Edith Wharton
1) The Reef
Though best remembered for her novels The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton's 1912 novel The Reef ranks among her most critically acclaimed works. The book offers a piercingly insightful look into a complicated family dynamic that stems from the intertwined relationships of several generations of star-crossed lovers.
2) Summer
A young girl from a rural New England town longs to escape her small community, but is unable to move beyond social restrictions and her own weaknesses of character. She meets a man by chance, who encourages the awakening of her sexuality. The ramifications of their relationship begin to unfold against a background of class and moral standards.
Though best known for having written novels such as The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth, American author Edith Wharton was also a master of the short story format. Regarded by many critics as her most accomplished collection of short tales, Crucial Instances brings together seven gripping and nuanced stories of the American upper glass in the Gilded Age.
From the author that penned beloved literary classics such as The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth comes The Glimpses of the Moon, the surprisingly funny tale of an unlikely romance that arises between newlyweds on an extended honeymoon who have married for convenience, rather than for love.
5) Sanctuary
In novels like The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton demonstrated a remarkable talent for exposing the dark underbelly of American high society. In Sanctuary, the tale of doomed marriage propped up by the protagonist's altruism, Wharton further explores the question of whether it is our nature or our upbringing that determines one's character and moral fiber.
In her own lifetime, Edith Wharton's talents were often pigeonholed and downplayed as appealing to only a small audience of upper-crust society doyennes. Today, however, critics regard her as one of the most important writers of the early twentieth century, rivaling even luminaries such as Henry James in literary significance. In this novel, the author of such masterworks as The Age of Innocence takes aim at issues of religious dogmatism
...Stephen Glennard is in desperate need of money; his career is in ruins and he wants to marry his beautiful fiancee. He unearths the passionate love-letters written to him by the famous, now-deceased author Margaret Aubyn, and sells them, erasing only his name. He makes a fortune from the betrayal and begins his marriage from it.
The Touchstone was Edith Wharton's first published novella.
9) Ethan Frome
In the fictional New England town of Starkfield, an unnamed narrator is forced to stay at the home of Ethan Frome during a winter storm. He relates his encounter with Frome, "the most striking figure in Starkfield, he was but the ruin of a man, with a careless powerful look - in spite of a lameness checking each step like the jerk of a chain". When the beautiful cousin of Frome's bitter wife comes to help with housekeeping, Frome's attraction to
...12) In Morocco
American novelist and designer Edith Wharton traveled to Morocco after the end of World War I. Morocco is her account of her time there as the guest of General Hubert Lyautey. Her account praises Lyautey and his wife and also the French administration of the country.
Can't get enough of the Gilded Age fast talkers, débutantes, and social climbers who populate Edith Wharton's exquisitely wrought novels? Fans of The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence will love The Custom of the Country, which details country girl Undine Spragg's attempt to take a bite out of Big Apple high society.
Brimming with romance and important social questions, Edith Wharton's novel The Fruit of the Tree offers something for everyone. The story expertly weaves themes of workers' rights, medical ethics, and end-of-life care into the framework of a conventional—but pulse-pounding—romantic entanglement.