Edith Wharton

"The return of the beautiful Countess Olenska into the rigidly conventional society of New York sends reverberations throughout the upper reaches of society. Newland Archer, an eligible young man of the establishment is about to announce his engagement to May Welland, a pretty ingénue, when May's cousin, Countess Olenska, is introduced into their circle. The Countess brings with her an aura of European sophistication and a hint of scandal, having...

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 stepson Owen Leath, who wishes to upset social conventions and marry her. When Anna discovers the intimate history of Darrow and Sophy, she worries about her...

"First published in 1913 and regarded by many critics as her most substantial novel, The Custom of the Country is Edith Wharton's powerful saga about the beautiful, ruthless Undine Spragg. A woman of extraordinary ambition and exuberant vitality, Undine is consigned by virtue of her sex to the shadow world of the drawing room and boudoir. Marriage remains the one institution through which she can exercise her will as she entrances man after man, marrying...

Susy Branch and Nick Lansing, two members of New York high society who are financially strapped, decide to get married so that they can remain in the social circles to which they have become accustomed, planning to use their wedding gifts to better position one another's opportunity to remarry for money.

"This annotated edition of Edith Wharton's decorating guidebook includes a new comprehensive introduction, with relevant biographical information, and reproductions of the book's original illustrations"-- Provided by publisher.

The extended family of Mrs. Manford is determined to escape the pain, boredom and emptiness of life through whatever form of "twilight sleep" they can devise or procure.

Glennard had never thought himself a hero; but he had been certain that he was incapable of baseness. The story of a young man who scorns the love of a tortured novelist, only to have her words come back to haunt him from the dead, The Touchstone shows off the skills Wharton became famous for in novels such as Ethan Frome and House of Mirth, particularly her piercing and delicious talent for satiric observation. But despite its masterly control, this...

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...

The third of Wharton's published works, Sanctuary' is a generational tale of love, education, secrecy, blame, and moral responsibility. Setting the template for films such as 'Minority Report,' starring Tom Cruise, 'Sanctuary' begs the question of whether it is right to pre-empt and act upon moral crimes that are yet to happen. When Kate discovers that her fiancée hides a terrible secret, will she leave him or see the wedding through? A thought-provoking...

"The Writing of Fiction is a window into Wharton's mind as she ponders the intertwined arts of writing and reading. Wharton provides invaluable insight on the the subjects of character, the challenge of finely-tuned short stories, the construction of a novel, and more. Beyond a treatise on craft, The Writing of Fiction is a sweeping meditation by a masterful practitioner and a rare chance to experience the inimitable voice of one of America's most...