Edith Wharton (1862–1937)
Author of The Age of Innocence
About the Author
Edith Wharton was a woman of extreme contrasts; brought up to be a leisured aristocrat, she was also dedicated to her career as a writer. She wrote novels of manners about the old New York society from which she came, but her attitude was consistently critical. Her irony and her satiric touches, as show more well as her insight into human character, continue to appeal to readers today. As a child, Wharton found refuge from the demands of her mother's social world in her father's library and in making up stories. Her marriage at age 23 to Edward ("Teddy") Wharton seemed to confirm her place in the conventional role of wealthy society woman, but she became increasingly dissatisfied with the "mundanities" of her marriage and turned to writing, which drew her into an intellectual community and strengthened her sense of self. After publishing two collections of short stories, The Greater Inclination (1899) and Crucial Instances (1901), she wrote her first novel, The Valley of Decision (1902), a long, historical romance set in eighteenth-century Italy. Her next work, the immensely popular The House of Mirth (1905), was a scathing criticism of her own "frivolous" New York society and its capacity to destroy her heroine, the beautiful Lily Bart. As Wharton became more established as a successful writer, Teddy's mental health declined and their marriage deteriorated. In 1907 she left America altogether and settled in Paris, where she wrote some of her most memorable stories of harsh New England rural life---Ethan Frome (1911) and Summer (1917)---as well as The Reef (1912), which is set in France. All describe characters forced to make moral choices in which the rights of individuals are pitted against their responsibilities to others. She also completed her most biting satire, The Custom of the Country (1913), the story of Undine Spragg's climb, marriage by marriage, from a midwestern town to New York to a French chateau. During World War I, Wharton dedicated herself to the war effort and was honored by the French government for her work with Belgian refugees. After the war, the world Wharton had known was gone. Even her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Age of Innocence (1920), a story set in old New York, could not recapture the former time. Although the new age welcomed her---Wharton was both a critical and popular success, honored by Yale University and elected to The National Institute of Arts and Letters---her later novels show her struggling to come to terms with a new era. In The Writing of Fiction (1925), Wharton acknowledged her debt to her friend Henry James, whose writings share with hers the descriptions of fine distinctions within a social class and the individual's burdens of making proper moral decisions. R.W.B. Lewis's biography of Wharton, published in 1975, along with a wealth of new biographical material, inspired an extensive reevaluation of Wharton. Feminist readings and reactions to them have focused renewed attention on her as a woman and as an artist. Although many of her books have recently been reprinted, there is still no complete collected edition of her work. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by Edith Wharton
Novels: The House of Mirth / The Reef / The Custom of the Country / The Age of Innocence (1986) 517 copies
Novellas and Other Writings : Madame De Treymes / Ethan Frome / Summer / Old New York / The Mother's Recompense / A… (1990) 369 copies
Four Novels of the 1920s: The Glimpses of the Moon / A Son at the Front / Twilight Sleep / The Children (2015) 89 copies
Gramercy Modern Classics: Edith Wharton: Age of Innocence & Two Other Complete Works of Love, Morals, and Manners (1996) 39 copies
Anime attardate - La tragedia della Musa 13 copies
The Classic Ghost Stories Collection: Chilling Tales from Guy de Maupassant, M. R. James, Edith Wharton, E. F. Benson,… (2020) — Author — 9 copies
Works of Edith Wharton. The Age of Innocence, The House of Mirth, Ethan Frome, Sanctuary, The Custom of the Country,… (2009) 7 copies
Tre storie del soprannaturale 6 copies
Ghosts: Edith Wharton's Gothic Tales 5 copies
Quartet: Four Stories 4 copies
Triangoli imperfetti 3 copies
The Age of Innocence; Summer 3 copies
All Souls [short story] 3 copies
La splendeur des âmes : Chez les heureux du monde ; Les Beaux Mariages ; Eté ; Le temps de… (2012) 3 copies
Madame de Treynes 2 copies
The Early Short Fiction: Kerfol, Mrs. Manstey's View, the Bolted Door, the Dilettante, the House of the Dead Hand (2006) 2 copies
Xingn??? 2 copies
Ethan Frome Illustrated 2 copies
Opowieści małżeńskie 2 copies
Miss Mary Pask [Short Story] 2 copies
Verão 2 copies
A Motor-Flight Through France 2 copies
The age of innocence 2 copies
SUFLETUL OMULUI 2 copies
The Collected Works of Edith Wharton: The Complete Works PergamonMedia (Highlights of World Literature) (2013) 2 copies
the glimpeses of the moon 1 copy
Wharton Novels 1 copy
Le fils et autres nouvelles 1 copy
NEW YORK-UL DE ALTADATA 1 copy
“The Portrait” 1 copy
Il ritorno a casa 1 copy
A Casa da Felicidade 1 copy
A motor-flight through France (1908). By: Edith Wharton (Illustrated).: France, Description and travel (2017) 1 copy
Relato em Marrocos 1 copy
OBSTACOLE 1 copy
El angel de la tumba 1 copy
House of Mirth (Signet Classics Edition) (64) by Wharton, Edith [Mass Market Paperback (2000)] (2000) 1 copy
The Writing of Fiction 1 copy
Ethan Frome & Summer (04) by Wharton, Edith - Knight, Denise D - Lauter, Paul [Paperback (2003)] 1 copy
“Roman Fever” 1 copy
14 Great Novels 1 copy
Świat zabawy 1 copy
the mother 1 copy
Edith Wharton: Vol 1. Collected Stories:1891-1910 (Library of America) by Edith Wharton (2014-10-16) 1 copy
WHARTON: NOVELS 1 copy
Wiek niewinnosci 1 copy
Ethan frome and stories 1 copy
Siostry Bunner 1 copy
Pienezza di vita 1 copy
Καλοκαίρι 1 copy
MOSHA E PAFAJESISE 1 copy
The Writing of Fiction 1 copy
Confessions Of A Novelist 1 copy
glimpse of the moon 1 copy
Wharton Short Stories 1 copy
Wiek niewinnosci 1 copy
L'incidente 1 copy
Falso Amanhecer 1 copy
Cuentos 1 copy
The Works of Edith Wharton: The Age of Innocence, The Touchstone, The Valley of Decision, Sanctuary, The House of Mirth… (2012) 1 copy
El diagnóstico 1 copy
A book of quotations 1 copy
Gli infelicissimi 1 copy
Wharton Edith 1 copy
Η γεροντοκόρη 1 copy
A Bottle of Perrier 1 copy
DIEU D'AMOUR 1 copy
Viaggio in Francia 1 copy
Sussurros de Verão 1 copy
Mother's Recompense 1 copy
Wharton, Edith Archive 1 copy
An Old New York Collection: Four Novels by Edith Wharton: The Touchstone, The House of Mirth, The Custom of the… (2020) 1 copy
Sorelle Bunner 1 copy
Der Unfall 1 copy
Associated Works
American Poetry: The Twentieth Century, Volume One: Henry Adams to Dorothy Parker (2000) — Contributor — 436 copies
American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from Poe to the Pulps (2009) — Contributor — 262 copies
The Graphic Canon, Vol. 3: From Heart of Darkness to Hemingway to Infinite Jest (2013) — Contributor — 146 copies
The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce (2010) — Contributor — 144 copies
An American Album: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Harper's Magazine (2000) — Contributor — 131 copies
Four Stories by American Women: Rebecca Harding Davis, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Sarah OrneJewett, Edith Wharton… (1990) — Contributor — 124 copies
Writing Women's Lives: An Anthology of Autobiographical Narratives by Twentieth-Century American Women Writers (1994) — Contributor — 121 copies
Writing New York: A Literary Anthology (Expanded 10th-Anniversary Edition) (2008) — Contributor — 93 copies
The Glorious American Essay: One Hundred Essays from Colonial Times to the Present (2020) — Contributor — 81 copies
The Raven and the Monkey's Paw: Classics of Horror and Suspense from the Modern Library (1998) — Author, some editions — 64 copies
Lovers & Other Monsters: A Collection of Amorous Tales of Fantasy, Old and New (1992) — Contributor — 57 copies
The Web She Weaves: An Anthology of Mystery and Suspense Stories by Women (1983) — Contributor — 52 copies
The Lifted Veil: The Book of Fantastic Literature by Women 1800-World War II (1806) — Contributor — 42 copies
Isaac Asimov Presents Tales of the Occult: Stories by H.G. Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling, Edith Wharton,… (1989) — Contributor — 41 copies
There is a Graveyard That Dwells in Man: More Strange Fiction and Hallucinatory Tales (2020) — Contributor — 41 copies
The Mysterious Bookshop Presents the Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2023 (2023) — Contributor — 28 copies
Mistresses of Mystery: Two Centuries of Suspense Stories by the Gentle Sex (1973) — Contributor — 27 copies
Weird Women: Volume 2: 1840-1925: Classic Supernatural Fiction by Groundbreaking Female Writers (2) (2021) — Contributor — 26 copies
Three Classics by American Women: The Awakening; Ethan Frome; O Pioneers! (1990) — some editions — 25 copies
Classic American women writers: Sarah Orne Jewett, Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton, Willa Cather (Perennial library ; P 502) (1980) — Contributor — 25 copies
The Tavern Lamps Are Burning: Literary Journeys through Six Regions and Four Centuries of New York State (1964) — Contributor — 19 copies
Femmes de Siècle: Stories from the 90s - Women Writing at the End of Two Centuries (1992) — Contributor — 17 copies
Haunted Women: The Best Supernatural Tales by American Women Writers (1985) — Contributor — 15 copies
Masters of the Macabre: An Anthology of Mystery, Horror, and Detection (1975) — Contributor — 13 copies
Great American Ghost Stories: Chilling Tales by Poe, Bierce, Hawthorne and Others (2008) — Contributor — 10 copies
Representative American Short Stories — Contributor — 5 copies
The Best from Cosmopolitan — Contributor — 4 copies
Pulitzer Prize Winning Works Collection: One of Ours, His Family, Miss Lulu Bett, Cornhuskers, Anna Christie, Alice… (2013) 4 copies
Wives and Lovers — Contributor — 3 copies
A Reader for Writers — Contributor — 2 copies
Prize stories from Collier's, 5 volumes — Contributor — 1 copy
Contos Dramáticos — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Wharton, Edith
- Legal name
- Jones, Edith Newbold (birth)
- Birthdate
- 1862-01-24
- Date of death
- 1937-08-11
- Burial location
- Cimetière des Gonards, Versailles, France
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- New York, New York, USA
- Place of death
- Saint-Brice-sous-Forêt, Val-d'Oise, France
- Cause of death
- stroke
- Places of residence
- New York, New York, USA
Lenox, Massachusetts, USA
Paris, France
Hyères, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France
Saint-Brice-sous-Forêt, Val-d'Oise, France - Education
- at home
- Occupations
- novelist
short story writer
travel writer
landscape architect
designer - Relationships
- Clark, Colin (godson)
Farrand, Beatrix (niece)
Fullerton, William Morton (lover)
Wharton, Edward Robbins (ex-husband) - Awards and honors
- Chevalier of the Legion of Honour (1916)
nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature (1927, 1928, 1930)
American Academy of Arts and Letters (Literature | 1926)
Pulitzer Prize in Literature (1921)
National Women's Hall of Fame (1996) - Short biography
- Edith Wharton was born Edith Newbold Jones to a wealthy New York family. She spent her early childhood in Europe, where she developed a gift for languages and a deep appreciation for art, architecture and literature.
She was educated by governesses and by her own reading, and began writing at any early age. Verses, her first volume of poems, was published privately when she was 16. In 1885, she married Edward "Teddy" Wharton, 12 years her senior. In 1897, with Ogden Codman, Jr., an architect friend, she published her first major book, The Decoration of Houses (1897). A few years later, she bought 113-acres in Lenox, Massachusetts, then designed and built The Mount, a country home to meet her needs as a designer, gardener, hostess, and writer. During the next 10 years at The Mount, she wrote some of her greatest works, including The House of Mirth (1905) and Ethan Frome (1911). After a divorce from Teddy Wharton in 1913, she moved permanently to France. During World War I, she did social reform and humanitarian work, including establishing schools for refugee children, for which she received the Legion of Honor.
Members
Discussions
Folio Archives 267: The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton 1990 in Folio Society Devotees (April 2022)
Found: Wharton-esque Americans in Italy in Name that Book (April 2022)
December 2021: Edith Wharton in Monthly Author Reads (January 2022)
Group Read, June 2021: The Glimpses of the Moon in 1001 Books to read before you die (July 2021)
August: Reading Edith Wharton in Monthly Author Reads (June 2018)
March Read: Edith Wharton in Virago Modern Classics (May 2017)
1913: Wharton - The Custom of the Country in Literary Centennials (February 2014)
The Age of Innocence: Chapters 25-34 in 75 Books Challenge for 2011 (November 2011)
***Group Read: The Age of Innocence in The Highly-Rated Book Group (October 2011)
The Age of Innocence: Chapters 14-24 in 75 Books Challenge for 2011 (October 2011)
The Age of Innocence: Chapters 1-13 in 75 Books Challenge for 2011 (October 2011)
The AGE OF INNOCENCE Group Read: Main Thread in 75 Books Challenge for 2011 (October 2011)
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Statistics
- Works
- 379
- Also by
- 182
- Members
- 55,872
- Popularity
- #265
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 1,279
- ISBNs
- 3,498
- Languages
- 31
- Favorited
- 364
Media: Audio
Reader:Grace Conklin
Length: `6 hours
The most positive thing I can say about this short novel is that it’s well-crafted. Other than that, it’s Wharton at her melodramatic best.
The story has been described as an American Madame Bovary . I can understand why. However I’d throw in a dash of Lolita with a sprinkling of Mansfield Park and a Mandelay zest to give the full offering.
A young child Chastity is moved from a nasty impoverished area to small town by the local orator Mr Royall, who falls in love with her when she reaches adolescence. Chastity meanwhile meets a beguiling young architect Lucas Harney who she falls for after a brief meeting on a dusty road. Harney is infatuated by her beauty but sees her as a sex object and beds her as they used to say back in the day.
They get around in a horse-drawn carriage but unlike Emma Bovary Chastity is true to her name and makes Harney wait until he’s set up a spot in the woods where they can indulge in stillness and privacy.
The older, much older Mr Royall tries to warn Chastity, but he’s done his dash with the young woman by coming onto her once, making a sexual advance when she was younger. She has this act and his subsequent well-deserved shame as an unmentioned bargaining point and she has the power over the man who regrets forever his stupid testosterone-filled move three years before.
True to Royalll’s word, young Harney abandons ship, leaving Chastity to her memories of his love-lust, and the glimpse he gave her of the higher things in life. Architecture and grammar and such.
What to do? He’s gone, she’s preggers and Royall has a few more attempts at winning her - well not back - she despises him - “her hand”.
Meanwhile her mother who is said to be a slut is dying in the hills. Anything more would spoil the tale so I’ll leave the plot there. There are some nice scenes of the wilderness around the small town, and of the wheat fields where Chastity throws herself down in despair over her love.
The characters are a bit of a mishmash but maybe I was getting confused between Royall and Hubert and Lord Mansfield and Maxime. Harney is an easier take. He’s Léon the law clerk from Lyons. And Chastity? More Emma or Fanny Price than Hardy’s Tess or Rebecca. I was having trouble with Chastity’s mood-swings but perhaps it was just her name that was throwing me off.
I gave Summer a 3 for its wordcraft and the bush scenes and the way the story magically picks up pace toward the end. Will Mr Royall prove to be the successful older suitor? You will need to read the book, a must for young unwary female lovers, and for lovers of Wharton.… (more)