Showing results by narrator "Grace Conlin" in All Categories

One of the classic works on interior decoration, Edith Wharton’s The Decoration of Houses offers a comprehensive look at the history and character of turn-of-the-century interior design. Co-written with architect Ogden Codman, Jr., this invaluable reference provides us with numerous keen and practical axioms for house design, such as (1) The better the house, the less need for curtains, and (2) the height of a well-proportioned doorway should be twice its width.

This spare, mesmerizing novel is Edith Wharton's money-can't-buy-happiness tale. Young Stephen Glennard, a lawyer, is poor, but he has an unanticipated gambling chip: a collection of love letters from a scorned, but now famous, lover, the distinguished novelist Margaret Aubyn. To raise money for his forthcoming wedding to another woman, Stephen stoops to selling the letters.

Although originally published in 1899, this book's leading character, Edna Pontellier, could be mistaken for a modern day liberated woman, who abandons her conventional role and makes for herself a controversial and ultimately destructive life.

Jesse, a Hebrew slave, and Jennat, a half-Egyptian, half-Syrian servant girl, both serve the Egyptians, but they live in vastly different worlds. Though Jennat serves a wealthy mistress, Memnet, she is content to share in the glitter of Egyptian life and idol worship. But Jesse’s life is filled with cruelty inflicted upon him by Egyptian task-masters. Jesse’s father believes only in survival and will stop at nothing to gain favors from the rich and powerful. His mother, however, believes that God will someday rescue His people and guide them to their own land.