Edith Wharton

Perhaps the best-known and most popular of Edith Wharton's novels, Ethan Frome is widely considered her masterpiece. Set against a bleak New England background, the novel tells of Frome, his ailing wife Zeena and her companion Mattie Silver, superbly delineating the characters of each as they are drawn relentlessly into a deep-rooted domestic struggle.
Burdened by poverty and spiritually dulled by a loveless marriage to an older woman. Frome...

The House of Mirthis a critical examination of social hierarchies, moral ambiguity, and the intricate nature of human relationships. Edith Wharton critiques the rigid class structure of early 20th-century New York, portraying a society where appearances are meticulously maintained, and genuine emotions often come second to personal gain. Through the struggles of Lily Bart, the novel explores the power of wealth, social expectations, and the limitations...

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...

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...

Kate Clephane has lived in exile in France since leaving her husband and infant daughter. She is being called back to New York by her now adult daughter to attend her daughter's wedding. Complicating already complicated matters her daughter is engaged to her one time lover Chris Fenno, a man who cannot be trusted, and worse yet Kate is still deeply in love with him. A novel of scandal and shame and the upper class.

The novel is set within the context of an unspecified war between England and France and includes several discussions about the nature of warfare, such as the heroism demonstrated by soldiers during battle, for example during "the great fighting of Marne.

La edad de la inocencia es una obra maestra de Edith Wharton que retrata con delicadeza y precisión la alta sociedad neoyorquina del siglo XIX. La historia sigue a Newland Archer, un joven abogado atrapado entre el deber y el deseo, mientras debe elegir entre la seguridad de un matrimonio convencional con la encantadora May Welland o la pasión que siente por la enigmática y rebelde Condesa Olenska. Con un estilo elegante y agudo, Wharton explora...

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...

Diagnosed with typhoid fever at age of nine, Edith Wharton was beginning a long convalescence when she was given a book of ghost tales to read. Not only setting back her recovery, this reading opened up her fevered imagination to "a world haunted by formless horrors." So chronic was this paranoia that she was unable to sleep in a room with any book containing a ghost story. She was even moved to burn such volumes. These fears persisted until her late...

While visiting Rome with their daughters, two middle-aged women reminisce about their romantic rivalry for the dashing Delphin Slade. Although Mrs. Slade admits to falsifying the letter that led to her eventual marriage to Slade, Mrs. Ansley holds her own secret regarding the gentleman. Written by esteemed American author Edith Wharton in 1934, "Roman Fever" was adapted into a play, as well as two operas. HarperPerennial Classics brings great works...