Showing results by author "Edith Wharton" in All Categories

Perhaps best known for her classic novel The Age of Innocence, Wharton loved the short story form because its brevity allowed her to concentrate on telling the story. In these three powerful stories, Edith Wharton transports the listener to the turn of the century, where she depicts (without turning to sensationalism) the shocking topics of the time. Often, she opens just after an incident, allowing the listener to be immersed straight into the story.

Life is always hard for the poor, in any place and at any time. Ethan Frome is a farmer in Massachusetts. He works long hours every day, but his farm makes very little money. His wife, Zeena, is a thin, grey woman, always complaining, and only interested in her own ill health. Then Mattie Silver, a young cousin, comes to live with the Fromes, to help Zeena and do the housework. Her bright smile and laughing voice bring light and hope into the Fromes’ house - and into Ethan’s lonely life.

This ghostly (and ghastly) collection includes: "The Upper Berth", "The Lady's Maid", "Markheim", "Ghost Stories of the Tiled House","What Was It?", "Madame Crowl's Ghost" and "The Golden Arm".

In a small New England town, Ethan Frome aches for the love of his wife's cousin who is sharing their home. This beautifully written story is full of love, irony, and, ultimately, deep tragedy.

The House of Mirth is a novel of manners set against the backdrop of the 1890s New York ruling class. Wharton places her tragic heroine, Lily Bart, in a society that she describes as a ‘hot-house of traditions and conventions.'

A story of how individual destiny can be shaped and formed by mentors and friends. Culwin is a modern villain, whose crimes arise from holding his tongue at crucial moments, so that events further entangle themselves.

The art of writing a short story can be barely noticed by a reader or listener - such is the quality with which they are usually written. It is a difficult trade, an unforgiving discipline, but for those who master it, the rewards are many. In this series of works by our greatest female writers, we bring you a selection of those we consider the best. In Volume 2 we bring you the classics 'The Yellow Wallpaper' by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and 'Roman Fever' by Edith Wharton.

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.

Selections include "The Robber Bridegroom" by Washington Irving, "The Stolen White Elephant" by Mark Twain, "Chickamauga" by Ambrose Bierce, "The Mission of Jane" by Edith Wharton, and "The Black Cat" by Edgar Allan Poe.

Wharton's novel The Age of Innocence is set against an exclusive society background in which she reveals how Newland Archer is often the victim of, rather than the key player in, the events. The plot is constructed on a pattern of ironic misunderstandings: for example, Newland is unaware that Ellen's decision not to sue for divorce was for his and May's sake rather than to conceal her past. Furthermore, Newland remains largely blind to the manipulations of a wife he persists in seeing as innocent and naive.

The Age of Innocence centres on an upper class couple's impending marriage, and the introduction of a scandalous woman whose presence threatens their happiness. Though the novel questions the assumptions and morals of 1870s New York society, it never devolves into an outright condemnation of the institution.

Ethan Frome is an entrancing but sad story of a poverty-stricken Massachusetts farmer caught in a loveless marriage. An emerging love for his young cousin leads to one day of explosive emotions with tragic consequences.

The beautiful, much-desired Lily Bart has been raised to be one of the perfect wives of the wealthy upper class, but her spark of character and independent drive prevents her from becoming one of the many women who will succeed in those circles. Though her desire for a comfortable life means that she cannot marry for love without money, her resistance to the rules of the social elite endangers her many marriage proposals.

Wharton’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel set in upper class New York City. Newland Archer, gentleman lawyer and heir to one of New York City's best families, is happily anticipating a highly desirable marriage to the sheltered and beautiful May Welland. Yet he finds reason to doubt his choice of bride after the appearance of Countess Ellen Olenska, May's exotic, beautiful 30-year-old cousin, who has been living in Europe. This novel won the first ever Pulitzer awarded to a woman.

A full-cast dramatisation of Edith Wharton's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about a passionate love affair which breaks all the rules of the restrictive high society of 1870s New York.In the exclusive world of upper-class New York, in which attendance at balls and dinner passes for occupation, Newland Archer anticipates his marriage to May Welland, a beautiful young girl from a suitable family ‘who knows nothing and expects everything’.

These rib-ticklers include Mark Twain's "The Story of the Old Ram" and "The Story of a Speech"; E. P. Butler's "Pigs Is Pigs"; W. A. Butler's "Nothing to Wear"; Charles Dudley Warner's "How I Killed a Bear"; Eugene Field's "Oon Criteek de Bernhardt", William Livingstone Alden's "Carrie's Comedy", and Edith Wharton's "The Pelican".

Selected Shorts: A Celebration of the Short Story has toured to the Mount, the stately and elegant home of the great American writer Edith Wharton, for the last several summers, presenting Broadway and Hollywood actors reading stories by Wharton and other writers. Selected Shorts now presents a collection of four of Edith Wharton's short stories, recorded live at the Mount, and featuring acclaimed actresses Kathleen Chalfant, Christina Pickles, Maria Tucci, and Brenda Wehle.

Charity Royall, a young New England woman of humble origins, meets and falls in love with the worldly Lucius Harney, an architect from the city. In evocative and descriptive prose, Edith Wharton conveys the ecstasy of Charity's first experience in sexual and romantic love, and pulls her heroine through the throes of loving a man who ultimately cannot choose her. Wharton's tale elicits the passion and despair of all great but ill-fated love affairs and enthralls the contemporary audience with its pathos just as it did nearly 100 years ago.

A thrilling volume of short stories featuring great storytellers such as O.Henry, Edith Wharton and M.R. James to keep you on the edge of you seat.

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton examines conflicts between rigid social expectation and personal desire. Lily Bart is adept at playing society's games, which expect her to achieve an advantageous marriage. Torn between her desire for luxurious living and a relationship based on mutual respect and love, she manages to sabotage all her possible chances for a wealthy marriage.