Edith Wharton

An immensely popular bestseller upon its publication in 1905, The House of Mirth was Edith Wharton's first great novel. Set among the elegant brownstones of New York City and opulent country houses like gracious Bellomont on the Hudson, the novel creates a satiric portrayal of what Wharton herself called "a society of irresponsib- le pleasure-seekers" with a precision comparable to that of Proust. And her brilliant and complex characterization of...

A classic work left unfinished by Edith Wharton has been brought to a successful completion using Wharton's own synopsis, as it chronicles the fortunes of five rich New York girls who travel to England in search of titled husbands.

"Wharton's sly and delicious novel about the ambitious social ascent of Undine Spragg, now in a Penguin Vitae edition, with a foreword by Sofia Coppola"-- Provided by publisher. "Considered by many to be her masterpiece, Edith Wharton’s second full-length work is a scathing yet personal examination of the exploits and follies of the modern upper class. As she unfolds the story of Undine Spragg, from New York to Europe, Wharton affords us a detailed...

A comic, bittersweet novel about the misadventures of a bachelor and a band of precocious children. The seven Wheater children, stepbrothers and stepsisters grown weary of being shuttled from parent to parent are eager for their parents' latest reconciliation to last. A chance meeting between the children and the solitary 46-year old Martin Boyne leads to a series of unforgettable encounters.

"Mrs. Pauline Manford is a busy woman, as any upstanding New York society lady should be. Parties, dinners, charity luncheons, balls, and strict exercise and beauty regimes fill her daily schedule to an exhausting degree. Her secretary can hardly keep up. To manage a modern household is to hold the family together, staying on trend with all things helpful, but her daughter has horrible taste in married men, her ex-husband is unwell, and her son is...

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...

A young woman is caught between two mothers in 1850s Manhattan in this novella by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Age of Innocence. Tina is a girl torn between two women. There is her adoptive mother, Delia Ralston, a member of one of Manhattan's ruling families, and then there is Charlotte Lovell, the woman who gave her up so that she could have a chance at a better life. As Tina grows up, the tensions between Delia and Charlotte begin...

An artist watches his son go to the frontlines of WWI in this novel from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth. Paris, 1914. An American painter living abroad, John Campton is excited to spend a month traveling with his son George. But their plans are cut short when war breaks out across Europe. Raised by his mother in the United States, George is American through-and-through. But he is technically a...

Described by literary critic Robert Morss Lovett as "a novelist of civilization, absorbed in the somewhat mechanical operations of civilization, absorbed in the somewhat mechanical operations of culture, preoccupied with the upper ('and inner') class," Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edith Wharton (1862-1937) also wrote superbly crafted works of short fiction. The seven stories in this excellent collection demonstrate the author's ability to create...

Xingu is a short story about a woman's luncheon club devised as a means of keeping its members up to date with the latest goings on in the world. After the glamorous novelist Osric Dane stuns the other women with her bored disposition and blunt questions, the conversation is left stale – that is, until the previously quiet Mrs. Roby mentions the topic of Xingu. Thought mad by the rest of her peers, Mrs. Roby is suddenly engaged by a nowinquisitive...