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"'No, I don't believe in ghosts, but I'm afraid of them,' is much more than the cheap paradox it seems to many. To 'believe,' in that sense, is a conscious act of the intellect, and it is in the warm darkness of the prenatal fluid far below our conscious reason that the faculty dwells with which we apprehend ghosts." Edith Wharton, known for her keen observations of an emotionally stifling upper-class social world, was so afraid of ghosts that for many years she couldn't even sleep in a room with a book containing a ghost story. As horror scholar Jack Sullivan writes, "It is this sharply felt sensation of supernatural dread filtered through a skeptical sensibility that made Wharton a master of the ghost story." This collection contains 11 of her elegant, chilling tales, including "Afterword," "The Triumph of Night," and "Pomegranate Seed," plus Wharton's 1937 preface and an autobiographical postscript.Book Description
One might not expect a woman of Edith Wharton's literary stature to be a believer of ghost stories, much less be frightened by them, but as she admits in her postscript to this spine-tingling collection, "...till I was twenty-seven or -eight, I could not sleep in the room with a book containing a ghost story." Once her fear was overcome, however, she took to writing tales of the supernatural for publication in the magazines of the day. These eleven finely wrought pieces showcase her mastery of the traditional New England ghost story and her fascination with spirits, hauntings, and other supernatural phenomena. Called "flawlessly eerie" by Ms. magazine, this collection includes "Pomegranate Seed," "The Eyes," "All Souls'," "The Looking Glass," and "The Triumph of Night."

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Customer Reviews (8)

Don't Miss "Afterward," a Great Ghost Story
Note: I made some Mormon reader angry over my negative reviews of books written by Mormons out to prove the Book of Mormon, and that person has been slamming my reviews as almost soon as they are posted. Oh, well.

Your "helpful" votes are appreciated. Thanks, and note that a short review is not necessarily a bad review if it leads you to some great stories.

I read "Afterward," a 40-page story, in another collection and wrote "Good!" by it in the table of contents. Another great story of the supernatural is the "Willows," by Algernon Blackwood (not in this collection, of course). Both of these stories are highly recommended, but I won't ruin the stories by saying much about them. They are "short stories," after all.

Check out my other longer reviews. Your comments--positive or negative--are appreciated. Read the "Willows" wherever you can find it. Thanks.

A timeless treasure of tales
The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton. Highly recommended.

I was unaware that Edith Wharton, known for such insightful novels as The Age of Innocence, The House of Mirth, and Ethan Frome (as well as the popular movies these novels inspired), had indulged in writing ghost stories other than "Afterward" until I found this collection. In Ghost Stories, Wharton reveals her mastery of the psychology of horror-where ghosts terrify through their oblique influence on the human mind and emotion-and where these human foibles create their own horrors.

Wharton's ghosts take many forms-from the loyal retainer in "The Lady's Maid's Bell" to the loyal retainers of a different sort in "Kerfol"; from the guilt behind "The Eyes" to the guilt recognised "Afterward"; from the mysterious "Mr. Jones" to the ghostly and ghastly "Miss Mary Pask." Some of these visitations are not seen, or, in the case of "Kerfol," even heard. They fulfill various functions: To protect the secrets of the past, to bring the secrets of the past to light, to warn the present about the future, and to remind the living of the dead.

Like the best ghost story writers, Wharton begins each tale with a scenario that seems ordinary enough. Early on, she drops subtle clues that build from a feeling that something is somewhat amiss up to a sense of fractured reality that shatters one's assumptions. Wharton masterfully creates ironic twists ("Miss Mary Pask"), innocent victims (the wife in "Afterward"), and nontraditional ghosts ("The Eyes," "Kerfol"). In many cases, the reader is one step ahead of the narrator or protagonist (Hitchcock's definition of suspense), creating a delicious sense of inevitable, unavoidable doom.

If you are looking for the gore and thrills of today's tale of horror, you will not find them in Wharton's work. If, on the other hand, you appreciate the subtle, growing sense of terror that M. R. James insinuates into The Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, you'll discover the same feeling of the fine line between this world and another that can manifest itself at any time and in any way when the need arises. These are stories to be read, savored, and read again-alone, of course.

Diane L. Schirf, 28 December 2003.

Not your average ghost stories
When I saw this collection in the book store, I was intrigued because, although I'm not a fan of Edith Wharton's, I do admire her skills as a writer. The stories themselves are good, well plotted, have good characterizations, are compelling, etc.; however, they aren't typical ghost stories. Some of them don't even involve ghosts, and still others offer little explination to the nature of the ghost, i.e. why they are still around. While they are creepy at times, they didn't really scare me. Some might argue that I, as a 24 year-old young woman, exposed to countless graphic horror films, such as the Scream series, might simply be desensitized to the subtleness of Wharton's stories (as some of the other reviewers have described them), but I'd have to disagree because I scare very easily - the Harry Potter books gave me a fright, so you can just imagine. So if you are looking for a good scare, I'd look elsewhere. But if you're looking for good stories and/or you're an Edith Wharton fan, then I recommend this book.

Delayed Impact
The impact of these stories may hit you long after you've read them.These are stories you don't forget, yet you're compelled to reread them.Edith Wharton has given us one of the most delightful ghost storycollections I've ever read.It is the characters that make an impression. Long after you've put the book down, they come back to you...

Classic Tales
Edith Wharton was a master of the ghost story, and these stories linger in the mind long after the book is over.Above all, the stories are incredibly rich in atmosphere: Wharton is not writing to give thrills but rather chills, and the subtle, nuanced dread evoked in so many of thesestories testifies to her immense talent as a writer.These aresupernatural tales of the highest quality, and the book is absolutelyessential for anyone who loves the classic ghost story. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An impressive selection of verse by a most remarkable woman who lived a most remarkable life
Knowledgeably compiled and deftly edited by novelist and historian Louis Auchincloss, Edith Wharton: Selected Poems Offers contemporary readers an impressive selection of verse by a most remarkable woman who lived a most remarkable life. And who reflected her observations and reflections with masterpieces of poetic expression. Opportunities: Who knows his opportunities? They come/Not trumpet-tongued from Heaven, but small and dumb,/Not beckoning from the future's promised land,/But in the narrow present close at hand./They walk beside us with unsounding feet,/and like those two that trod the Eastern street/And with their Saviour bartered thought for thought,/Our eyes are holden and we know them not. 1878.
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Book Description
(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)

These three brilliantly wrought, tragic novellas explore the repressed emotions and destructive passions of working-class people far removed from the social milieu usually inhabited by Edith Wharton's characters.

Ethan Frome is one of Wharton's most famous works; it is a tightly constructed and almost unbearably heartbreaking story of forbidden love in a snowbound New England village. Summer, also set in rural New England, is often considered a companion to Ethan Frome-Wharton herself called it “the hot Ethan”-in its portrayal of a young woman's sexual and social awakening. Bunner Sisters takes place in the narrow, dusty streets of late nineteenth-century New York City, where the constrained but peaceful lives of two spinster shopkeepers are shattered when they meet a man who becomes the unworthy focus of all their pent-up hopes.

All three of these novellas feature realistic and haunting characters as vivid as any Wharton ever conjured, and together they provide a superb introduction to the shorter fiction of one of our greatest writers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Short stuff
In a way, Edith Wharton was at her best in her novellas -- her stories are lean, taut and emotionally striking.

And the novellas "Ethan Frome, Summer, Bunner Sisters" brings together three of her most powerful novellas, elongated short stories that explore love, morality, betrayal, the conventions of the time in women's live, and poverty. They're not just fascinating, but beautifully written.

"The Bunner Sisters" is one of Wharton's darkest stories, in which two timid sisters run a small, failing shop together. When Ann Eliza gives Evalina a gifts, they both become involved with the mysterious man, Ramy, who sold it to her. Ann Eliza attempts to sacrifice money and happiness for her sister's happiness, but neither knows what Ramy is hiding from them, or how it will destroy their lives.

"Ethan Frome" is the male half of a loveless marriage, with the fretful, fussy Zeena. Then Zeena's lovely cousin Mattie Silver comes to live with them, and she brings out a happier, more passionate side of Ethan. But when Mattie is sent away, Ethan must make a decision. He knows he can't stay in his horrible marriage, so will he run away with Mattie? The choice they make will affect all three lives.

"Summer" shocked the 1917 public, with its frank-for-its-time look at a young woman's sexual awakening. It takes place in the New England village of North Dormer, where the young librarian Charity lives. But when Charity falls in love with an upper-class young rake named Lucius, she finds herself pregnant and unmarried -- a destructive combination in the 1900s. There's only one respectable way out.

Edith Wharton gave unvarnished looks at social conventions throughout her career -- she doesn't judge, she just tells it how it was, whether she's talking about the Roaring 20s or the uptight Victorian era. Divorce was almost unthinkable, affairs scandalous if revealed, and women had the cards stacked against them in matters of love, marriage and sex.

So her works are even better when you set them in context, full of characters who were totally unlike her. Some were male, some timid and naive, some potentially disgraced, and some completely broken by society's dictates. Few of her characters are much like Wharton, but she gets inside their heads and makes them entirely believable.

Wharton's formal, often poetic writing style makes these stories all the richer. They're rich with light, smells, sounds and the swirl of nature, even in a city. But it's offset by the starkness of her stories -- if she took a hard look at hypocrises and social conventions, she didn't flinch from showing what happened to those that transgressed. It's realistic, but a bit depressing.

These three novellas are not easy reading -- each one is a powerful, harrowing story wrapped in Wharton's beautiful prose. Magnificent, but difficult. ... Read more

Book Description
Edith Wharton, arguably the most important American female novelist, stands at a particular historical crossroads between sentimental lady writer and modern professional author. Her ability to cope with this collision of Victorian and modern sensibilities makes her work especially interesting. Wharton also writes of American subjects at a time of great social and economic change-Darwinism, urbanization, capitalism, feminism, world war, and eugenics. She not only chronicles these changes in memorable detail, she sets them in perspective through her prodigious knowledge of history, philosophy, and religion. A Historical Guide to Edith Wharton provides scholarly and general readers with historical contexts that illuminate Wharton's life and writing in new, exciting ways. Essays in the volume expand our sense of Wharton as a novelist of manners and demonstrate her engagement with issues of her day. ... Read more

Book Description
Starting with the tensions in the early family constellation, Gloria C. Erlich traces Edith Wharton's erotic evolution--from her early repression of sexuality and her celibate marriage to her discovery of passion in a rapturous midlife love affair with the bisexual Morton Fullerton. Analyzing the novelist's life, letters, and fiction, Erlich reveals several interrelated identity systems--the filial, the sexual, and the creative--that evolved together over the course of Wharton's lifetime. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Aha! That's Where Undine Sprague Comes From
There is a deep sense of irony in a lot of Edith Wharton's work. It seems puzzling given her time and gender-this is not a voice typical of nineteenth century women. Along comes Gloria Erlich, an independent scholar with an
account of Wharton's childhood with an aloof mother followed by a celibate marriage (?! as they might say in chess-talk).
All of a sudden, Wharton's voice becomes easier to understand and her female characters a lot more accessible. Score one for independent scholars.


--Lynn Hoffman, author of THE NEW SHORT COURSE IN WINEand
the sexually well-educated bang BANG: A Novel
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Customer Reviews (1)

Customs of the country
America and Europe of the 1800s were stiff, gilded, formal place, full of "old" families, rigid customs and social transgressions.

And nobody chronicled them better than Edith Wharton, who spun exquisitely barbed novels out of the social clashes of the late nineteenth century. This collection brings together four of her best books, exploring the nature of infidelity, passion, social-climbing and a woman's place in an unfriendly world.

"Age of Innocence" is a pretty ironic title. Newland Archer, of a wealthy old New York family, has become engaged to pretty, naive May. But during his engagement, he becomes acquainted with May's exotic cousin, Countess Olenska -- and after his marriage, his attraction to the mysterious Countess and her unconventional ways becomes even stronger. Will he become an outcast and leave with her, or stick with a life of conformity and safety?

"The Custom of the Country" takes whatever is biting about "Age of Innocence" and magnifies it. Undine Spragg is a mesmerizing beauty from a tiny town, who wants the best of everything, more than her family can afford. She begins marrying "old money", leaving divorce, death and broken hearts in her wake -- and hiding a then-shameful secret. The only way to succeed lies in the one man who sees her for what she is.

But the mockery in "House of Mirth" is not meant to be funny, but saddening and eye-opening. Lily Bart is on the prowl for a marriage to keep her in luxury and affluent circles. But her schemes and plans start to collapse, as she rejects all her adoring suitors, and a nasty society matron decides to deflect attention from her adultery by accusing Lily falsely. Her life rapidly descends into a spiral of wretched unemployment and poverty.

"Ethan Frome" is far more tragic in nature than any of the others. The titular character is the male half of a loveless marriage, with the fretful, fussy Zeena. Then Zeena's lovely cousin Mattie Silver comes to live with them, and she brings out a happier, more passionate side of Ethan. But when Mattie is sent away, Ethan must make a decision. He knows he can't stay in his horrible marriage, so will he run away with Mattie? The choice they make will affect all three lives.

Wharton tended to pay attention to three things: human nature, society, and how the two often clashed. These four books are, in fact, crammed with the societal clashes of the time: infidelity, divorce, the impact of "new money," and what it took for a person to break out of the bounds of society -- and the cost it had.

Her writing is striking even now -- it has the formal, detailed quality of nineteenth-century prose, but it isn't nearly as stuffy. Instead, her writing is lush, perfumed languid and shimmering with repressed emotion -- even "Custom of the Country," with its nasty shallow anti-heroine, has moments of pure lyrical beauty, although they usually come from someone else.

And her characters come to life with startling reality. Wharton never resorts to sentimentality or cheap tricks to make us react to them -- stuffy "aristocrats" of the New World, tormented farmers, and bright bohemians. The more brilliant, appealing characters like the tragic Lily and the free-spirited Countess are easy to feel liking for, but Wharton even makes the less appealing characters -- like the wishy-washy Newland -- realistically complex.

These four novels are among the best that Edith Wharton ever penned -- intricate looks at society and human nature, wrapped up in beautiful writing. Utterly exquisite. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (1)

insight into Wharton as a person
For fans of Wharton's writings, Boswell furnishes a comprehensive analysis of the films made from them in the early 20th century. You probably should already be well acquainted with the books. Much of the commentary is meaningless without this, as Boswell rightly doesn't waste much time paraphrasing those books. Instead, she offers an understanding of Wharton as a person, in the interplay with the young Hollywood film industry.

Even then, there was a perception that writers might be treated as lesser personas in the industry. The book is well worth reading just as an insight into those early Hollywood years. The treatment of Wharton, and her view of Hollywood, would find echoes in the experiences of other famous writers, like Huxley. ... Read more

Book Description
This edition presents Wharton's two most controversial stories, which she considered inseperable, in one volume for the first time.Set in frigid New England, both deal with sexual awakening and appetite and their devastating consequences.This text includes newly commissioned notes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Tragic love
In a way, Edith Wharton was at her best in her novellas -- her stories are lean, taut and emotionally deep. That's what "Summer" and "Ethan Frome" have in common, as they look at love, sex, marriage and the conventions of the 1800s. Put together, these novellas are utterly fascinating.

"Ethan Frome" is the male half of a loveless marriage, with the fretful, fussy Zeena. Then Zeena's lovely cousin Mattie Silver comes to live with them, and she brings out a happier, more passionate side of Ethan. But when Mattie is sent away, Ethan must make a decision. He knows he can't stay in his horrible marriage, so will he run away with Mattie? Or will something worse happen?

"Summer" shocked the 1917 public, with its frank-for-its-time look at a young woman's sexual awakening. It takes place in the New England village of North Dormer, where the young librarian Charity lives. But when Charity falls in love with an upper-class young rake named Lucius, she finds herself pregnant and unmarried -- a destructive combination in the 1900s.

Edith Wharton gave unvarnished looks at social conventions throughout her career -- she doesn't judge, she just tells it how it was, whether she's talking about the Roaring 20s or the uptight Victorian era. Divorce was almost unthinkable, affairs scandalous if revealed, and women had the cards stacked against them in matters of love, marriage and sex.

Both novellas also display Wharton's talent for writing characters who were totally unlike her, especially working-class heroes. Charity is an uneducated, naive, rough-mannered young woman, while Ethan is... well, male. Neither is much like Wharton, but she gets inside their heads and makes them entirely believable.

Wharton's formal writing style is offset by the starkness of her stories -- if she took a hard look at Victorian social conventions, she didn't flinch from showing what happened to those that transgressed. (I'll give you a hint -- neither novella has a smooching-lovers-ride-off-into-the-sunset finale) It's realistic, but a bit depressing.

"Summer" and "Ethan Frome" are both tales of love doomed by social conventions, and also two of Wharton's best stories. Sad and beautiful, gripping and classic. ... Read more

Book Description
Newland Archer is a young lawyer, a member of New York's high society, and engaged to be married to May Welland.

Countess Ellen Olenska is May's cousin, and wants a divorce from the Polish nobleman she married.Intelligent and beautiful, she comes back to New York where she tries to fit into the high society life she had before her marriage.Her family and former friends, however, are shocked by the idea of divorce within their social circle, and she finds herself snubbed by her own class.

Ellen and Newland fall in love and must choose between passion and conventions. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A MUST HAVE!!!
A MUST HAVE FOR EVERY WHARTON SCOLAR, ENTHUSIAST OR SIMPLE READER. A UNIQUE WAY OF REVEALING THE MAGNITUDE OF THIS LADY'S CHARISMA AND CONSTANT PASION FOR LIFE AND CREATION. A BOOK PORTRAYING THE MERE FACT THAT EDITH WHARTON DOES NOT CONSTITUTE "A PRISON-HOUSE" FOR LITERATURE BUT RATHER AN ECOSYSTEM OF IDEAS AND EMOTIONS. SUPERB!!!

Aptly Titled Extraordinary!!!
This beautifully illustrated book is of the "coffeetable" variety but that moniker fails to dojustice for this incredible look into the life of the brillant novelist. Scores of rare photos and documentsillustrate the best text I have ever read on the private life of Ms.Wharton. This is definately not the "ice queen" of otherbiographers; reproduced postcards and quoted letters give graphic proof ofher warm and witty personality . She was clearly blessed with a remarkablecapacity for friendship and unending thirst for knowledge and experiences.This is truly the finest biography ever written on the legendary lady ofletters. I cannot tell you what a pleasure it is to own this volume, itproudly sits on my shelf alongside Ms. Wharton's own works. An absolutemust for any reference library on Wharton!!! ... Read more

Book Description
UP the long hill from the station at St.-Cloud, Lizzie West climbed in the cold spring sunshine. As she breasted the incline, she noticed the first waves of wistaria over courtyard railings and the high lights of new foliage against the walls of ivy-matted gardens; and she thought again, as she had thought a hundred times before,that she had never seen so beautiful a spring.Download Description
UP the long hill from the station at St.-Cloud, Lizzie West climbed in the cold spring sunshine. As she breasted the incline, she noticed the first waves of wistaria over courtyard railings and the high lights of new foliage against the walls of ivy-matted gardens; and she thought again, as she had thought a hundred times before,that she had never seen so beautiful a spring. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Amazon is selling the wrong book
Be careful if you are thinking of buying this book. It is not a book of letters, as advertised, but a short story by Wharton called The Letters. I ordered it, realized their mistake, e-mailed them about it, and returned the book. I was given a refund, but Amazon has not changed the description of this book despite my warning. I understand that Amazon has thousands of books, but I really think it should be a priority to make sure the right information is matched up with the right book.

Wharton's Letters
Although many of the lines contained in these letters have been well publicized for years, never before have Wharton's private and business correspondences been so collectively accessible. Interesting enough for their biographic aspects, the letters are also wonderful companion pieces to Wharton's books, particularly A BACKWARD GLANCE, THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, and THE HOUSE OF MIRTH.

An excellent selection by a top scholar
This book contains about 400 of Wharton's letters, out of about 4,000 extant. It is a careful selection, including "major" letters that are often quoted, and for the first time (other than in a small university publication), a substantial portion of her correspondence with Morton Fullerton, with whom she had an affair while in her mid-40s. That particular correspondence did not surface until the 1980s, and added an entirely new perspective on Wharton's life and work.Unfortunately, nearly all of her correspondence with two of her greatest friends, Henry James and Walter Berry, did not survive, and the absence is felt. I applaud the editors (one of whom wrote a Pulitzer prize winning bio of Wharton) for a selection that is very readable and never trite or repetitive (a big problem when dealing with letters in their entirety).Reading the letters after having read the bio, I found they added to my understanding of Wharton as a person and a writer. ... Read more

Book Description
A New York Review Books Original

Edith Wharton wrote about New York as only a native can. Her Manhattan is a city of well-appointed drawing rooms, hansoms and broughams, all-night cotillions, and resplendent Fifth Avenue flats. Bishops’ nieces mingle with bachelor industrialists; respectable wives turn into excellent mistresses. All are governed by a code of behavior as rigid as it is precarious. What fascinates Wharton are the points of weakness in the structure of Old New York: the artists and writers at its fringes, the free-love advocates testing its limits, widows and divorcées struggling to hold their own.

The New York Stories of Edith Wharton gathers twenty stories of the city, written over the course of Wharton’s career. From her first published story, “Mrs. Manstey’s View,” to one of her last and most celebrated, “Roman Fever,” this new collection charts the growth of an American master and enriches our understanding of the central themes of her work, among them the meaning of marriage, the struggle for artistic integrity, the bonds between parent and child, and the plight of the aged.

Illuminated by Roxana Robinson’s Introduction, these stories showcase Wharton’s astonishing insight into the turbulent inner lives of the men and women caught up in a rapidly changing society. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Classic Edith Wharton
This is a wonderful read consisting of four stories from four decades, told sequentially.It gives such a flavor for the times, and for the changes within the society over four decades.As always, Edith Wharton's writing iswonderfully descriptive and her characters very real.If you are new to Edith Wharton, this is a good sampler.But it will become an old friend to those who have read other books by her.

Some fine vintage Wharton
Periodically, it seems, Edith Wharton (1862-1937) pops up into our attention span, most recently due to the fine biography by Hermione Lee, the release of several Wharton volumes in the Library of America series, and movie versions of her novels, such as "The Age of Innocence" (with Daniel Day-Lewis) and the "House of Mirth."This compilation in the New York Review Books Classics series contains about 2/3 of her total short story output that is tied to NYC. Wharton is simply a master stylist; in fact Louis Auchincloss suggests nobody surpassed her ability to write lucid and polished prose.Very high praise indeed, given Auchincloss's own stature in American letters.

Much like Auchincloss, Wharton writes of the upper class, well-to-do New Yorkers, although her focus in the late 19th century while Auchincloss usually focuses upon the 20th century period. Remarkably, the stories, which appeared between 1891-1934, for the most part seem fresh and engaging.Much like Auchincloss, Wharton was writing about her own social class and experiences, which lends a superb sense of authenticity and authority to her stories. The reader really emerges with a sense of what characteristics this environment manifested:the mores, taboo subjects and actions (such as divorce), the role of women, the overwhelming potency of social exclusions for those who violate its folkways, and how members of this elite social grouping were expected to behave and conduct themselves privately and in social situations.For example, one should never been seen taking a hansom cab to dinner--rather, one should be seen with their own rig.Almost all of the stories enchant the reader, since they often have surprise endings, but I found the final story published in 1934, "Roman Fever," to demonstrate how gifted an author Wharton was. But there are many more.

A word should be said about the high quality of the NYRB series.Each is produced on outstanding paper, with great cover art, and clear typhography.Each has a valuable introduction; this volume is introduced with a fine essay by Roxana Robinson (who has written a biography of Georgia O'Keefe).They are a pleasure to read and hold and relatively modest in price. This results in a fine amalgamation in this volume:a beautiful paperback containing superb short stories:what a combination!

All of her New York stories collected together
Edith Wharton isn't perhaps as well-known as Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway, or Henry James, but she was in her day an influential novelist and short story writer, producing such works as Ethan Frome, The House of Mirth, and The Age of Innocence. This collection of short stories, together for the first time, shows her progression as a writer and her regard for the city of New York, where she grew up.

Most of the stories presented here are relatively short, about 20 pages or fewer, and some are downright brief. Wharton had an interesting way of constructing characters, so that things didn't really need to happen much in order for the story to progress logically, and she had a sometimes maddening habit of letting a story just waft away, without actually seemingly finishing it. I think were she alive today, and a fan of the Sopranos, she'd have appreciated the ending a lot more than fans of the show did.

I'm not Wharton's biggest fan, but I like her better than James, for instance, and she had less of a point of view than either Hemingway or Scott Fitzgerald (at least it's less evident to me). I generally enjoyed this collection, and would recommend it to fans of Wharton, if no one else.
... Read more

Book Description
Consisting of thirty-two

letters, one postcard, and a note from Wharton's secretary to Bromfield's wife, their correspondence is presented here with meticulous annotation by Daniel Bratton to give an insight into the private worlds of these two literary magnates. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Read of a shared love of travel and literature
Toward the end of her life, Edith Wharton, author of Ethan Frome, The Age of Innocence, The Buccaneers, held a close and personal friendship with author Louis Bromfield, author of Early Autumn, The Farm, and The Rains Came, while at the peak of his literary career. Despite the disparity of age and background (Bromfield was 34 years Wharton's junior), they became "pen pals" and intellectual intimates. Yrs., Ever Affly is a collection of their correspondence between 1931 and 1937, the year of Wharton's death. We read of Wharton and Bromfield's mutual devotion to horticultural pursuits, their observations of the social/political milieu of American and France during the 1930s, literary gossip of their day, the publishing climate of the Depression era, and a shared love of travel and literature. These 32 letters, one postcard, and a note from Wharton's secretary to Bromfield's wife, provide an intimate insight into the private worlds of two distinguished writers. Yrs., Ever Affly is "must" reading for students of the writings of Edith Wharton, Louis Bromfield, and the literary, intellectual, and publishing climate of the 1930s.

"It has become a prized possession..."
Next, speaking of books, is a few words about "Yrs. Ever Affly", the correspondence of Edith Wharton and Louis Bromfield, edited by Daniel Bratton. Shirl had told me that Danny was in the process of publishing this book, so when it came out I sent for a copy, and it has become a prized possession. Wharton has longtime been a favorite of mine, and I have read and liked some Bromfield, but his later novels leave something to be desired!

But the two, Wharton and Bromfield, shared a friendship when they lived in Europe, and much of their interests were about their wonderful gardens. Their letters touch on their writings and the fame they have achieved, (she asks for advice and he gives it) but you need to love gardening to really appreciate the book. The format is such a pleasure. The paper, the type and the many illustrations and drawings are joy. A special treat for me, was the reprint of the tribute to Wharton, written by Bromfield. The writing is superb, and I forgave him (Bromfield) all the stuff he later wrote to try to keep Malabar solvent.

Best of all is that this fine book was edited (from much research) by Shirl and Dave's boy. I feel like a proud great aunt to someone I've never seen. ... Read more

Book Description
The four short novels in this collection by the author of The Age of Innocence are set in the New York of the 1840s, '50s, '60s, and '70s, each one revealing the tribal codes and customs that ruled society, portrayed with the keen style that is uniquely Edith Wharton's. Originally published in 1924 and long out of print, these tales are vintage Wharton, dealing boldly with such themes as infidelity, illegitimacy, jealousy, the class system, and the condition of women in society. Included in this remarkable quartet are False Dawn, which concerns the stormy relationship between a domineering father and his son; The Old Maid, the best known of the four, in which a young woman's secret illegitimate child is adopted by her best friend -- with devastating results; The Spark, about a young man's moral rehabilitation, which is "sparked" by a chance encounter with Walt Whitman; and New Year's Day, an O. Henryesque tale of a married woman suspected of adultery. Old New York is Wharton at her finest.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Novellas
We enjoyed this book , especially the story "The Old Maid". We are fans of Editith Wharton and this did not disappoint.

Attention Wharton-alholics
Once you've read all of the "A-list" Wharton novels several times over, it's a treat to tread on new ground. This isn't the best of La Wharton, but it's still the Maitresse, and she sure knows how to string a sentence together. If you haven't read any of her major novels, go order The House of Mirth or The Age of Innocence. But if you've been around the Wharton block a couple of times, order this one for an infusion of new blood.

Very Slow-Going...
I feel bad giving this book three stars while everyone else here raved about it, but I had a rough time getting through it. I received this book for Christmas (it was on my wish list) and thought I'd really enjoy it based on what everyone else had to say about it. But it was in fact very hard to get through, and at a few points I found myself nodding off. Not to mention it was a bit hard to follow at times. I realize each story takes place in the mid-to-late 1800's, but the language of the day is kinda difficult to understand sometimes.

I also don't think it helped that the first of the four stories in this book (False Dawn) was my least favorite. It was very predictable, and my mind kept wondering throughout the story. The other three tales weren't bad, but even the best of the four 'Old Maid' (which was made into a Betty Davis movie) was slow-going.

In the end, I just don't think this is my kinda reading. I have a few other books by this author, including 'House of Mirth', but am now a little reluctant to pick them up. I think I'll give it some time before I dig into another Edith Wharton book again. Though I wasn't overly pleased with the experience, I sure hope you have better luck with it.

Terrific Wharton Collection
This collection of 4 novellas is not one of Edith Wharton's best or best known books; however, OLD NEW YORK is a wonderful and varied good read.The best known of these stories is probably the OLD MAID, which was made into a 1939 movie starring Bette Davis.It chronicles the complex relationsip between cousins who join together to hide the origins of an orphan.I also really enjoyed NEW YEAR'S DAY, which tells of a young adulturous woman and the ramificantions her actions have on her entire life.The story reminded me a bit of THE AGE OF INNOCENCE in its heroine's sacrificing her life for the sake of appearances.THE SPARK is also terrific, but a bit stagey.It tells of a young man's fascination with an older successful man who is seen as a bit silly by others.Unfortunately, the book jacket (included on this site also) gives away a bit too much.The other story, FALSE DAWN, I found to be too predictable, and the writing was rather stilted.FALSE DAWN is the first story in this collection; if you find yourself not enjoying this story, stick with the book...it gets better!

Overall, this collection is likely to please fans of Edith Wharton and people who enjoy American literature from the early 20th century.Wharton is an superb author of the finest caliber, and I look forward to reading more of her books.

The story-telling talents of Edith Warthon!
There is no doubt about it. Edith Warthon -- the stunning creator ofamazing novels like The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth -- hadoutdone herself with Old New York. The four novellas in Old New York havesimilar themes: infidelity, jealousy and the always intriguing classsystem. I love all the stories, but I particularly like "New Year'sDay," which focuses on an adulterous woman. I marvel at the fact thatthis story had probably caused some controversy in those times. I alsoenjoyed "False Down" and "The Old Maid." I know thatthis particular book is not as popular as -- oh, I don't know -- The Age ofInnocence, but the timeless quality in the stories is definitely memorable.If you haven't given this wonderful book a whirl, please do! ... Read more

Book Description
Opening on the French Riviera among a motley community of American expatriates, The Mother's Recompense tells the story of Kate Clephane and her reluctant return to New York society after being exiled years before for abandoning her husband and infant daughter.

Oddly enough, Kate has been summoned back by that same daughter, Anne, now fully grown and intent on marrying Chris Fenno, a war hero, dilettante, and social opportunist. Chris's questionable intentions toward her daughter are, however, the least of Kate's worries since she was once, and still is, deeply in love with him. Kate's moral quandary and the ensuing drama evoke comparison with Oedipus and Hamlet and lead to an ending that startled the mores of the day.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A Mother's Dilemma
Written in 1925, this less well-known novel by Edith Wharton examines a mother's dilemma. Kate Clephane, the heroine of this novel, deserted her wealthy husband and young daughter twenty years before, when she fled the social constraints of her proper home in New York, at the turn of the century. After the end of that affair she seeks to be reunited with her child, but is denied this by her husband and mother in law. Ostracized by friends and family, Kate leads a life of love affairs and social gatherings amid the frivolous expatriate community on the Riviera. One day she receives a telegram from her now grown daughter. Kate's mother-in-law has died and the girl summons her to return to New York in an attempt to rekindle their relationship. Things go well for a while, until Kate discovers that her daughter is planning on marrying Chris one of Kate's near do well former lovers. Kate is repelled by the thought. She wrestles with what she should do. Should she tell her daughter of her former relationship with Chris, putting her relationship with her daughter in jeopardy? Should she attempt to break up the relationship to save her daughter from marrying a man whose character indicates he was not meant to marry? Or should she keep silent and not break her daughter's heart. The reader struggles with Kate over which is the correct decision, as well as what motivates Kate's behavior. Does she want to end the relationship between her daughter and Chris out of jealousy, or perhaps selfishness? I won't reveal her choice. But in the end she forgoes her own happiness in rejecting the hand of a suitor. Why? This is for the reader to decide. There are similaries in plot and style with Henry James' Washington Square, where a father intrudes into the relationship of his shy daughter with a potentially disastrous suitor.

A Fantastic Voyage Across an Hysterical Sea
This novel which has gone undiscovered for many years deserves close scrutiny and ultimately a judgement on the heroine. The introduction invites the author to decide whether the mother is merely hysterical or has real cause for concern. Whatever the outcome it is a difficult and delightful decision to make ... Read more

Book Description
The definitive biography of one of America's greatest writers, from the author of the acclaimed masterpiece Virginia Woolf.

Delving into heretofore untapped sources, Hermione Lee does away with the image of the snobbish bluestocking and gives us a new Edith Wharton--tough, startlingly modern, as brilliant and complex as her fiction.

Born in 1862, Wharton escaped the suffocating fate of the well-born female, traveled adventurously in Europe and eventually settled in France. After tentative beginnings, she developed a forceful literary professionalism and thrived in a luminous society that included Bernard Berenson, Aldous Huxley and most famously Henry James, who here emerges more as peer than as master. Wharton's life was fed by nonliterary enthusiasms as well: her fabled houses and gardens, her heroic relief efforts during the Great War, the culture of the Old World, which she never tired of absorbing. Yet intimacy eluded her: unhappily married and childless, her one brush with passion came and went in midlife, an affair vividly, intimately recounted here.

With profound empathy and insight, Lee brilliantly interweaves Wharton's life with the evolution of her writing, the full scope of which shows her far to be more daring than her stereotype as lapidarian chronicler of the Gilded Age. In its revelation of both the woman and the writer, Edith Wharton is a landmark biography.

Hermione Lee's Reading Guide to Edith Wharton

Hermione Lee, about whose Virginia Woolf the Amazon.com reviewer wrote, "Biographies don't get much better than this," has turned for her next major subject to Edith Wharton. Wharton's classics, including The House of Mirth, The Age of Innocence, and Ethan Frome, are known to many readers, but Lee has prepared exclusively for us a Reading Guide to Edith Wharton that goes beyond those familiar titles to unearth lesser-known gems among her remarkable stories and novels, from the story "After Holbein," "a masterpiece of ghoulish, chilling satire," to The Custom of the Country, her "most ruthless, powerful, and savage novel."

Book Description
From Hermione Lee, the internationally acclaimed, award-winning biographer of Virginia Woolf and Willa Cather, comes a superb reexamination of one of the most famous American women of letters.

Delving into heretofore untapped sources, Lee does away with the image of the snobbish bluestocking and gives us a new Edith Wharton-tough, startlingly modern, as brilliant and complex as her fiction. Born into a wealthy family, Wharton left America as an adult and eventually chose to create a life in France. Her renowned novels and stories have become classics of American literature, but as Lee shows, Wharton's own life, filled with success and scandal, was as intriguing as those of her heroines. Bridging two centuries and two very different sensibilities, Wharton here comes to life in the skillful hands of one of the great literary biographers of our time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Lots of Detail
This biography of Edith Wharton features lots of detail, some newly presented, but not as much organization or insight as one would hope for.I wonder if Lee not being American was one reason for this: she can be excellent in some of her analyses--of some of Wharton's novels, especially of "Ethen Frome," for example--but doesn't seem to come to an overall understanding of Wharton that satisfies me.This is like some other biographies that are touted as "major" in that the biographer is piling up the details, but perhaps getting lost in them.Lee is a talented biographer, and she questions the accepted wisdom regarding some of the phases of Wharton's life, but this is not her best work.Still, she makes a good case for Wharton's strength of character and ability to deal with her life's difficulties while continuing to produce first rate work. Wharton's greatness as a writer is what we don't entirely see in Lee's account.

Edith Wharton
I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in E.W.'s fiction.I have read the previous reviews, which together give a very good idea of the scope of the book.In short, reading this will help the student of literature become better acquainted with the context of Wharton's work.Hermione Lee does a masterful job of weaving her analysis of Wharton's fiction into the biographical montage.I say montage because this book is not a chronological synopsis of E.W.'s life; rather, one has to wade through the chapters and sometimes backtrack to figure out where in time, exactly, Lee is pulling the reader.I relied on other sources to help with chronology in this case.

Edith Wharton: The great American novelist's life is presented in exquisite detail by biographer Hermione Lee
Edith Newbold "Pussy" Jones was born into a wealthy and socially prominent New York family in 1862. Her father was cold and distant. He was involved in real estate transactions. Her mother Lucretia was not a good mentor for her precocious bookworm daughter. Edith had two older brothers. Her childhood was lonesome punctuated by long trips to the cities of Europe (her father died in Cannes). Edith received no formal schooling but fed her retentive mind by study in her father's library. Wharton was a passionate reader and author from a very early age. She received no encouragement from her parents being married off to the much older Edward "Teddy" Wharton in 1885. Teddy was bipolar loving horses, drinkiing and playing cards with his buddies. Their marriage was a disaster ending in divorce after 25 years of life together. The couple were childless.
Edith had a passionate affair at 45 with Morton Fullerton a newspaperman in Paris who had countless affairs. The couple never married but remained friendly until Edith's death in 1937.
Edith was a Francophile who did a good deal ofrelief work during the first world war winning several honors from the French government. In politics she was conservative. Wharton was antisemitic, snobbish and looked down upon persons of color. She was a control freak who demanded excellence in her writing and life. Edith traveled widely for over 50 years staying in the best hotels; eating in great restaurants and exploring art museums, libraries and concerts. What a life of privilege!!!
Wharton never married following the divorce from Teddy. Mrs. Wharton did have several lifelong male friends most notably Walter Barry the President of the Paris version of the US Chamber of Commerce. She was also friendly with novelist Aldous Huxley, art historian Bernard Bernson and several lady friends. The great novelist Henry James was her most famous literary pal. She is often compared to James in her writing style. Hermione Lee says as far as we know all of these friendships were platonic. Wharton's friendships were with the wealthy and artistic elite. The novelist was a consummate snob who was, nevertheless, viewed as being kind and loyal by her friends.
Edith Wharton wrote many novels among the most famous being "The Custom of the Country"; "Ethan Frome"; "The Age of Innocence"; "Glimpses of the Moon" and "Summer". Wharton was a prolific short story author selling her tales to magazines. Her focus was on the wealthy. She dealt with marriage. incest, New York society and the the sexual mores of the well to do. She was disdained by the younger authors of the 1920s for being old fashioned. She wrote in an elegant style noted for its daring subject matter.
Hermione Lee is the author of Virginia Woolf as well as this biography on Wharton. The book is 800 pages long dealing in incredible detail with such topics as:
a. Wharton's love life and divorce from Teddy.
b. Wharton's many gardens and her books on gardening.
c. Close descriptions of all the fabulous homes Edith owned which are shown in several pictures included in the book.
d A description of the most important travels Wharton made in her life.
e. Short but well informed synopses and critical comments on her novels and short stories. We also get a glimpse of her poetry.
f. Discussions of the lives of her closest friends.
g. A loving review of Edith Wharton's World War I volunteer service to France.
After finishing this book I admire Wharton for her dedication to the craft of novel authorship. Wharton was a woman of high standards and loyalty to her friends. She could be frosty but was kind. Her love for animals, friends in need and loving care for aging servants is commendable. Her snobbish disdain for those of different races or religions is not appreciated (She converted to Roman Catholicism in her last few years.).Wharton was a born storyteller who can still hold the interest of the modern reader.
Hermione Lee is an excellent biographer who knows literature. Her biography of Edith Wharton is a wonderful book for those willing to devote the hours needed to read the lengthy text.

The Angel of Devastation
I just finished Hermione Lee's biography, which took me roughly a month to finish (I usually don't spend more than a few days on a book.), and its girth occasionally hurt my back. (That's a joke...) I have not read other biographies Lee has written (though I do own "Virginia Woolf", and was impressed with Lee's insight of Woolf on the DVD of "The Hours"), so I can't compare, but I gather the Virginia Woolf biography is very good. I have read other biographies of Edith Wharton; R.W.B. Lewis', and Cynthia Griffin Woolf's excellent "A Feast of Words", and Lee's is an exhaustive reiteration of much that has come before, with some subtle additions and revisions of thought. I have a new vision of Wharton during her "Neurasthenic" period, which struck her early in marriage. She gardened, wrote and traveled extensively, whereas I had the impression she was bed-ridden and slightly invalid. The life force of Edith Wharton appears to have been astonishing and exhausting. Very few of us would pass her formidable "muster", and I understand completely why Henry James labeled her "The Angel of Devastation" (Disappointing discovery that James was virulently anti-suffrage).

The book is at times, dispassionately academic. It has moments, and at its best one has the sense that Lee is weaving, or knitting, a complete picture of who Edith Wharton might actually have been. Yes, there are some things we will never know, but I get the idea. Some chapters moved along briskly, other didn't (for me). The chapter called "Italian Backgrounds" is loaded with minute detail about those kinds of gardens and Wharton's interest in them (as you would guess from the title). I'm not a gardener, however, and found myself losing interest - there is A LOT of description of Italian Gardens. Illustrations would have helped (me). I did enjoy HL's analysis of EW's Italian novel "The Valley of Decision" (the book is completely worth it for the analysis of the Wharton's writings. I wish Penguin, or N.Y.R.B, or Vintage would publish an affordable and attractive edition of "The Valley of Decision") As another reviewer observed, the book does get bogged down with detail from time to time. While I certainly couldn't write such a book (I disagree with the assertion that it was not well researched, on the contrary, the research seems dizzying and at the very least thorough: nothing is perfect.), I'm impressed that Hermione Lee did.

Wharton comes across as delightfully bitchy with the upper classes. The Breakers is described as a "Thermopylae of Bad Taste". Mrs. Wharton, on a tour of a wealthy acquaintances' home, was informed that this was the woman's "Louis Quinze Room", to which Mrs. Wharton replied, looking about through her lorgnette, "Why, my dear?" (Her knowledge of architecture and historical interiors was encyclopedic, and would currently entitle her to a Masters Degree. She would have several, in fact... and a Doctorate or two.) In a letter she stated that an unnamed party "...decided to have books in their library." Her story "The Line of Least Resistance" borrowed too closely from an angered Emily Sloane's personal life, and Ogden Codman may have summed up Edith best saying, " Poor Pussy is of course very unpopular... she goes out of her way to be rude to people."

Most familiar with EW know how involved she was with the building and all details of each new Wharton residence, and there were many. One of the virtues of Lee's book is that we get a complete view of events; the timelines, the day-to-day occurrences in the process (es), also the transgressions (notably with Ogden Codman and the building of the Mount.) It is clear that Edith (or "Puss") wore the pants in the family. Teddy comes across as an affable, but slightly bumbling, "Club" man of the "Old Chap" sportsman type. He was not intellectually inclined, and hopelessly mismatched with the polar opposite Edith Jones.

The latter half of the book is dedicated to Wharton's life in France; her affair with Morton Fullerton, homes in the Rue De Varenne (and social place in The Faubourg.), and of course her valiant, tireless war work, all covered in great detail. Interesting that Proust may have been a translator of "The House of Mirth", and though she and Proust were many times over connected socially, they never met. The pairing is a no-brainer, and bearing in mind Wharton's conscious or unconscious predilection for homosexual companions (Henry James, Andre Gide to name a few - even her passionate mid-life love affair was with the prodigiously bi-sexual Fullerton), it's possible that Proust and Wharton would have been great friends, though Lee points out that Proust was primarily interested in Countesses. When read together "The House of Mirth", "The Custom of the Country" (read it if you haven't - it's one of EW's most satisfying, ruthless, and well-written novels.), and "The Age of Innocence" (more sublime with every reading), could be compared to Wharton's miniature version of Proust. Have your French dictionary ready though, as there is much quotation of letters written in French with minimal translation - another category (like architecture, and gardening) in which Lee assumes her reader has a working knowledge.

I had hoped there might be more information about Wharton's frosty mother Lucretia, and Edith's relationship with her. Lee points out that little written material relating to her parents has survived. However, Lee suggests that Wharton's own haughty nature may have been an inherited trait of Mama, and that "Lu" is front and center in many, many instances of Wharton's writing. Wharton was candid in her version of her mother. I wonder if it ever occured to her that she may have been more similar to Lucretia than different. (Perhaps Lily's mother in "The House of Mirth", who expresses distaste at people who "live like pigs" is a sketch of Lucretia Jones) It's been commonly thought that Lucretia had Edith's young poetry published in a volume titled "Verses" in Newport, but it was more likely her more intellectually sympathetic fathers's doing. Which makes more sense, as one pictures the exasperation Mother must have felt with the bafflingly intelligent Edith - forcing Mama to entertain her friends while the child is seized with the urge to "Make-Up" (write stories)

All in all, "Edith Wharton" is an exhaustively researched biography of considerable merit. There were sections that moved ahead with full steam, and some that sort of drag (for me) and need to be plowed through in order to finish, but I certainly don't resent the information. For the most part it has beautifully "woven" quality about it. It does seem that it would benefit with more editing; the amount of smaller (I hesitate to say lesser) detail is mind numbing. Her great friendship with Henry James is beautifully documented. Included is the account of the elaborate hoax she and James New York publisher orchestrated in order to give James a generous advance on a future book (meant to bolster his flagging self-esteem), which was really just a very generous monetary gift from Edith. The analysis of stories and novels is excellent, and well worth the price of admission. I read in an interview of Hermione Lee that she felt she would not be thought "smart enough" if she were actually able to meet Edith Wharton. Perhaps the length and breadth stems from that thought, that she is writing to prove herself worthy of her subject. I think Ms. Lee may rest easy with her next subject: she is a perfectly capable biographer.

Also recommended: Cynthia Griffin Wolff's "A Feast of Words", a tightly written compellingly analyzed study of Mrs. Wharton

Neither well edited nor fact-checked
I plowed through the first fifty pages or so before putting this book aside in digust.Topics are introduced, dropped, revisited, then dropped again at random, adding to both the page count and the reader's confusion.Simple facts are wrong -- Lee states that The Breakers, the Vanderbilt home in Newport, cost $200 million to build, when in fact the estimates for the cost are closer to $7 million. ( If Lee can make a whopper like that, I start to question every other statement of fact.)Her aunt Elizabeth's Hudson River home is Wyndeclife, not Wyndeliffe.And as a long-time New Yorker familiar with all the geography of Manhattan, I also started to wonder if Lee ever actually walked the sites she talks about. West 14th Street isn't now, nor was it ever, considered Gramercy Park! ... Read more

Book Description
No one chronicled Old New York better than Edith Wharton, and the Modern Library has selected four of her best-known novels to represent the time period:  THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, THE HOUSE OF MIRTH, THE CUSTOM OF THE COUNTRY, and OLD NEW YORK, a collection of four novellas.

The novels explore the dilemma of women and men held within the rigid bounds of social convention, often revolving around marriage.  In The House of Mirth, the novel that brought Edith Wharton to fame, Lily Bart must choose between the superficial values of the nouveaux riches and having a more meaningful life.  In The Custom of the Country, the energetic and ambitious Undine Spragg works her way to wealth and power through a succession of marriages.  Newland Archer in The Age of Innocence is caught in an agony of indecision: whether he should choose the duty of a socially approved marriage, or the love of a woman frowned upon by "decent" society. ... Read more