Most Popular Books by 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

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.

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.

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.

First published in the year 1905, famous English writer Edith Wharton''s fictional novel ''The House of Mirth'' 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.

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

I had the story, bit by bit, from various people, and, as generally happens in such cases, each time it was a different story. If you know Starkfield, Massachusetts, you know the post-office. If you know the post-office you must have seen Ethan Frome drive up to it, drop the reins on his hollow-backed bay and drag himself across the brick pavement to the white colonnade: and you must have asked who he was. It was there that, several years ago, I saw him for the first time; and the sight pulled me up sharp. Even then he was the most striking figure in Starkfield, though he was but the ruin of a man. It was not so much his great height that marked him, for the "natives" were easily singled out by their lank longitude from the stockier foreign breed: it was the careless powerful look he had, in spite of a lameness checking each step like the jerk of a chain. There was something bleak and unapproachable in his face, and he was so stiffened and grizzled that I took him for an old man and was surprised to hear that he was not more than fifty-two. I had this from Harmon Gow, who had driven the stage from Bettsbridge to Starkfield in pre-trolley days and knew the chronicle of all the families on his line.

A tale of forbidden sexual passion and thwarted dreams played out against the lush, summer backdrop of the Massachusetts Berkshires, Edith Wharton called Summer her ''hot Ethan.'' In their rural settings and their poor, uneducated protagonists, Summer and Ethan Frome represent a sharp departure from Wharton''s familiar depictions of the urban upper class. Charity Royall lives unhappily with her hard-drinking adoptive father in an isolated village, until a visiting architect awakens her sexual passion and the hope for escape. Exploring Charity''s relation to her father and her lover, Wharton delves into dark cultural territory: repressed sexuality, small-town prejudice, and, in subtle hints, incest. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

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.[1] 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''".[2] 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

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.

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.

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.[1] 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.

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.

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

Edith Newbold Jones was born in New York on January 24, 1862. Born into wealth this background of privilege allowed her to write critic novels and stories about it culminating in her Pulitzer Prize winning novel ''The Age Of Innocence''. Marriage to Edward Robbins Wharton, who was 12 years older in 1885 allowed her to travel extensively. It was shortly apparent that her husband suffered from acuter depression and so the travelling ceased and they retired to The Mount, their estate designed by Edith Wharton . By 1908 his state was said to be incurable and prior to divorcing Edwards in 1913 she began an affair, in 1908, with Morton Fullerton, a Times journalist, who was her intellectual equal and allowed her writing talents to push forward and write the novels for which she is so well known. Acknowledged as one of the great American writers with novels such as Ethan Frome and the House Of Mirth among many. Wharton also wrote many short stories, including ghost stories and poems which we look at here in this volume. Edith Wharton died of a stroke in 1937 at the Domaine Le Pavillon Colombe, her 18th-century house on Rue de Montmorency in Saint-Brice-sous-Foret."

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.

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.

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.