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Edith Wharton (1862–1937)

Author of The Age of Innocence

379+ Works 55,872 Members 1,279 Reviews 364 Favorited

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

The Age of Innocence (1920) 13,811 copies
The House of Mirth (1905) 9,658 copies
Ethan Frome (1911) — Author — 9,441 copies
The Custom of the Country (1913) 2,368 copies
Summer (1917) 2,121 copies
The Buccaneers (1937) 1,313 copies
The Glimpses of the Moon (1922) 1,000 copies
The Reef (1912) 817 copies
Old New York (1924) 676 copies
The Children (1928) 489 copies
Twilight Sleep (1927) 384 copies
Madame de Treymes (1907) 379 copies
The Mother's Recompense (1925) 348 copies
The Decoration of Houses (1897) 318 copies
The Touchstone (1900) 312 copies
Ethan Frome / Summer (1982) 301 copies
Bunner Sisters (1916) 283 copies
Collected Stories 1911-1937 (2001) 260 copies
Collected Stories 1891-1910 (2001) 247 copies
In Morocco (1919) 238 copies
Short Stories (1994) 222 copies
Hudson River Bracketed (1929) 218 copies
The Writing of Fiction (1925) 178 copies
The Fruit of the Tree (1907) 178 copies
The Reckoning (1600) 160 copies
The Old Maid (1924) 154 copies
Sanctuary (1903) 148 copies
A son at the front (1923) 145 copies
Souls Belated (1899) 120 copies
The Gods Arrive (1932) 117 copies
The Letters of Edith Wharton (1910) 113 copies
Xingu (1916) 111 copies
Ghosts (1937) 106 copies
Afterward [short fiction] (1910) 92 copies
Tales of Men and Ghosts (1910) 84 copies
The Valley of Decision (1902) 74 copies
Italian Backgrounds (1905) 73 copies
The Edith Wharton omnibus (1978) 73 copies
The Cruise of the Vanadis (2004) 47 copies
The Greater Inclination (1899) 41 copies
The Letters [short story] (1995) 38 copies
The Marne (1918) 36 copies
New Year's Day (1924) 35 copies
The Vice of Reading (1900) 32 copies
Edith Wharton Reader (1965) 32 copies
Crucial Instances (1901) 31 copies
The Eyes (1994) 29 copies
21 Essential American Short Stories (2011) — Contributor — 24 copies
The World Over (1936) 22 copies
The Works of Edith Wharton (1987) 22 copies
Cuentos inquietantes (2015) 21 copies
Here and Beyond (1926) 18 copies
The Other Two (1994) 18 copies
Xingu and Other Stories (1916) 18 copies
Kerfol (1916) 17 copies
The Book of the Homeless (1916) 16 copies
Roman Fever [short story] (2014) 15 copies
Certain People (1930) 13 copies
Coming Home (2011) 13 copies
The Choice (2010) 12 copies
Human Nature (1933) 12 copies
Pomegranate Seed (1993) 10 copies
The Long Run (2004) 10 copies
The Old Maid [1939 film] (1939) — Author — 9 copies
An Edith Wharton treasury (1950) 8 copies
Her Son (1995) 8 copies
Une affaire de charme (2002) 7 copies
Best of Women's Short Stories, Volume 3 (2007) — Contributor — 7 copies
The Lady's Maid's Bell (2004) 7 copies
Autres Temps (2011) 7 copies
Bewitched [Short Story] (2017) 6 copies
Mr. Jones (2008) 6 copies
The Bolted Door (2004) 6 copies
Les Metteurs en scène (2001) 5 copies
The Pelican {short story} (1996) 5 copies
The Mission of Jane (2004) 4 copies
Escribir ficción (2012) 4 copies
BACK TO COMPOSTELA (2011) 4 copies
The Fullness of Life (2013) 4 copies
Estate (1993) 4 copies
Meistererzählungen. (1994) 3 copies
Mrs. Manstey's View (2013) 3 copies
After Holbein (2015) 3 copies
Vârsta inocenţei (2011) 3 copies
A Journey (2014) 3 copies
Seltsame Ehegeschichten (1992) 3 copies
Encanto y compañía (1900) 3 copies
Criticar ficción (2012) 3 copies
A Coward (2015) 3 copies
TREASURY (1950) 2 copies
Preuve d'amour (2005) 2 copies
Xingn??? 2 copies
Fantasmi (2022) 2 copies
Estiu (2023) 2 copies
El vici de la lectura (2020) 2 copies
La sombra de la duda (2019) 2 copies
The Moving Finger (1996) 2 copies
Gruselkabinett: Verhext (2010) 2 copies
Verão 2 copies
Unheimliche Geschichten (1991) 2 copies
Parson's Pleasure / The Other Two (2010) — Contributor — 2 copies
SUFLETUL OMULUI 2 copies
Keyif Evi (2010) 2 copies
Pedra de Toque, A (2015) 1 copy
Iki Kiz Kardes (2013) 1 copy
Il giorno dei morti (2011) 1 copy
OBSTACOLE 1 copy
the mother 1 copy
Sanctuary (2017) 1 copy
Eté - Collector (2022) 1 copy
L'incidente 1 copy
Una dona soltera (2023) 1 copy
A TUSCAN SHRINE (1895) 1 copy
APRIL SHOWERS (1900) 1 copy
Twelve poems (1926) 1 copy
Edith Wharton's Verse (2008) 1 copy
Cuentos 1 copy
The Angel at the Grave (2014) 1 copy
The refugees (1995) 1 copy
The Scribner Treasury (1953) 1 copy
El día del entierro (2013) 1 copy
The Verdict (2013) 1 copy
Piedra de toque (2011) 1 copy
DIEU D'AMOUR 1 copy
Voyages au front (2018) 1 copy
The Wharton Gothics (2020) 1 copy
Falsa partenza (2019) 1 copy
Storie di New York (2016) 1 copy
Pelikan (2016) 1 copy
Der Unfall 1 copy

Associated Works

50 Great Short Stories (1952) — Contributor — 1,242 copies
Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories (1983) — Contributor — 1,228 copies
The Crack-Up (1945) — Contributor — 910 copies
The Oxford Book of American Short Stories (1992) — Contributor — 743 copies
The Dark Descent (1987) — Contributor — 719 copies
Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural (1944) — Contributor — 637 copies
The Book of Fantasy (1940) — Contributor — 601 copies
Great American Short Stories: From Hawthorne to Hemingway (2004) — Contributor — 587 copies
The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories (1986) — Contributor — 541 copies
Black Water: The Book of Fantastic Literature (1983) — Contributor — 499 copies
Great American Short Stories (1957) — Contributor — 493 copies
American Gothic Tales (1996) — Contributor — 457 copies
Fifty Great American Short Stories (1965) — Contributor — 430 copies
Great Short Stories by American Women (1996) — Contributor — 408 copies
Women & Fiction: Short Stories By and About Women (1975) — Contributor — 365 copies
Ghostly: A Collection of Ghost Stories (2015) — Contributor — 336 copies
Americans in Paris: A Literary Anthology (2004) — Contributor — 297 copies
A Treasury of Short Stories (1947) — Contributor — 291 copies
Writing New York: A Literary Anthology (1998) — Contributor — 275 copies
The Treasury of American Short Stories (1981) — Contributor — 267 copies
Maiden Voyages: Writings of Women Travelers (1993) — Contributor — 191 copies
Stories to Remember {complete} (1956) — Contributor — 181 copies
Love Letters (1996) — Contributor — 180 copies
Sixteen Short Novels (1985) — Contributor — 174 copies
The Big Book of Classic Fantasy (2019) — Contributor — 166 copies
American Religious Poems: An Anthology (2006) — Contributor — 162 copies
The Age of Innocence [1993 film] (1993) — Original book — 157 copies
Vampires, Wine, and Roses (1997) — Contributor — 155 copies
New York Stories (Everyman's Pocket Classics) (2011) — Contributor, some editions — 152 copies
Murder & Other Acts of Literature (1997) — Contributor — 147 copies
The Virago Book of Ghost Stories (2006) — Contributor — 138 copies
The Saturday Evening Post Treasury (1954) — Contributor — 137 copies
An Anthology of Famous American Stories (1953) — Contributor — 137 copies
Chilling Horror Short Stories (2016) — Contributor — 136 copies
The Mammoth Book of Modern Ghost Stories (2007) — Contributor — 133 copies
Stories to Remember, Volume II (1956) — Contributor — 126 copies
The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories (1984) — Contributor — 122 copies
The Persephone Book of Short Stories (2012) — Contributor — 119 copies
The Penguin Book of Women's Humour (1996) — Contributor — 117 copies
Chilling Ghost Short Stories (2015) — Cover artist — 114 copies
The Lifted Veil: Women's 19th Century Stories (2005) — Contributor — 113 copies
Haunted America: Star-Spangled Supernatural Stories (1990) — Contributor — 111 copies
The Scribner Treasury: 22 Classic Tales (1952) — Contributor — 99 copies
Norton Introduction to the Short Novel (1982) — Contributor, some editions — 98 copies
American Short Stories (1976) — Contributor, some editions — 95 copies
American Fantastic Tales: Boxed Set (2009) — Contributor — 92 copies
The American Fantasy Tradition (2002) — Contributor — 89 copies
Famous Ghost Stories (A Watermill Classic) (1980) — Contributor — 82 copies
The Penguin Book of Erotic Stories by Women (1995) — Contributor — 80 copies
The Oxford Book of Travel Stories (1996) — Contributor — 74 copies
Great Vampire Stories (1992) — Contributor — 71 copies
Bedside Book of Famous American Stories (1936) — Contributor — 71 copies
The Oxford Book of Twentieth-Century Ghost Stories (1996) — Contributor — 70 copies
The Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories by Women (2012) — Contributor — 70 copies
The Uncanny Reader: Stories from the Shadows (2015) — Contributor — 68 copies
Haunted House Short Stories (Gothic Fantasy) (2019) — Contributor — 67 copies
Children of the Night (2007) — Author — 66 copies
Nightshade: 20th Century Ghost Stories (1999) — Contributor — 64 copies
A Fabulous Formless Darkness (1991) — Contributor — 64 copies
Love Stories (1983) — Contributor — 60 copies
65 Great Tales of the Supernatural (1979) — Contributor — 59 copies
The Vintage Book of American Women Writers (2011) — Contributor — 56 copies
The Second Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories (1966) — Contributor — 55 copies
Infinite Riches (1993) — Contributor — 54 copies
The Secret Self 2: Short Stories by Women (1987) — Contributor — 53 copies
Reading for Pleasure (1957) — Contributor — 51 copies
The Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories 2 (1656) — Contributor — 50 copies
The Mists from Beyond (1993) — Contributor — 50 copies
The House of Mirth [2000 film] (2001) — Original novel — 49 copies
The Norton Book Of Ghost Stories (1994) — Contributor — 49 copies
The Best American Mystery Stories of the 19th Century (2014) — Contributor — 49 copies
Manhattan Noir 2: The Classics (2008) — Contributor — 48 copies
The Ultimate Halloween (2001) — Contributor — 47 copies
The Experience of the American Woman (1978) — Contributor — 46 copies
Masters of the Modern Short Story (1945) — Contributor — 46 copies
An Omnibus of 20th Century Ghost Stories (1989) — Contributor — 45 copies
The Haunted Library: Classic Ghost Stories (2016) — Contributor — 41 copies
Tales from the Dead of Night (2013) — Contributor — 40 copies
A Quarto of Modern Literature (1935) — Contributor — 39 copies
Anthology of Fear 20 Haunting Stories for Winter Nights (1988) — Contributor — 37 copies
Some Things Fierce and Fatal (1971) — Contributor — 35 copies
XII Twelve Short Novels (1961) — Contributor — 34 copies
Round the Christmas Fire: Festive Stories (2013) — Contributor — 34 copies
Medusa's Daughters (2020) — Contributor — 34 copies
Mothers and Daughters: An Anthology (1998) — Contributor — 33 copies
Midnight Specials (1977) — Contributor — 33 copies
The Secret Self: A Century of Short Stories by Women (1995) — Contributor — 33 copies
American Gothic Short Stories (Gothic Fantasy) (2019) — Contributor — 32 copies
Rediscoveries: American Short Stories by Women, 1832-1916 (1994) — Contributor — 32 copies
Bodies of the Dead and Other Great American Ghost Stories (1995) — Contributor — 31 copies
Classic Ghost Stories: Spooky Tales to Read at Christmas (2017) — Contributor — 29 copies
Night Shadows: Twentieth-Century Stories of the Uncanny (2001) — Contributor — 29 copies
Stories for the Dead of Night (1957) — Contributor — 28 copies
Footsteps in the Dark: Short Stories (2020) — Contributor — 27 copies
American gothic : An anthology 1787–1916 (1999) — Contributor — 26 copies
The Buccaneers [1995 TV mini series] (2006) — Original book — 26 copies
The Second Persephone Book of Short Stories (2019) — Contributor — 25 copies
The Ninth Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories (1973) — Contributor — 23 copies
Spectral Sounds: Unquiet Tales of Acoustic Weird (2022) — Contributor — 23 copies
Women's Friendships: A Collection of Short Stories (1991) — Contributor — 23 copies
Eight Short Novels (1967) — Contributor — 22 copies
Studies in Fiction (1965) — Contributor — 22 copies
Unforgettable Ghost Stories by Women Writers (2008) — Contributor — 19 copies
Fiction International 22: Pornography & Censorship (1992) — Contributor — 16 copies
The Fireside Book of Ghost Stories (1947) — Contributor — 16 copies
Lost Souls Short Stories (Gothic Fantasy) (2018) — Contributor — 16 copies
Enter At Your Own Risk: Fires and Phantoms (2012) — Contributor — 16 copies
Back from the Dead (1991) — Contributor — 16 copies
Ethan Frome [1993 film] (1993) — Original novel; Author, some editions — 15 copies
Terrifying Ghosts Short Stories (Gothic Fantasy) (2021) — Contributor — 14 copies
Love Stories: Classic Tales of Romance (2010) — Contributor — 13 copies
The Great Modern American Stories: An Anthology (1920) — Contributor — 10 copies
Witches' Brew: Horror and Supernatural Stories by Women (1984) — Contributor — 10 copies
Tales of the Undead: Vampires and Visitants (1947) — Contributor, some editions — 9 copies
Uncanny Tales 3 (1975) — Contributor — 9 copies
Evergreen Stories (1998) — Contributor — 5 copies
Classic Women's Literature (2001) — Contributor — 5 copies
Representative American Short Stories — Contributor — 5 copies
The Joy of Living (1902) — Translator, some editions — 5 copies
The Sleeping and the Dead (1963) — Contributor — 5 copies
The Anthology of Love and Romance (1994) — Contributor — 4 copies
The Best from Cosmopolitan — Contributor — 4 copies
Best of Women's Short Stories, Volume I (2005) — Contributor — 4 copies
Wives and Lovers — Contributor — 3 copies
Erotica: racconti di amore e sesso al femminile (1992) — Author — 3 copies
Wigilia Pełna Duchów (2019) — Contributor — 3 copies
A Reader for Writers — Contributor — 2 copies
Bukcase I (2005) 2 copies
Representative Modern Short Stories (1929) — Contributor — 2 copies
The Age of Innocence [1934 film] (2011) — Original book — 2 copies
Prize stories from Collier's, 5 volumes — Contributor — 1 copy
Contos Dramáticos — Contributor — 1 copy
Virginia's Sisters: An anthology of women's writing (2023) — Contributor — 1 copy

Tagged

1001 (267) 1001 books (283) 19th century (446) 20th century (944) America (237) American (1,177) American fiction (276) American literature (2,078) anthology (1,774) classic (1,593) classic literature (243) classics (1,951) ebook (369) Edith Wharton (458) fantasy (298) fiction (8,752) ghost stories (341) ghosts (274) historical fiction (293) horror (910) Kindle (416) Library of America (431) literature (1,648) marriage (230) New England (257) New York (776) New York City (322) non-fiction (284) novel (1,121) own (339) poetry (250) read (657) romance (403) short stories (2,801) society (219) to-read (3,342) travel (230) unread (456) USA (346) women (340)

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)

Reviews

The Living Ain’t Easy

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.
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kjuliff | 72 other reviews | Mar 15, 2024 |
kind of meandering and tedious at times but at the same time a great book that now that i have finished and can look back on is even more enjoyable
 
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highlandcow | 212 other reviews | Mar 13, 2024 |
I tend to live in a book-centered world so when I learn of a book or author that intrigues me, I immediately conduct a search and start tagging away for future reading. I’m confident that is exactly how some of Edith Wharton’s novels ended up on my tagged list for my local library. I am new to her writing and wasn’t sure where to begin. I read that Ethan Frome is a reader favorite and it was only a four hour audiobook commitment. I decided this selection was a good place to start.

Immediately, I liked how the audiobook offered an introduction to Edith Wharton with a brief summary of her life and popular works. Ethan Frome is a poor man struggling to keep his family farm and mill operating. His wife, Zeena, is rather unpleasant and a hypochondriac. Her cousin, Mattie, comes to live with Ethan and Zeena to help with the farm and chores around the house due to Zeena’s illness. Mattie is a ray of sunshine to Ethan’s dreary life. As readers would expect, the two fall in love and are determined to be together. The story becomes climatic when the forces of them trying to be together are met with the forces determined to keep them apart. It’s a mesmerizing story with an unexpected ending.

I truly enjoyed this novella by Wharton and look forward to reading more of her work. My book tribe has advised me that her other books are quite different from this one concerning setting. I liked her writing style: her descriptions of scenes and ability to weave an interesting, timeless tale. I predict I will love her work regardless of setting.

I borrowed Ethan Frome in audiobook format from my local library through the Libby app. I absolutely loved the narration by Scott Brick! He is one of my favorite narrators.

I have photos and additional information that I'm unable to include here. It can all be found on my blog, in the link below.
A Book And A Dog
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NatalieRiley | Feb 25, 2024 |
8. The Mother’s Recompense by Edith Wharton
OPD: 1925
format: 181-page Kindle ebook
acquired: February 7 read: Feb 7-19 time reading: 8:27, 2.8 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: Classic fiction theme: Wharton
locations: then contemporary French Riviera and Manhattan
about the author: 1862-1937. Born Edith Newbold Jones on West 23rd Street, New York City. Relocated permanently to France after 1911.

This oddly bitter pill marks my 18th book by Edith Wharton. I didn't realize this. I've counted twice and still find myself doubting it.

Having said that, this is some of Wharton's best sustained prose, from a prose specialist. Especially in the early sections where Kate is in Europe and then when she first returns to New York after twenty years away, shocked at the changes in life, landscape and values; and uncomfortable at the isolated worlds where appearances she once ran from have been perfectly preserved.

But this is a tricky novel. Wharton loves to crush her readers, and here she confounds us. And I'm pretty sure it's intentional. Kate Clephane ran away from her husband and her baby daughter. Now her husband has passed away, and, after the death of her mother-in-law, the family matron, her daughter calls her home. So, she returns and finds herself welcome. A brief and beautiful happiness ensues, the lost mother found. But who is this Kate now playing mom? She seems unable to tell us, and unable to figure it out herself. And, dear reader, was it merely our Kate who was the problem, or does this past and present stifling and changing NY world have some responsibility?

I never did figure out Kate or what Wharton wanted me to make of her, or what Wharton was doing to me, the reader. But I enjoyed experiencing it. This later Wharton is a good one.

2024:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/358760#8437761
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dchaikin | 8 other reviews | Feb 24, 2024 |

Lists

100 (1)
Ghosts (1)
Read (1)
1910s (3)
AP Lit (3)
1920s (2)

Awards

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Associated Authors

R. W. B. Lewis Editor, Introduction, Contributor
Louis Auchincloss Introduction, Editor, Foreword
Anita Brookner Introduction, Editor
Elizabeth Ammons Introduction, Editor
Ernest Hemingway Contributor
Jonas Dovydenas Photographer
Edgar Allan Poe Contributor
William Faulkner Contributor
H. P. Lovecraft Contributor
Mark Twain Contributor
Herman Melville Contributor
Carl Stephenson Contributor
Jack London Contributor
Washington Irving Contributor
Frank Stockton Contributor
James Thurber Contributor
Stephen Crane Contributor
Shirley Jackson Contributor
Ambrose Bierce Contributor
O'Henry Contributor
Zoë Akins Author
Casey Robinson Screenplay
Louisa May Alcott Contributor
Kent Ljungquist Introduction
Stanley Applebaum General editor
Gore Vidal Introduction
Frederick Wegener Editor & Introduction
Barbara Leigh-Hunt Narrator, Contributor
Hal B. Wallis Producer
Max Steiner Composer
Saki Contributor
Wilkie Collins Contributor
Marcel Proust Contributor
Cynthia Griffin Wolff Introduction, Editor
Gabrielle Bordwin Cover designer
Marilyn French Introduction, Afterword
Elaine Showalter Editor, Introduction
Candace Waid Introduction, Contributor
Tommaso Pisanti Editor, Introduction
Keith Carabine Series editor, Editor
Gerard Cheshire Contributor
Stephen Orgel Introduction, Editor
Diane Johnson Introduction
Lorna Raver Narrator
Harold Bloom Introduction
Matthew Woodson Illustrator
Romà Ribera Cover artist
Alan Munro Narrator
Maureen Howard Introduction
Stephen Shore Photographer
William Lyon Phelps Introduction
Flo Gibson Narrator
E. M. Forster Introduction
Dick Hill Narrator
Mary Sarah Narrator
Raver Lorna Narrator
Pietro Negri Translator
Penelope Lively Introduction
Phoebe Judge Narrator
Brenda Dayne Narrator
Nina Bawden Introduction
A. B. Wenzell Illustrator
Luciana Pirè Translator
Janet Beer Editor
Anna Fields Narrator
Edmond Aman-Jean Cover artist
Eleanor Bron Narrator
Pamela Scott Wilkie Cover artist
Joseph Bartelli Illustrator
John Twachtman Cover artist
Greti Ducci Translator
C M Hébert Narrator
Edith Peel Editor
L. Augelini Translator
E H Van Deusen Contributor
Jüri Kaarma Kujundaja.
Djuke Houweling Translator
Joni Jacobs Cover designer
Charlotte Gerlings Introduction
Anita Shreve Foreword
Richard Thomas Translator
Gela Pez Translator
Joseph Tomanek Cover Art
E. Dal Fabbro Traduttore
Bruce Rogers Designer
Taciser Belge Translator
Scott Brick Narrator
Paul E. Kennedy Cover designer
Helen T. Munn Foreword
Yuan Shi Illustrator
Mary Flanagan Introduction
Michael Heß Illustrator
Judith Fryer Contributor
Kathryn Delaney Cover designer
Marcella Hannau Translator
Emily Hutchinson Abridged edition by
Jim Killavey Narrator
Tiziana Lo Porto Translator
Lucio Angelini Translator
Terje Kuusik Toimetaja.
Elisabetta Rasy Introduction
Carroll D. Wright Contributor
Lionel Trilling Contributor
Alfred Kazin Afterword
Susanna Moore Afterword
Bernard DeVoto Introduction
Pamela Knights Introduction
Robin Peel Editor
Xavier Pàmies Translator
Charles Ziga Designer
William Hope Narrator
Pierre Leyris Traduction
Henry Varnum Poor Illustrator
Doris Grumbach Introduction
James McConnell Illustrator
Claudia Wenner Translator
Lev Raphael Contributor
Karin Suursalu Translator
Clifton Fadiman Introduction
Jennifer Basset Series Editor
Adam Sims Narrator
Jeffrey Brown Illustrator
Ángela Pérez Translator
Scott Marshall Contributor
Bernard De Voto Introduction
Vito Amoruso Introduction
Linda Wagner-Martin Introduction, Editor
A. Stevens Cover artist
Grace Conlin Narrator
Joss Barratt Cover artist
Janet Beer Goodwyn Introduction
Maggie Wadey Screenplay
Roxana Robinson Editor, Introduction
Mary Gordon Introduction
Penelope Farmer Introduction
Edwin Björkman Afterword
Geoffrey Walton Afterword
Gustaf Ankarcrona Cover artist
Elizabeth Strout Introduction
Seth Illustrator
Maxfield Parrish Illustrator
Yolanda Morató Introduction
Pilar Adón Translator
E. C. Peixotto Illustrator
Mari Devon Narrator

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