Edith Wharton

Set in New England, a farmer struggles to survive a bare existence, tethered to his farm, first by his helpless parents and then by a hypochondriac wife. Yet, when his wife's alluring cousin comes to stay, his dreams are rekindled.

"With this volume (a companion to Collected Stories 1911-1937), The Library of America presents the finest of Wharton's achievement in short fiction, drawn from the more than eighty stories she published over the course of her career. Here, in settings familiar and exotic, are all of Wharton's characteristic qualities and themes: her candid exploration of relations between the sexes; her satire, sometimes gentle, sometimes despairing, of social class...

George Darrow, a young diplomat en route from London to France, is intent on proposing to the widowed Anna Leath. Unsettled by Anna's reticence, Darrow drifts into an affair with Sophy Viner, a charmingly naive and impecunious young woman whose relations with Darrow and Anna's family threaten his prospects for success. Set in and around London, "The Reef" is a story of complex morality and its intricately woven place in society. This narrative primarily...

The glittering yet treacherous world of New York High Society comes to life in the heartbreaking story of Lily Bart, a renowned beauty of exquisite charm who seeks a wealthy husband but winds up disgraced and discarded.

Headstrong, beautiful Tina has nothing but disdain for her Aunt Charlotte. Tina does not think that her aunt has any understanding of a young girls heart, but Charlotte knows more than Tina thinks. For unloved, unlovable Aunt Charlotte is really Tina's mother, whose romance with a Civil War soldier who didn't return resulted in Tina's birth.