Product Description
A guide to the enigmatic author's life includes synopses ofher writings, explores the critical reception of her works,and discusses the important people in her life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Excellent resource
If you are interested in Edith Wharton, her novels, her friends, her influences, and the Gilded Age that she wrote about, then this Encyclopedia is a wonderful resource for you.

I refer to this Encyclopedia so often, that my copy has begun to get completely worn-out!

The photos in this book are in black and white, but that is actually fine with me, because as I see it, most Encyclopedia's photos are in black and white anyhow (eg: Brittania).

This Wharton Encyclopedia also cross-references well.
And on top of this, included in this Encyclopedia is a wonderful Bibliography.

As you can see by the various Sellers' listings, this is not an expensive Encyclopedia. Personally, I feel that this book is worth much more than the going rate.

Worth the money, for sure!

Great Overview
This book was a great help in writing my 10 page research paper on Edith Wharton.I really could not have done it without it!It was a great basic biography, and also offered critical views, which was great.However, buy a used copy.$55 is a little expensive for a book.I bought used and it was nearly new.Highly recommended!!

The definitive Wharton resource!
This book is amazing! It is a Wharton fan's dream! I was kindly sent this book by my dear friend in America and it has proved invaluable. As an English student, I will be writing my dissertation on the life and majorworks of this fantastic author, and this is exactly the kind of publicationthat will make the whole process not only easier, but enjoyable!

This isan excellent guide for Wharton fans and scholars alike. It comes with myfull reccomendation! Whether reading for pleasure or for academic purposes,it is a remarkable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Honeymoon trials
Edith Wharton won the Pulitzer in 1921, for her social romantic tragedy "Age of Innocence." What to do after a triumph like that?

Well, in Wharton's case, she went the opposite direction, with a gentle romance called "The Glimpses of the Moon." It's the cliched love-or-money storyline that's existed as long as love and money, but Wharton elevates it with some social satire and lushly sensual writing.

Nick Lansing and Susy Branch are young, attractive, clever, arty, and poor -- they are confidantes of the wealthy, but can't live like them. So Susy comes up with a scheme: they'll get married, and live for a year off the honeymoon gifts and guest houses -- and if either of them gets a better offer, they'll divorce immediately with no hard feelings.

All goes smoothly for the idyllic first months. But when staying in Venice, Nick finds that they are staying at a villa because Susy is helping the house's mistress meet up with her boytoy -- and that Susy's acid-tongued pal has just inherited a fortune. But despite their pact, Susy finds it increasingly difficult to imagine a life without Nick -- especially when he seems to be involved with a clever young archaeologist's daughter.

The story of "Glimpses of the Moon" is not the selling point of this onetime bestseller -- you can pretty much guess how it will turn out, and how many days the pact between Nick and Susy will last. In fact, it's kind of astonishing that Hollywood hasn't nabbed this one rather than the tragic "Ethan Frome" or the bittersweet "Age of Innocence."

But the beauty of "Glimpses of the Moon" is how it's presented -- Wharton's prose relaxes into a sensual feast of decayed villas, bright sunlight, rich colours and luxurious details. It slacks off as Nick and Susy's relationship deteriorates, but the first half is awash in beautiful imagery ("... a great white moth like a drifting magnolia petal"). And of course, we always have the overhanging symbolism of the moon.

And it wouldn't be a Wharton book without some social commentary -- in this case, about the idle wealthy eagerly snatching onto any trendy artist, illicit lover or amusement that will fill their empty days. And of course, the lesson that love should trump greed.

Wharton's knack for characterization doesn't hurt either -- Nick is a penniless artist hoping to keep this pact-marriage together, and Susy a social wit without many scruples, until she inadvertantly drives Nick away. The supporting characters could have a book devoted to each one as well -- the acid-tongued peer, a rather snotty young girl, and a desperate wealthy matron bouncing from one "toyboy" relationship to another.

"Glimpses of the Moon" is a simple boy-and-girl story, but with a clever social twist questioning what happens AFTER happily-ever-after. Romantic, sensual and sometimes tartly amusing. ... Read more

Product Description
This edition presents Wharton's two most controversial stories, which she considered inseperable, in one volume for the first time.Set in frigid New England, both deal with sexual awakening and appetite and their devastating consequences.This text includes newly commissioned notes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Tragic love
In a way, Edith Wharton was at her best in her novellas -- her stories are lean, taut and emotionally deep. That's what "Summer" and "Ethan Frome" have in common, as they look at love, sex, marriage and the conventions of the 1800s. Put together, these novellas are utterly fascinating.

"Ethan Frome" is the male half of a loveless marriage, with the fretful, fussy Zeena. Then Zeena's lovely cousin Mattie Silver comes to live with them, and she brings out a happier, more passionate side of Ethan. But when Mattie is sent away, Ethan must make a decision. He knows he can't stay in his horrible marriage, so will he run away with Mattie? Or will something worse happen?

"Summer" shocked the 1917 public, with its frank-for-its-time look at a young woman's sexual awakening. It takes place in the New England village of North Dormer, where the young librarian Charity lives. But when Charity falls in love with an upper-class young rake named Lucius, she finds herself pregnant and unmarried -- a destructive combination in the 1900s.

Edith Wharton gave unvarnished looks at social conventions throughout her career -- she doesn't judge, she just tells it how it was, whether she's talking about the Roaring 20s or the uptight Victorian era. Divorce was almost unthinkable, affairs scandalous if revealed, and women had the cards stacked against them in matters of love, marriage and sex.

Both novellas also display Wharton's talent for writing characters who were totally unlike her, especially working-class heroes. Charity is an uneducated, naive, rough-mannered young woman, while Ethan is... well, male. Neither is much like Wharton, but she gets inside their heads and makes them entirely believable.

Wharton's formal writing style is offset by the starkness of her stories -- if she took a hard look at Victorian social conventions, she didn't flinch from showing what happened to those that transgressed. (I'll give you a hint -- neither novella has a smooching-lovers-ride-off-into-the-sunset finale) It's realistic, but a bit depressing.

"Summer" and "Ethan Frome" are both tales of love doomed by social conventions, and also two of Wharton's best stories. Sad and beautiful, gripping and classic. ... Read more

Product Description
Best known for her novels depicting the stifling conformity and ceremoniousness of the upper-class New York society into which she was born, Edith Wharton also wrote brilliantly in many genres: essays, travel pieces, memoirs, and a variety of short stories. This unique collection provides a fresh look at Wharton's genius by including a generous sampling of her short stories, along with nonfiction, letters, excerpts from the novels The House of Mirth, The Reef, and The Age of Innocence, and Summer, reprinted in its entirety. Also included in this volume is an introduction by Linda Wagner-Martin, who examines the life and literary accomplishments of Edith Wharton, a chronology, notes, and bibliography.

Edited with an introduction by Linda Wagner-Martin. ... Read more

Product Description
The Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece of unfulfilled romance set against the backdrop of old New York.

THIS ENRICHED CLASSIC EDITION INCLUDES:

? A concise introduction that gives the reader important background information

? A chronology of the author's life and work

? A timeline of significant events that provides the book's historical context

? An outline of key themes and plot points to guide the reader's own interpretations

? Detailed explanatory notes

? Critical analysis, including contemporary and modern perspectives on the work

? Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and book group interaction

? A list of recommended related books and films to broaden the reader's experience ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Passion and the outsider
It was a glittering, sumptuous time when hypocrisy was expected, discreet infidelity tolerated, and unconventionality ostracized.

That is the Gilded Age, and nobody knew its hypocrises better than Edith Wharton.... and nobody portrayed them as well. "The Age of Innocence" is a trip back in time to the stuffy upper crust of "old New York," taking us through one respectable man's hopeless love affair with a beautiful woman -- and the life he isn't brave enough to have.

Newland Archer, of a wealthy old New York family, has become engaged to pretty, naive May Welland. But as he tries to get their wedding date moved up, he becomes acquainted with May's exotic cousin, Countess Ellen Olenska, who has returned home after dumping her cheating husband. At first, the two are just friends, but Newland becomes more and more entranced by the Countess' easy, free-spirited European charm.

After Newland marries May, the attraction to the mysterious Countess and her free, unconventional life becomes even stronger. He starts to rebel in little ways, but he's still mired in a 100% conventional marriage, job and life. Will he become an outcast and go away with the beautiful countess, or will he stick with May and the safe, dull life that he has condemned in others?

There's nothing too scandalous about "Age of Innocence" in a time when starlets acquire and discard boyfriends and husbands like old pantyhose -- it probably wasn't in the 1920s when it was first published. But then, this isn't a book about sexiness and steam -- it's part bittersweet romance, part social satire, and a look at what happens when human beings lose all spontaneity and passion.

Part of this is due to Wharton's portrayal of New York in the 1870s -- opulent, cultured, pleasant, yet so tied up in tradition that few people in it are able to really open up and live. It's a haze of ballrooms, gardens, engagements, and careful social rituals that absolutely MUST be followed, even if they have no meaning. It's a place "where the real thing was never said or done or even thought."

And Wharton writes distant, slightly mocking prose that outlines this sheltered little society. Her writing opens as slowly and beautifully as a rosebud, letting subtle subplots, poetic prose and powerful, hidden emotions drive the story. So don't be discouraged by the endless conversations about flowers, ballrooms, gloves and old family scandals that don't really matter anymore -- they are trappings to the story, and convey the stuffy life that Newland is struggling to escape.

In the middle of all this, Newland is a rather dull, intelligent young man who thinks he's unconventional. But he becomes more interesting as he struggles between his conscience and his longing for the Countess. And as "Age of Innocence" winds on, you gradually see that he doesn't truly love the Countess, but what she represents -- freedom from society and convention.

The other two angles of this love triangle are May and Ellen. May is (suitably) pallid and rather dull, though she shows some different sides in the last few chapters. And Ellen is a magnificent character -- alluring, mysterious, but also bewildered by New York's hostility to her ways. And she's even more interesting when you realize that she isn't trying to rebel, but simply being herself.

"Age of Innocence" is a subtle look at life in Gilded Age New York, telling the story of a man desperately in love with a way of life he hasn't got the courage to pursue. Exquisite in its details, painful in its beauty. ... Read more

Product Description
Beneath the polished surface of the genteel social environments most often delineated in Edith Wharton's fiction, readers observe characters competing fiercely for desirable mates, questing for social status and resources, and plotting ruthlessly to advance their relatives' fortunes in life. This book identifies these and other evolutionary issues central to Edith Wharton's fiction, demonstrating their significance in terms of character, setting, plot, and theme. Connections to existing Wharton criticism are made throughout the book, so that readers can see how an evolutionary perspective enriches, refutes, or reconfigures insights derived from other critical approaches. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An Engaging Read
Judith Saunders' book on Wharton is on the front line of a strongly emerging, and long-awaited, new movement in literary criticism affirming that literature has meaning and is a part of life.Saunders provides a rich and thorough treatment of seven works of fiction.She delves deeply into each one, exploring and discussing the characters' behavior and motives, society's demands and priorities, the age's constraints and exigencies, drawing all these out through the wide and exciting lens of biosocial literary theory. Plot contexts and character portraits are detailed enough to allow readers who have not picked up a piece of Wharton's fiction in years, or ever, to get right into the discussion.

Initially I knew virtually nothing about Darwinian theory except for the more common principles of evolution and adaptation, but I certainly didn't need to know any more than that to read Saunders' book.In fact, my rudimentary knowledge was enhanced through the persistent illustration of Adaptationist concepts in the actions and self-examination undertaken by Wharton's characters. The weaving of Darwinian terminology into discussion makes absorption of the material effortless.

Something else I found particularly appealing is that the chapters in Saunders' book can be read independently: everything a reader needs to understand about Darwinian theory is explained on the spot, in context. Thus one can read the book through from beginning to end, which is what I did, or selectively view a single work of fiction through the Darwinian lens.Whatever approach the reader takes, here's what I know --I can never read Wharton, or any other author for that matter, the same way again after understanding, through Saunders' work of exquisite scholarship, the principles of evolutionary biology pervasive in literature and in our lives.
... Read more

Product Description
I
I T rose for them-their honey-moon-over the
,vaters of a lake so famed as the scene of rolllantic
raptures that they were rather proud
of not having been afraid to choose it as the setting
of their own.
"It required a total lack of humour, or as great
a gift for it as ours, to risk the experiment," Susy
Lansing opined, as they hung over the inevitable
nlarble balustrade and watched their tutelary orb
roll its magic carpet across the 'waters to their
feet.
~ 'Yes-or the loan of Strefford's villa," her
husband emended, glancing upward through the
branches at a long lov patch of paleness to which
the lTIoonlight was beginning to give the form Qf a
white house-front.
~'Oh, come--when we'd five to choose from. At
least if you count the Chicago flat."
"So we had-you vonder!!' lIe laid his hand
on hers, and his touch renewed the sense of marvelling
exultation which the deliberate survey of
their adventure always roused. in her .... It
was characteristic

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mythology.

Forgotten Books' Classic Reprint Series utilizes the latest technology to regenerate facsimiles of historically important writings. Careful attention has been made to accurately preserve the original format of each page whilst digitally enhancing the difficult to read text. Read books online for free at http://www.forgottenbooks.org ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Does True Love Win?
Susy and her beau Nick have both grown up around rich people though their own families have lost their fortunes.Susy makes her way in the world flitting from invitation to invitation acting as an unpaid but rewarded assistant to her rich friends.Nick has dreams of making a living by his writing.They meet and fall in love but one rich matron from Susy's circle tells her, in effect, hands off of Nick because she has designs on him.Susy tells Nick they have to part and why but by then they've fallen too deeply for one another.They decide take a risk and get married with the caveat that if either of them has a chance to form a more remunerative partnership the other would agree to a divorce.By the 1920's divorce has become somewhat common place in their set.First though they promise one another a lovely wedding and at least a year of one another's company.They set out on their European honeymoon staying in first one rich friend's palazzo and then another's chateau having an exquisite time spending their wedding cheques.

As their mutual feelings deepen they both want to give the other more.But they can't.In her trying, Susy begins to seem grasping and amoral to Nick and he in turn feels ashamed he can't give her more either.He hates seeing her manipulate situations and people to try and get the best for him.Things completely fall apart when he catches her obligingly covering up their hostess's illicit affair.He means to leave for a few days to clear his head but in the mean time they both hear rumors about one another, add 2 and 2 and get 19.(Too bad they couldn't do this type of math with their fortunes!)I don't want to give too much away so I'll stop here.I love how Wharton keeps you guessing the outcome right up to the end.

If, like me, you've never heard of this title it's a shame because Wharton did a LOT of lovely writing beyond her better known classics such as "Age of Innocence", "House of Mirth", and "Ethan Fromm".In fact this and others of her books, "A Mother's Recompense" comes to mind, are even subtler and I want to even say more adult than her better known works.

'Unknown' Wharton title is almost as worthy as her best known
This book is not as well known as Wharton's THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, or THE HOUSE OF MIRTH, but I think it should be.

It's a very delicately told story of the beginning of a marriage between two people who've never looked honestly or closely at themselves or the way they've lived their lives, until they are forced to do so by circumstances that will quite possibly end their marriage.

GLIMPSES OF THE MOON has a surface similarity with THE HOUSE OF MIRTH in that the two protagonists, Susy and Nick Lansing, are both 'outsiders' in the society that they inhabit.Not unlike Lily Bart in THOM, Nick and Susy have a certain position in society although they have no money themselves, but live on the favor (and do favors for) their wealthy 'friends'.But, unlike Lily Bart, Susy and Nick don't get crushed out of existence by their 'benefactors'.They mutually but separately experience a path to self-knowledge and toward a better way of life.Ms. Wharton's description of Susy's journey to enlightenment resonated with me a little more than Nick's, but all in all, this is excellent reading.

Honeymoon trials
Edith Wharton won the Pulitzer in 1921, for her social romantic tragedy "Age of Innocence." What to do after a triumph like that?

Well, in Wharton's case, she went the opposite direction, with a gentle romance called "The Glimpses of the Moon." It's the cliched love-or-money storyline that's existed as long as love and money, but Wharton elevates it with some social satire and lushly sensual writing.

Nick Lansing and Susy Branch are young, attractive, clever, arty, and poor -- they are confidantes of the wealthy, but can't live like them. So Susy comes up with a scheme: they'll get married, and live for a year off the honeymoon gifts and guest houses -- and if either of them gets a better offer, they'll divorce immediately with no hard feelings.

All goes smoothly for the idyllic first months. But when staying in Venice, Nick finds that they are staying at a villa because Susy is helping the house's mistress meet up with her boytoy -- and that Susy's acid-tongued pal has just inherited a fortune. But despite their pact, Susy finds it increasingly difficult to imagine a life without Nick -- especially when he seems to be involved with a clever young archaeologist's daughter.

The story of "Glimpses of the Moon" is not the selling point of this onetime bestseller -- you can pretty much guess how it will turn out,and how many days the pact between Nick and Susy will last. In fact, it's kind of astonishing that Hollywood hasn't nabbed this one rather than the tragic "Ethan Frome" or the bittersweet "Age of Innocence."

But the beauty of "Glimpses of the Moon" is how it's presented -- Wharton's prose relaxes into a sensual feast of decayed villas, bright sunlight, rich colours and luxurious details. It slacks off as Nick and Susy's relationship deteriorates, but the first half is awash in beautiful imagery ("... a great white moth like a drifting magnolia petal"). And of course, we always have the overhanging symbolism of the moon.

And it wouldn't be a Wharton book without some social commentary -- in this case, about the idle wealthy eagerly snatching onto any trendy artist, illicit lover or amusement that will fill their empty days. And of course, the lesson that love should trump greed.

Wharton's knack for characterization doesn't hurt either -- Nick is a penniless artist hoping to keep this pact-marriage together, and Susy a social wit without many scruples, until she inadvertantly drives Nick away. The supporting characters could have a book devoted to each one as well -- the acid-tongued peer, a rather snotty young girl, and a desperate wealthy matron bouncing from one "toyboy" relationship to another.

"Glimpses of the Moon" is a simple boy-and-girl story, but with a clever social twist questioning what happens AFTER happily-ever-after. Romantic, sensual and sometimes tartly amusing.

"Doesn't our being together depend on what we get out of people?"
Set in the aftermath of World War I, this study of 1920s society, with its elements of social comedy and satire, follows Nick Lansing and his wife Susy, through the highest levels of European society.Though they have the credentials to be accepted, they are financially limited, always unsure where their next funds will come from. Nick and Susy have married for love, with the understanding that if either of them finds a more financially stable suitor with a long-term future, that each is free to dissolve the marriage. They spend their honeymoon year living in the empty European homes of their more affluent friends.

When they stay in the palazzo of Ellie Vanderlyn in Venice, early in the novel, Susy receives a note from Ellie asking her to mail four letters, one each week, to Ellie's absent husband Nelson, so that he will not know she is away.Confronted with this thorny problem, which she has been sworn not to reveal to Nick, Ellie agrees, knowing no way around the problem, since she and Nick depend on Ellie's hospitality.

It reveals no plot surprises to say that Susy's deception eventually undermines her superficial but loving relationship with Nick.Wounded by Susy's lack of trust and her deceit, Nick needs to get away.The separate comings-of-age of Nick and Susy occupy the bulk of the novel as each, still sharing the extravagant lifestyles of their friends, considers whether to honor the agreement to let the other person go if someone "better" comes along.

Wharton presents their dilemmas clearly--their desire to experience the "good life," their belief that they deserve to do so, the lengths they are willing to go to make it possible, the conflicts they face between their latent ethical sense and the realities of their lives, the belated discovery that each has the potential to support himself/herself, and the growing awareness that life offers many rewards that are not financial.

Filled with trenchant observations about society and the frivolous behavior of those committed to remaining part of it, Wharton's novel draws attention to the conflict between real feelings and pretensions and between real goals and social expectations, presaging the novels of Fitzgerald.A sophisticated and elegantly written study of aristocratic society in the twenties in Europe, this is not Wharton's most thoughtful novel, but it one of her best observed. n Mary Whipple

Love in the Gilded Age
THE GLIMPSES OF THE MOON by Edith Wharton is an incredibly readable, engaging novel, that is accessible, interesting and involving. While it's not at the level of her better known novels The Age of Innocence or The House of Mirth, it's quite worthwhile. Wharton wrote GLIMPSES in 1922, two years after winning the Pulitzer Prize for Innocence. (She was the first woman to win the prize.)

The premise of the book is that two society people from New York, Susy Branch and Nick Lansing, decide to marry. They are in love, but the twist is that their marriage is ostensibly a business deal: While they are socially connected, neither one of them has enough money to live the life of their peers. Because of this, they live off their friends' generosity and whims. They scheme to marry because with all the honeymoon gifts, money, precious items, and the subsequent lending of homes their friends will make to them for their honeymoon, they will be able to live the life they want for at least a year. They also agree that if either one of them finds a way to make a better match for him- or herself, they will willingly free each other from the marriage.

Their subsequent personal and physical journeys are the subject of the rest of the book, as they try to resolve themselves to their situations and look back on what they have together and how their future will play out.

It's hard to believe this book was written in 1922. The prose reads like a current novel, and Edith Wharton is, as always, deft at skewering the moral bankruptcy of the very rich at the same time she demonstrates a fundamental understanding of their world. Those caught between, like Susy and Nick, make fascinating studies as their characters grow toward or away from the light this lifestyle casts. Wharton also keenly portrays the very human behaviors of individuals on whom she concentrates, and shows both Susy and Nick as sympathetic and frustrating simultaneously to the reader as they each seek to come to terms with their options and their feelings toward each other in light of their current values. No one is really the hero or the anti-hero here. It seems in some ways to be a realistic portrayal of maturity and some growth, while also being a tale of the power of affluence and ease to corrupt and weaken.

As I wrote, this book is "lighter" than Mirth and Innocence, but it deserves to be read. Some aspects of it seem a little too tidy, but not completely unconvincing. Wharton is a master -- one of my favorite authors -- and this book demonstrates her abilities in a clean, straightforward story of two lovers and the impact of their community on their relationship, their values and their behaviors.
... Read more

Product Description
A modern edition of Edith Wharton's classic story of the adventures of neglected children. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Pity the Wheater children

This is Edith Wharton's commentary on the self-centered attitudes fostered by many of the post-WW I well-to-do, and the inability, despite good intentions, of her altruistic hero to do any good. The seven Wheater children, born of different parents, are shunted about from one parent to another, constantly living in hotels. Martin Boyne encounters them on a visit to Europe and becomes interested in their fates. He even thinks about adopting them, though Rose, his fiancee, is not thrilled by that idea. When Boyne falls head-over-heels for Judith, the oldest of the Wheater children, he breaks off his engagement. Half in love with Judith, half still wanting to "rescue" them all, he sails away, unable actually to do anything else. In a depressing ending, he comes back three years later and finds all the children have been separated and the youngest has died. He sees Judith at a dance, but hasn't the courage to speak to her.

Judith is one of Wharton's most interesting characters. Innocent, unassuming, and lacking experience, she is yet fresh and bold, and it's easy to see why Boyne falls for her. Where her satire could have been sharp, even scathing, Wharton has elected to use a more whimsical pen in portraying the Wheaters and their offspring. Her writing is crisp, though, especially the dialogue. The book was very popular when first published in 1928.

Mixed Bag
This tale of neglected, compelling children has several themes that, given the nature of the times, added an extra layer of tension to the reading.Martin Boyne, single, lonely and not particularly talented, discovers on an ocean voyage a bunch of biological and step brothers and sisters now all under the 'protection' of a reunited couple.The Wheatleys, wealthy, self-absorbed and decadent, offer little by way of security and hope. Boyne in his early 40's, soon takes on the role offamilyadvocate and unwittingly falls in love with the eldest girl, Judith, not yet 16.
There are deliciously unsuitable characters all trying, for all the wrong reasons to break up the struggling brood and equally as compelling nurses and nannies dedicated to their union and preservation. The cast includes a debauched Duke, a devout student of the modern psychoanalytic and freest theories for kids, a lion tamer and Hollywood actresses married to titles. The settings are European gems and the glamour oozes with emptiness.
The tale involves losses- inevitable in stories of kids and growing up and tends to drag on a bit. It is fascinating though, to wonder and wander with Wharton as she holds forth on her own beliefs about manners, modernity and the timeless dilemmas of 'bringing up babies.'
Atypical and undecided, but worthy.

Don't overlook this gem.
Some of Edith Wharton's better known works have been translated to the silver screen in recent years.Her lush descriptions and poignant, mannered conversations make for great screenplays.This book has those Wharton hallmarks, but it's doubtful that you'll see this story at a multiplex near you anytime soon.

The reason?I believe the Hollywood powers-that-be might find this novel hits a bit too close to home.Wharton has written many books about New York society at the turn of the century, but none so scathing as this.Her characters represent the celebrities of her age; what's fascinating is to see that things haven't changed all that much.You'll never read the latest Tom Cruise - Nicole Kidman - Russell Crowe - Meg Ryan spread in People magazine in exactly the same way again after this book.

At the same time, it has all the things that Wharton does better than anyone else - the restrained (barely) passions, the intimate moments, the inner turmoil, the beautiful settings.Nobody else finds such depths among the shallows.

She's so good you want to kill her...
Is it possible to love and hate a book simultaneously?That is, after all, the resounding impression left by Edith Wharton's, THE CHILDREN, whose prose I appreciated even as the conclusion of the story left me deeplyannoyed.

I have to struggle to read for pleasure anymore, so when Iactually set aside a few hours for the attempt, as I did with THE CHILDREN,I rather hope it to be a good experience.And, in many respects, it was. THE CHILDREN is beautifully written, as is typically the case for Wharton(even in her sub-par endeavors, such as TWILIGHT SLEEP or GLIMPSES OF THEMOON, which I loved but didn't think was one of her best efforts).Muchhas been made of her talent for writing so there's no need to go on here. Suffice to say, she's brilliant.And THE CHILDREN is an excellent exampleof that fact, with a story that is far less renowned than THE HOUSE OFMIRTH or THE AGE OF INNOCENCE.However, the ending just killed me.I hadmy hopes up so ungodly high that perhaps, just perhaps, Wharton was goingto give us a "happy" ending...I should have known better.I read this bookon a plane flight from the American Mid West and was rapturously engrossedthroughout (thank God for sleeping seatmates) but when I reached the end Ijust about threw the book across the plane in frustration.I know, I know,shame on me for thinking Edith Wharton would deliver a tidy conclusion(GLIMPSES OF THE MOON aside), but still, I was ever so hopeful...mymistake.At least with THE HOUSE OF MIRTH you could read"tragedy" in the subtext from the very beginning so you could besummarily braced when it arrived.But the surprising lightness to herstyle in THE CHILDREN left me unprepared.

Nonetheless, if you likeWharton and are familiar with her manner, then by all means, check out THECHILDREN.It's an engaging story, truly, about a middle-aged man whoselife is enriched by his capricious association with a wild, eccentricfamily led, in no small part, by the amazing eldest daughter, with whom hefalls in love as he tries to help her to hold together her various stepbrothers and sisters as their parents go through yet another messy divorce.

So, by all means, give it a go...just be prepared for the WhartonEffect that comes with the conclusion.

This book was great!
I thought this book was one of Wharton's best work.Its very realistic.There is a little bit of comedey mixed in too. ... Read more

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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

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1916. Wharton, American author, is best known for her stories and ironic novels about upper class people. Wharton's central subjects were the conflict between social and individual fulfillment, repressed sexuality, and the manners of old families and the nouveau riche, who had made their fortunes in more recent years. Among her numerous novels, short stories, and travel writings are The House of Mirth, Ethan Frome, and the Pulitzer prize-winning Age of Innocence. In this volume Wharton explores the anguish and hypocrisy hanging over the lives of divorced women in The Other Two, Souls Belated, Autres Temps and The Last Asset. In Roman Fever she points out that defiance is often the weakest defense for a woman. She takes gentle jabs at women's clubs in Xingu, an old snob in After Holbein and the musty odor of New England's Indian Summer in Angel at the Grave. No collection of Wharton's stories would be complete without one of her ghost stories, Pomegranate Seed being one of her best. And finally, in Bunner Sisters she reminds us that she occasionally strayed down streets where no calling cards were ever left. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

House of Mirth Much Better
The first Edith Wharton book I read was House of Mirth, and I was hooked.I read Age of Innocence and continued with this book, The Best Short Stories of Edith Wharton.However, these short stories are not of the same caliber as House of Mirth.They don't engage the reader, and after I finished a story, I couldn't help thinking, "Was that it?"

Read House of Mirth instead; it's a very dark and cynical book.

Her Best Story is Here...

Can you pick a favorite Edith Wharton short story?Teddy Roosevelt did, and it is here.

It is also my favorite - a fabulous poke at provincial reading groups, ostentatious authors and the unsuspected wise souls in their midst.

Read "Xingu" and savor every well chosen word.Ms Wharton is a pro and this is Olympic quality writing.
... Read more

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Set against the bleak winter landscape of New England, Ethan Frome is the story of a poor farmer, lonely and downtrodden, his wife Zeena, and her cousin, the enchanting Mattie Silver.In the playing out of this short novel's powerful and engrossing drama, Edith Wharton constructed her least characteristic and most celebrated book.In her Introduction, the distinguished critic Elaine Showalter discusses the background to the novel's composition and the reasons for its enduring success. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Just before you slit your wrists
Although a thoroughly well written and nostalgic book, the story is depressing to the uttermost. The story of a triangular love has the most ironic of endings with many unexpected and sad moments along the way. I tell my students that they need a sharp razor blade when reading the book, so that when the depression overwhelms them, they will not make a jagged cut.

Perhaps the author is giving us a glimpse into her own ultimately failed marriage as she records the quest of love by the protagonist who is married to a shrew who is a bitter woman.His awkwardness and slowness to speak to his desire adds to the suspense and to the eventual loss of opportunity.

This is a frame story, with a narrator who begins and ends the tale, being a traveler who inquires of the strange man he encountered, the one with the strange, deformed limp.

The reader will not so much ENJOY this novel as they will come to APPRECIATE its art. Edith Wharton is a master story teller, but have a DVD of a very funny comedy available to cheer you up when you finish this short novel.

Good story, nice edition of the novel
This is anice edition of this novel.I hadn't read any of Wharton's books, though I've seen several film versions of some of her work.I saw the movie Ethan Frome with Liam Niesson which sparked my interest in the novel.I wanted to compare the two. The book is very short.This is a good edition of the novel because it has some pages of discussion of Wharton's writing style and meanings of events in Ethan Frome.That was a plus for being new to her work. The plot is interesting and I enjoyed Wharton's writing style.

We shall never be alone again like this
Edith Wharton filled her novels with a feeling of ruin, passion and restriction. People can fall in love, but rarely do things turn out well.

But but few of even her books can evoke the feeling of "Ethan Frome," whick packs plenty of emotion, vibrancy and regrets into a short novella. While the claustrophobic feeling doesn't suit her writing well, she still spins a beautiful, horrifying story of a man facing a life without hope or joy.

It begins nearly a quarter of a century after the events of the novel, with an unnamed narrator watching middle-aged, crippled Ethan Frome drag himself to the post-office. He becomes interested in Frome's tragic past, and hears out his story.

Ethan Frome once hoped to live an urban, educated life, but ended up trapped in a bleak New England town with a hypochondriac wife, Zeena, whom he didn't love. But then his wife's cousin Mattie arrives, a bright young girl who understands Ethan far better than his wife ever tried to. Unsurprisingly, he begins to fall in love with her, but still feels an obligation to his wife.

But then Zeena threatens to send Mattie away and hire a new housekeeper, threatening the one bright spot in Ethan's dour life. Now Ethan must either rebel against the morals and strictures of his small village, or live out his life lonely. But when he and Mattie try for a third option, their affair ends in tragedy.

Wharton was always at her best when she wrote about society's strictures, morals, and love that defies that. But rather than the opulent backdrop of wealthy New York, here the setting is a bleak, snowy New England town, appropriately named Starkfield. It's a good reflection of Ethan Frome's life, and a good illustration of how the poor can be trapped.

Even when she describes a "ruin of a man" in a cold, distant town, Wharton spins beautiful prose ("the night was so transparent that the white house-fronts between the elms looked gray against the snow") and eloquent symbolism, like the shattered pickle dish. There's only minimal dialogue -- most of what the characters think and feel is kept inside.

Instead she piles on the atmosphere, and increases the tension between the three main characters, as attraction and responsibility pull Ethan in two directions. It all finally climaxes in the disaster hinted at in the first chapter, which is as beautifully written and wistful as it is tragic.

If the book has a flaw, it's the incredibly small cast -- mainly just the main love triangle. Ethan's not a strong or decisive man, but his desperation and loneliness are absolutely heartbreaking, as well as his final fate. Mattie seems more like a symbol of the life he wants that a full-fledged person, and Zeena is annoying and whiny up until the end, when we see a different side of her personality. Not a stereotypical shrew.

"Ethan Frome" is a true tragedy -- as beautifully written as it is, it's still Wharton's description of how a man merely survives instead of living, hopeless and devastated. ... Read more

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Opening on the French Riviera among a motley community of American expatriates, The Mother's Recompense tells the story of Kate Clephane and her reluctant return to New York society after being exiled years before for abandoning her husband and infant daughter.

Oddly enough, Kate has been summoned back by that same daughter, Anne, now fully grown and intent on marrying Chris Fenno, a war hero, dilettante, and social opportunist. Chris's questionable intentions toward her daughter are, however, the least of Kate's worries since she was once, and still is, deeply in love with him. Kate's moral quandary and the ensuing drama evoke comparison with Oedipus and Hamlet and lead to an ending that startled the mores of the day. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

NY vs the Riviera
After reading "The Age of Innocence", "The House of Mirth", and "Custom the Country" I thought I'd read the best of Wharton.Not So!Wharton is always exemplary in portraying upper class late 19th century New Yorkers and their staid customs.Some things are de rigueur and others just aren't allowed.Unlike her earlier gilded age settings "Recompense" takes place post World War I and there are cars, easier travel within and without the country, telephones provide easier communication.In her early twenties Kate ran from her rules worshiping husband, leaving behind her three year old daughter.Worse still a society playboy helped her escape and then dumped her and everyone who matters knows about it.She exiles herself to Europe and settles in with other rule breakers.They partially redeem themselves with good works during the war.Time moves on.Divorce is invented!More importantly others from her social set misbehave eclipsing her own scandal.When her husband and then her mother-in-law die Kate's daughter invites her back home to live with her.Kate is surprised at how easily she fits back in, how nonchalantly her old cronies welcome her and mostly how much her daughter cares for her.The one love affair she allowed herself during her exile comes back to haunt her threatening her new life however.Despite this Kate sees vistas of possible happiness, but ultimately she has to decide between speaking the truth and hurting her daughter or keeping secrets that are almost impossible to swallow.Sadly her real choice narrows down to deciding whether she wants to feel alone and alienated in NY or on the Continent.At least this is territory she's already familiar with.

A Mother's Dilemma
Written in 1925, this less well-known novel by Edith Wharton examines a mother's dilemma. Kate Clephane, the heroine of this novel, deserted her wealthy husband and young daughter twenty years before, when she fled the social constraints of her proper home in New York, at the turn of the century. After the end of that affair she seeks to be reunited with her child, but is denied this by her husband and mother in law. Ostracized by friends and family, Kate leads a life of love affairs and social gatherings amid the frivolous expatriate community on the Riviera. One day she receives a telegram from her now grown daughter. Kate's mother-in-law has died and the girl summons her to return to New York in an attempt to rekindle their relationship. Things go well for a while, until Kate discovers that her daughter is planning on marrying Chris one of Kate's near do well former lovers. Kate is repelled by the thought. She wrestles with what she should do. Should she tell her daughter of her former relationship with Chris, putting her relationship with her daughter in jeopardy? Should she attempt to break up the relationship to save her daughter from marrying a man whose character indicates he was not meant to marry? Or should she keep silent and not break her daughter's heart. The reader struggles with Kate over which is the correct decision, as well as what motivates Kate's behavior. Does she want to end the relationship between her daughter and Chris out of jealousy, or perhaps selfishness? I won't reveal her choice. But in the end she forgoes her own happiness in rejecting the hand of a suitor. Why? This is for the reader to decide. There are similaries in plot and style with Henry James' Washington Square, where a father intrudes into the relationship of his shy daughter with a potentially disastrous suitor.

A Fantastic Voyage Across an Hysterical Sea
This novel which has gone undiscovered for many years deserves close scrutiny and ultimately a judgement on the heroine. The introduction invites the author to decide whether the mother is merely hysterical or has real cause for concern. Whatever the outcome it is a difficult and delightful decision to make ... Read more

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With an Edith Wharton revival well under way, Fast and Loose, a romantic first novel begun when Wharton was fourteen and The Buccaneers, left unfinished when she died at seventy-five, are now back in print and available for the first time in one edition. The rich parallels seen when the two novels are presented together, along with Viola Hopkins Winner's critical Introduction, make this volume far greated than the sum of its parts.

Customer Reviews (2)

The Buccaneers
I read this book and also saw the TV movie a few years ago. I enjoyed the book very much. Very well written and I liked the ending as I couldn't see Annabelle with the stiff Duke. She belonged with Guy and they made a very adorable couple. In the movie , they changed some aspects of the book but it was still great. I recommend this book very much and the author who took over the ending due to the death of Edith Wharton did a commendable job. Well done.

The Buccaneers -- completed by Marion Mainwarning1993
It's a shame that Marion Mainwaring took such liberties with Edith Whartons style The closing of her stories was always in another direction.And usually not a happy one.
Edith had she lived, I believe would have had the Brief Love Affair between Guy and Annibel end at Laura Testvalleys family home with a sad but brief good-bye; Annibel to Amrerica and Guy to where ever.Laura succeeds in achieving a safe harbour for her well deserved ending.And the Duke is still the Duke and that's bad enough. This ending was unfitting a good storyteller as Edith Wharton was. ... Read more

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Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

A memoir, not an autobiography.
Although billed as an autobiography, it is more appropriately called a memoir. Full of name-dropping and vignettes, it is delightful. It bogs down a bit with all she writes about Henry James. I particularly enjoyed her comments on World War I. I wish she had written more.

Most difficult for Edith, I imagine was not being able to write about Morton.

She must have been quite a woman.

Beautiful and Brilliant
Edith Wharton's autobiography was moving and reveals a very modern woman living in times that were more modern than I have ever supposed.Friends with Henry James and royalty, Miss Wharton seemed to live a charmed life even through war when she gave selflessly.Another living testimony to enjoying the freedoms and fruits of the labors one sows.

Very simply written yet superb autobiograpy...
This autobiography which really gives a feel for the times in, which Wharton lived as well as for her own life experiences, contains some the most stunningly succinct annecdotes I've ever read.Wharton is truly brilliant at conveying the importance of literature in her life and sharing the possibilities of the literary life with her reader.She reaches through time to inform us of universals and redefine our value systems without being the least bit pedantic.She is a genius.And her autobiography is as entertaining and resonant as a great novel.

You Wouldn't Call Her "Edy"
Such a lovely child, so patient and well behaved.New York and its society are made magic by her eyes.The opening sections of this memoir are a delight as Mrs. Wharton recounts the sights and feel of New York City in the 1870's.I liked it that she gave us a knee-high view of taking a walk with her beloved father and meeting his friends along the way.(She could never tell what the people's faces looked like, as her view only extended to their knees).Her total recall of her very best bonnet is amazing, and a very pretty bonnet it must have been.

If there is such a person as a "born writer," Edith Wharton is that person.Before she could write, she made stories, and situations "flew around her head like mosquitoes."The world she lived in had no place or interest in a writing lady, so she made her own world, and it was a life-long undertaking.

When Mrs. Wharton received her first acceptance of publication, she was so excited she "ran up and down the staircase in glee."I couldn't have been more surprised if I had read that George Washington played kickball in the back yard.Mrs. Wharton rarely lets you see anything but a very reserved and proper Victorian lady.Yet she did get a divorce (though it is never mentioned.), she lived almost her entire adult life abroad; she compartmentalized her friends like a butterfly collector, and had no interest in being part of the New York society she describes so well.When she was well into her writing career on a family visit to New York, she was invited to a dinner party where she was told a "Bohemian" would be one of the guests.When she got there, she discovered that she herself was the "Bohemian" in question.

The book has a wonderful introduction by that fine author of New York manners, Louis Auchincloss, who is obviously fond of Mrs. Wharton, but not intimidated.Mrs. Wharton has a couple of insightful (and often hilarious) chapters on Henry James that are alone worth the price of the book.But then there are the "friends."I felt I was being buried in endless pages of formal introductions to people I had never heard of, who wrote books that were never read, who gave parties which are long forgotten, and men who were great conversationalists according to Mrs. Wharton, though the witticisms she quoted were so arch and refined, I felt they belonged in bad drawing room comedy.

The book reads well, except for the stretches of introductions.Mrs. Wharton firmly believes that if you can't speak well of someone, you shouldn't speak of him or her at all.Not a bad idea at that

The writing life, uncloseted
In this orderly collection of autobiographical sketches Edith Wharton - generously and with nearly photographic recall - begins by inviting readers into her early life in nineteenth-century New York. We are treated to its cast of characters, old New York, country life up the Hudson River, the clothes, the houses, and the remarkable (and unremarkable) personalities - Washington Irving was a friend of the family - as well as the sensibilities of a sociable, bright, and wonderfully observant little girl.

Edith began to read so early that it surprised her upper-class (but unintellectual) family. Before long she became an "omnivorous reader," happiest plowing through the volumes of the classics in her father's library. She soon found that she required time alone - to invent characters, to make up stories. She knew that she had to write fiction - from childhood on, despite realizing by young adulthood that "in the eyes of our provincial society authorship was still regarded as something between a black art and a form of manual labor." Of the social imperative to closet one's writing urges she elaborates: "My father and mother were only one generation away from Sir Walter Scott, who thought it necessary to drape his literary identity in countless clumsy subterfuges, and almost contemporary with the Brontes, who shrank in agony from being suspected of successful novel-writing." The idle rich, Wharton makes clear, were intended to stay idle - and not busy themselves with writing, especially for (horrors!) pay. Her descriptions of her early popular successes are memorable.

In subsequent chapters Wharton lays out her well-thought-out opinions regarding childhood, self-discovery, the formation of the writer's imagination and intellect, and the importance of finding one's own way - as an intellectual and as a social being. There is dry humor, too. She treasured good literature and good conversation - and pursued (and found) them throughout her life. She loved beautiful things and places, too. Finally, she describes her sojourns abroad (mainly England, France, and Italy) and the relationships and places that sustained her and nurtured her creativity, her productivity - and her soul.

Lifelong friends play a central role in much of this memoir. She describes people well, without breaches of privacy or confidences. This is not at all limiting. She writes tenderly of the blossoming of her friendship with "American gentleman" Egerton Winthrop, a man of "cultivated intelligence," a shy, physically awkward man whom Wharton considered "the most perfect of friends." Others were George Cabot Lee, Vernon Lee, Howard Sturgis, Geoffrey Scott, Percy Lubbock, and most of all, Henry James, who is drawn wonderfully (and not uncritically) in this book. Of her friendship with James she remarks "The real marriage of two minds is for any two people to possess a sense of humor or irony pitched in exactly the same key, so that their joint glances at any subject cross like interarching search-lights."

I loved this memoir, and greatly admired Wharton's ability to reveal herself and her world so fully and well. ... Read more

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a selection from the beginning of:

Customer Reviews (2)

Not Wharton's best work...,
but not as bad as the other reviewer would have you believe. This slight novella offers a glimpse of World War I through the eyes of a passionately pro-French young American. The character's take on the war is hardly suprising as it is simply a reflection of the author's own feelings, but it allows an interesting view of American involvment in the great war prior to the formal declaration.

Although it is not among Wharton's best work (it's not even her best work of fiction on the war - A Son At the Front is superior), her fans will find it worth reading (if they can find it) as a literary curiosity, if for no other reason.

I've seen better looking Cow Pies
My God, what was this stupid woman thinking? Sweet mother of jesus this is some awful writing. For the love of God DONT read this book if you value your life or sanity. This book isnt worth the paper it's written on. If you're going to read this "literary masterpiece" at least prepare a strong rope tied in a noose, and a sturdy headbeam. That is all. ... Read more

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The Reef is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Edith Wharton is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of Edith Wharton then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

No laughing

Roman Fever is my favourite Wharton'n short story. It's a great idea to record it in The Mount, her so dear house. The story is very well read but it's a pitty it was recorded live, since some people laugh when they shouldn't. The end of the story is so delicately sad...The laughs are blasfemous...
Silvia

Add some humor to your commute
The stories on this CD are:
Mrs. Manstey's View,
Roman Fever,
The Reckoning,
Xingu.
Read by Maria Tucci. ... Read more

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Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

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