Showing results by author "Edith Wharton" in All Categories

Multi award-winning narrator Carrington MacDuffie brings her signature depth and wit to this delightful collection of Edith Wharton’s New York Stories: Volume II.

The Age of Innocence is a 1920 novel by American author Edith Wharton. It was her twelfth novel and was initially serialized in 1920 in four parts, in the magazine Pictorial Review. Later that year, it was released as a book by D. Appleton & Company. It won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, making Wharton the first woman to win the prize. The story is set in the 1870s, in upper-class, "Gilded Age" New York City.

Twilight Sleep, a gothic satire of Jazz Age New York, was an instant best-seller when it was released in 1927. Quintessential Edith Wharton, it is stylish and sharp, at turns scathing, hilarious and melodramatic, but also deeply and surprisingly human. In a modernist twist, the story is told by three distinct narrators—19-year-old Nona Manford, her unflappable socialite mother Pauline, and Nona’s father and Pauline’s second husband, divorce lawyer Dexter Manford. All are trying to save the marriage of Nona’s half-brother, Jim Wyant, and his wife Lita.

Ethan Frome is a luckless farmer trapped in a loveless marriage to his domineering wife Zeena. When her cousin Mattie comes to stay with them, she brings much more into their home than just her suitcase. Will Ethan’s newfound spark cause him to set his world afire or will his marital devotion squelch the flames of his desire?

Alison Larkin Presents is delighted to publish these selected New York short stories by Edith Wharton, whose inside knowledge of New York's upper class is put to sparkling use here.

This collection is comprised of "The Hermit and the Wild Woman", a strange mystical tale set in medieval Italy; "The Last Asset" on divorce and manipulation; "The Other Two", a brilliant study of a mannerly quadrangle (and considered by many to be Wharton's best); "The Pretext", on love unrequited; and "The Best Man", on politics and the media.

The Ultimate Ghost Stories Collection is a fully indexed collection of classic ghost stories, read by three Audie-winning narrators. Included here are stories by Henry James, M.R. James, Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, Edith Wharton and Washington Irving.

In an era before the advent of electric lights, telephones or motor vehicles, there exists a small cluster of aristocratic "old revolutionary stock" families that rule New York's social life. Under the rules of this society, "being things" is better than "doing things" and reputation and outward appearances come at the exclusion of everything else. In this Gilded Age, when America’s expansion and increased industrialism produce a group of newly wealthy robber barons and financiers.

Newland Archer, that paragon of Gilded Age New York, seems bound for a life of privilege with an ideal companion, May Welland. Then a childhood friend, the free-thinking, passionate Countess Ellen Olenska returns from Europe. In charged encounters between these three and a large cast of unforgettable characters, Edith Wharton elaborates on a timeless theme, the clash between the need to belong and the urge to leap beyond oneself. An American by birth and an expatriate by choice, the author probes her own youthful origins in this winner of the 1921 Pulitzer Prize in Literature.

Having been born into a life of wealth and privilege, Edith Wharton was part of the small clique of aristocratic families that held sway over New York City's social and cultural life at the turn of the nineteenth century. In The Age of Innocence, Wharton looks back fondly on the life that was enjoyed by the privileged class of the East Coast before the many changes wrought by World War I.

"You won't know till afterward. You won't know till long, long afterward." When Ned and Mary Boyne hear that their new house is haunted, they laugh it off and joke that every good house in the countryside must have a ghost for it to be worth purchasing. They move in and forget all about its supposed supernatural quirks. But when Mary notices a strange change in her husband's behaviour, she begins to suspect a not so friendly ghost is indeed at play.

"I tell you there's nothing the public likes as much as convictions - they'll always follow a man who believes in his own ideas. And this book is just on the line of popular interest." Professor Linyard is a man of science. And when he writes a book to great acclaim in which he takes the side of religion, he fully expects the satire to be understood. But when it's taken at face value, he goes along with it to better provide for his family.

"Phil, my dear boy, really -- what's the matter? Why don't you answer? Have you seen the eyes?" An older gentleman invites a group of friends over for dinner and to discuss the supernatural. Afterwards, when only two guests remain, he tells them a story about The Eyes, about a man who is repeatedly haunted at night by a pair of grotesque eyes floating over the foot of his bed. 'The Eyes' is a short, sharp read that slowly enters your psyche and leaves you with a paragraph that may haunt you forever, because it's not about ghosts at all...

Ethan Frome is a novel published in 1911 by the Pulitzer Prize-winning American author Edith Wharton. It is set in the fictitious town of Starkfield, Massachusetts, New England, where an unnamed narrator tells the story of his encounter with Ethan Frome, a man with dreams and desires that end in an ironic turn of events.

‘Bunner Sisters’ explores the lives of the impoverished class in 1870s New York. Sisters Ann Eliza and Evelina run a small shop out of a shabby basement on a side street. Despite their misfortunes, they are happy in their small, supportive community of women. This bubble will soon be burst, however, as Ann Eliza and Evelina are faced with the harsh realities of the world that exists outside of their shop. A considerate exploration of American society, class, and sibling relationships, Edith Wharton’s novel is unmissable if you enjoyed Louisa May Alcott’s ‘Little Women’.

The Custom of the Country (1913) is a scathing critique of American upward mobility, as told through the journey of overindulged Undine Spragg. She moves from Apex City to New York and then Paris in pursuit of two things - money and status. She will stop at nothing to achieve this goal, no matter how many affairs, lies, and divorces it takes.

Witty socialite Lily Bart has expensive tastes. Unfortunately, she does not have the social status to match. So far she has managed to get by on ‘old money’ and has become accustomed to a certain level of luxury. Her luck seems to be running out, however, as she approaches thirty and begins to scramble for an eligible bachelor who will secure her both an elevation of social status and stability.

Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was brilliant, well-educated, well-read, well-traveled, privileged, and prolific. Wharton was, one might say, an influencer of her time. Her body of work encompasses 15 novels, seven novellas, 80-plus short stories, poems, plays, and nonfiction writings spanning travel, design, criticism, war articles, and a memoir. In 1921, she was the first woman awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Literature for her most famous novel, The Age of Innocence.

Written in 1892 but not published until 1916, this beautifully crafted story features two sisters who keep a shop in a shabby part of New York City. When Ann Eliza, the eldest sister, gifts Evelina with a clock on her birthday, events are set in motion which will forever change not only their relationship but the very fabric of their world.

Lily Bart, impoverished though she was born into New York City's high society in the 19th century, was raised and educated to marry well both socially and economically. As she approaches the age of 29, her marital prospects become limited, and she descends on a two-year social slide from privilege to a tragically lonely existence on the margins of society.