence than she had never known before.

The House of Mirth Illustrated

release date: Nov 16, 2020
The House of Mirth Illustrated
The House of Mirth is a 1905 novel by the American author Edith Wharton. It tells the story of Lily Bart, a well-born but impoverished woman belonging to New York City''s high society around the turn of the last century.[a] Wharton creates a portrait of a stunning beauty who, though raised and educated to marry well both socially and economically, is reaching her 29th year, an age when her youthful blush is drawing to a close and her marital prospects are becoming ever more limited. The House of Mirth traces Lily''s slow two-year social descent from privilege to a tragically lonely existence on the margins of society. In the words of one scholar, Wharton uses Lily as an attack on "an irresponsible, grasping and morally corrupt upper class.

The Age of Innocence (Edith Wharton Classic)

release date: Aug 15, 2020
The Age of Innocence (Edith Wharton Classic)
The Age of Innocence is a 1920 novel by American author Edith Wharton. It was her twelfth novel, and was initially serialized in 1920 in four parts, in the magazine Pictorial Review. Later that year, it was released as a book by D. Appleton & Company. It won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, making Wharton the first woman to win the prize.This Age of Innocence, set for Wharton''s childhood, is softer than Wharton''s House of Merith published in 1905.In her autobiography, Wharton wrote of The Age of Innocence that it had allowed her to find "a momentary escape in going back to my childish memories of a long-vanished America... it was growing more and more evident that the world I had grown up in and been formed by had been destroyed in 1914."Experts and readers alike agree that An Age of Innocence is basically a story that struggles to reconcile the old with the new.

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton "The Annotated Classic Edition"

release date: Aug 09, 2020
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton "The Annotated Classic Edition"
Ethan Frome is a masterwork From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edith Wharton. Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome is a tale of despair, forbidden emotions, and sexual tensions, Ethan Frome is a poor farmer, trapped in a marriage to a demanding and controlling wife, Zeena. When Zeena's young cousin Mattie enters their household she opens a window of hope in Ethan's bleak life, but his wife's reaction prompts a desperate attempt to escape fate that goes horribly wrong. In one of American fiction's finest and most intense narratives, Edith Wharton moves this ill-starred trio toward their tragic destinies. Ethan Frome is an unforgettable story with the force of myth, featuring realistic and haunting characters as vivid as any Wharton ever conjured.

ETHAN FROME Edith Wharton

release date: Mar 06, 2020
ETHAN FROME Edith Wharton
An American novelist play writer and designer Edith Wharton published Ethan Frome In 1911. The book is set in fiction town of Starkfield, Massachusetts about an isolated farmer trying to live with his frigid, demanding and ungrateful wife. We have formatted the book for an easy reading experience if you enjoy historic classic literary work.

Kerfol

release date: Nov 22, 2019
Kerfol
In "Kerfol," Edith Wharton presents a haunting narrative that intertwines themes of love, loss, and the supernatural within the somber backdrop of a decaying French estate. Employing a rich, atmospheric prose steeped in Gothic tradition, Wharton''s story unfolds through the voice of a nameless narrator drawn to a mysterious manor once inhabited by a tragic love affair. The novella''s eerie tones and vivid imagery reflect Wharton''s sophisticated literary style, revealing her deep engagement with psychological complexity and spectral motifs, while also engaging with contemporary concerns of social class and gender roles. Edith Wharton, a luminary of early 20th-century literature, often drew inspiration from her own privileged upbringing and acute observations of society''s intricacies. "Kerfol" was inspired by Wharton''Äôs fascination with the history and decay of old estates in Europe, reflecting her own experiences as an expatriate in France. Her profound understanding of human emotions, coupled with personal encounters with romance and betrayal, shaped her narratives, allowing readers to navigate the intricate interplay between the living and the dead. "Kerfol" is a must-read for enthusiasts of Gothic literature and admirers of Wharton''s oeuvre. Its exploration of the shadows that linger in the past not only captivates the imagination but also prompts introspection on human desires and regrets. This novella encapsulates Wharton''s gift for storytelling, making it an essential addition to any literary collection.

The Age of Innocence (1920)

release date: Sep 04, 2019
The Age of Innocence (1920)
The Age of Innocence is a 1920 novel by American author Edith Wharton. It was her twelfth novel, and was initially serialized in 1920 in four parts, in the magazine Pictorial Review. Later that year, it was released as a book by D. Appleton & Company. It won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, making Wharton the first woman to win the prize. Though the committee had initially agreed to give the award to Sinclair Lewis for Main Street, the judges, in rejecting his book on political grounds, "established Wharton as the American ''First Lady of Letters''".The story is set in the 1870s, in upper-class, "Gilded-Age" New York City. Wharton wrote the book in her 50s, after she had established herself as a strong author, with publishers clamoring for her work.

Summer (1917) by Edith Wharton

release date: Oct 21, 2018
Summer (1917) by Edith Wharton
Summer is a novel by Edith Wharton published in 1917 by Charles Scribner''s Sons. The story is one of only two novels by Wharton to be set in New England, who was best known for her portrayals of upper class New York society. The novel details the sexual awakening of its protagonist, Charity Royall, and shares many plot similarities with Wharton''s better known novel, Ethan Frome. Only moderately well-received when originally published, Summer has had a resurgence in critical popularity since the 1960''s

A Motor-Flight Through France (1908) by Edith Wharton

release date: Oct 21, 2018
A Motor-Flight Through France (1908) by Edith Wharton
Shedding the turn-of-the-century social confines she felt existed for women in America, Edith Wharton set out in the newly invented "motor-car" to explore the cities and countryside of France. In A Motor-Flight Through France, originally published in 1908, Wharton combines the power of her prose, her love for travel, and her affinity for France to produce this compelling travelogue.

Artemis to Actaeon

release date: Apr 05, 2018
Artemis to Actaeon
Reproduction of the original: Artemis to Actaeon by Edith Wharton

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

release date: Nov 27, 2017
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
The House of Mirth (1905), a novel by Edith Wharton (1862-1937), tells the story of Lily Bart, a well-born but impoverished woman belonging to New York City's high society around the turn of the last century.[a] Wharton creates a portrait of a stunning beauty who, though raised and educated to marry well both socially and economically, is reaching her 29th year, an age when her youthful blush is drawing to a close and her marital prospects are becoming ever more limited. The House of Mirth traces Lily's slow two-year social descent from privilege to a tragically lonely existence on the margins of society. In the words of one scholar, Wharton uses Lily as an attack on "an irresponsible, grasping and morally corrupt upper class.

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

release date: Nov 24, 2017
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
The Age of Innocence is Edith Wharton''s twelfth novel, initially serialized in four parts in the Pictorial Review magazine in 1920, and later released by D. Appleton and Company as a book in New York and in London. It won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, making Wharton the first woman to win the prize.Though the committee initially agreed to award the prize to Sinclair Lewis, the judges rejected his Main Street on political grounds and "established Wharton as the American ''First Lady of Letters''", the irony being that the committee had awarded The Age of Innocence the prize on grounds that negated Wharton''s own blatant and subtle ironies, which constitute and make the book so worthy of attention. The story is set in upper-class New York City in the 1870s, during the Gilded Age. Wharton wrote the book in her 50s, after she had established herself as a strong author with publishers clamoring for her work.

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)

release date: Jul 17, 2017
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)
This eBook features the unabridged text of ‘Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’ from the bestselling edition of ‘The Complete Works of Edith Wharton’. Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. The Delphi Classics edition of Wharton includes original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of the author, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily. eBook features: * The complete unabridged text of ‘Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’ * Beautifully illustrated with images related to Wharton’s works * Individual contents table, allowing easy navigation around the eBook * Excellent formatting of the textPlease visit www.delphiclassics.com to learn more about our wide range of titles

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)

release date: Jul 17, 2017
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)
This eBook features the unabridged text of ‘The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’ from the bestselling edition of ‘The Complete Works of Edith Wharton’. Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. The Delphi Classics edition of Wharton includes original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of the author, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily. eBook features: * The complete unabridged text of ‘The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’ * Beautifully illustrated with images related to Wharton’s works * Individual contents table, allowing easy navigation around the eBook * Excellent formatting of the textPlease visit www.delphiclassics.com to learn more about our wide range of titles

Summer by Edith Wharton - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)

release date: Jul 17, 2017
Summer by Edith Wharton - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)
This eBook features the unabridged text of ‘Summer by Edith Wharton - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’ from the bestselling edition of ‘The Complete Works of Edith Wharton’. Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. The Delphi Classics edition of Wharton includes original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of the author, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily. eBook features: * The complete unabridged text of ‘Summer by Edith Wharton - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’ * Beautifully illustrated with images related to Wharton’s works * Individual contents table, allowing easy navigation around the eBook * Excellent formatting of the textPlease visit www.delphiclassics.com to learn more about our wide range of titles

Summer by Edith Wharton

release date: Jul 13, 2017
Summer by Edith Wharton
"The classic book has always read again and again.""What is the classic book?""""Why is the classic book?""READ READ READ.. then you'll know it's excellence."

Bunner Sisters

release date: Apr 24, 2017
Bunner Sisters
How is this book unique? Font adjustments & biography included Unabridged (100% Original content) Illustrated About Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton "Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton 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."" Ramy's appearance also begins to distancethe sisters from each other, as Ann Eliza notes pathetic signs of flirtation in Evelina. Ann Eliza decides to sacrifice her own hopes and yearnings for those of her younger sister. In spite of Ramy's frequent visits to the Bunner sisters, his background remains shrouded to them; the sisters' naiveté blinds them to Ramy's unexplained absences, from which he returns with ""dull eyes"" and a face the color of ""yellow ashes."" "

Ethan Frome (1911). By: Edith Wharton

release date: Jan 11, 2017
Ethan Frome (1911). By: Edith Wharton
Ethan Frome is a novel published in 1911 by the Pulitzer Prize-winning American author Edith Wharton. It is set in the fictitious town of Starkfield, Massachusetts. The novel was adapted into a film, Ethan Frome, in 1993.Ethan Frome is set in the fictional New England town of Starkfield, where a visiting engineer tells the story of his encounter with Ethan Frome, a man with a history of thwarted dreams and desires. The accumulated longing of Frome ends in an ironic turn of events. His initial impressions are based on his observations of Frome going about his mundane tasks in Starkfield, and something about him catches the eye and curiosity of the visitor, but no one in the town seems interested in revealing many details about the man or his history - or perhaps they are not able to. The narrator ultimately finds himself in the position of staying overnight at Frome''s house in order to escape a winter storm, and from there he observes Frome and his private circumstances, which he shares and which triggers other people in town to be more forthcoming with their own knowledge and impressions.[2] The novel is framed by the literary device of an extended flashback. The prologue, which is neither named as such nor numbered, opens with an unnamed male narrator spending a winter in Starkfield while in the area on business. He spots a limping, quiet man around the village, who is somehow compelling in his demeanor and carriage. This is Ethan Frome, who is a local fixture of the community, having been a lifelong resident. Frome is described as "the most striking figure in Starkfield," "the ruin of a man" with a "careless powerful look...in spite of a lameness checking each step like the jerk of a chain." Curious, the narrator sets out to learn about him. He learns that Frome''s limp arose from having been injured in a "smash-up" twenty-four years before, but further details are not forthcoming, and the narrator fails to learn much more from Frome''s fellow townspeople other than that Ethan''s attempt at higher education decades before was thwarted by the sudden illness of his father following an injury, forcing his return to the farm to assist his parents, never to leave again. Because people seem not to wish to speak other than in vague and general terms about Frome''s past, the narrator''s curiosity grows, but he learns little more. Chance circumstances arise that allow the narrator to hire Frome as his driver for a week. A severe snowstorm during one of their journeys forces Frome to allow the narrator to shelter at his home one night. Just as the two are entering Frome''s house, the prologue ends. We then embark on the "first" chapter (Chapter I), which takes place twenty-four years prior. The narration switches from the first-person narrator of the prologue to a limited third-person narrator.................. 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. Edith Wharton was born Edith Newbold Jones to George Frederic Jones and Lucretia Stevens Rhinelander at their brownstone at 14 West Twenty-third Street in New York City. She had two much older brothers, Frederic Rhinelander, who was sixteen, and Henry Edward, who was eleven. She was baptized April 20, 1862, Easter Sunday, at Grace Church. To her friends and family she was known as "Pussy Jones." The saying "keeping up with the Joneses" is said to refer to her father''s family..................

Madame de Treymes. By: Edith Wharton (illustrated)

release date: Jan 07, 2017
Madame de Treymes. By: Edith Wharton (illustrated)
Edith Wharton's "Madame de Treymes" is a remarkable example of the form. It is the story of the tactical defeat but moral victory of an honest and upstanding American in his struggle to win a wife from a tightly united but feudally minded French aristocratic family. He loses, but they cheat. . . . In a masterpiece of brevity, Wharton dramatizes the contrast between the two opposing forces: the simple and proper old brownstone New York, low in style but high in principle, and the achingly beautiful but decadent Saint-Germain district of Paris. 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.

Ethan Frome (Edith Wharton) - illustrated - (Literary Thoughts Edition)

release date: Dec 17, 2016
Ethan Frome (Edith Wharton) - illustrated - (Literary Thoughts Edition)
Literary Thoughts edition presents Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton ------ "Ethan Frome" is a novel written in 1911 by Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist and short story writer Edith Wharton (1862–1937), telling the story of Ethan Frome, who works his unproductive farm and struggles to maintain a bearable existence with his difficult, suspicious, and hypochondriac wife, Zeena. All books of the Literary Thoughts edition have been transscribed from original prints and edited for better reading experience. Please visit our homepage literarythoughts.com to see our other publications.

The Choice

release date: Apr 01, 2016
The Choice
This early work by Edith Wharton was originally published in 1916 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. ''The Choice'' is a tale about a man who is in the process of losing the family fortune and whose wife and lawyer seem unable to control. Edith Wharton was born in New York City in 1862. Wharton''s first poems were published in Scribner''s Magazine. In 1891, the same publication printed the first of her many short stories, titled ''Mrs. Manstey''s View''. Over the next four decades, they - along with other well-established American publications such as Atlantic Monthly, Century Magazine, Harper''s and Lippincott''s - regularly published her work.

The House of Mirth (1905) by

release date: Mar 18, 2016
The House of Mirth (1905) by
The House of Mirth (1905), by Edith Wharton, is the story of Lily Bart, a well-born, but penniless woman of the high society of New York City, who was raised and educated to become wife to a rich man, a hothouse flower for conspicuous consumption. As an unmarried woman with gambling debts and an uncertain future, Lily is destroyed by the society that created her. Written in the style of a novel of manners, The House of Mirth was the fourth novel by Edith Wharton (1862-1937), which tells the story of Lily Bart against the background of the high-society of upper class New York City of the 1890s; as a genre novel, The House of Mirth (1905) is an example of American literary naturalism.

The House of Mirth

release date: Jan 25, 2016
The House of Mirth
Chapter 1 Selden paused in surprise. In the afternoon rush of the Grand Central Station his eyes had been refreshed by the sight of Miss Lily Bart. It was a Monday in early September, and he was returning to his work from a hurried dip into the country; but what was Miss Bart doing in town at that season? If she had appeared to be catching a train, he might have inferred that he had come on her in the act of transition between one and another of the country-houses which disputed her presence after the close of the Newport season; but her desultory air perplexed him. She stood apart from the crowd, letting it drift by her to the platform or the street, and wearing an air of irresolution which might, as he surmised, be the mask of a very definite purpose. It struck him at once that she was waiting for some one, but he hardly knew why the idea arrested him. There was nothing new about Lily Bart, yet he could never see her without a faint movement of interest: it was characteristic of her that she always roused speculation, that her simplest acts seemed the result of far-reaching intentions. An impulse of curiosity made him turn out of his direct line to the door, and stroll past her. He knew that if she did not wish to be seen she would contrive to elude him; and it amused him to think of putting her skill to the test. "Mr. Selden—what good luck!" She came forward smiling, eager almost, in her resolve to intercept him. One or two persons, in brushing past them, lingered to look; for Miss Bart was a figure to arrest even the suburban traveller rushing to his last train. Selden had never seen her more radiant. Her vivid head, relieved against the dull tints of the crowd, made her more conspicuous than in a ball-room, and under her dark hat and veil she regained the girlish smoothness, the purity of tint, that she was beginning to lose after eleven years of late hours and indefatigable dancing. Was it really eleven years, Selden found himself wondering, and had she indeed reached the nine-and-twentieth birthday with which her rivals credited her?
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