Edith Wharton

1. Edith , Wharton

The Age of Innocence

A moving portrayal of the struggle between desire and duty in nineteenth-century New York high societyNewland Archer, an eligible young man of the establishment is about to announce his engagement to May Welland, a pretty ingénue, when May's cousin, Countess Olenska, is introduced into their circle. The Countess brings with her an aura of European sophistication and a hint of scandal, having left her husband and claimed her independence.Her sorrowful eyes, her tragic worldliness and her air of unapproachability attract the sensitive Newland and, almost against their will, a passionate bond develops between them. But Archer's life has no place for passion and, with society on the side of May and all she stands for, he finds himself drawn into a bitter conflict between love and duty.

1. Edith , Wharton

Roman Fever

Tales of betrayal, rivalry and loss from the great chronicler of New York's Gilded Age, in an irresistible Little Clothbound Classics edition designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith In these elegant and devastating tales of deception, desire and social intrigue, Edith Wharton exposes the brittle veneer of civility that masks human ambition and longing. From the sunlit terraces of Rome to the drawing rooms of New York, Wharton's characters navigate a world bound by class and convention, yet charged with emotional undercurrents they barely understand. In 'Roman Fever', two middle-aged women confront the unspoken rivalries that have shadowed their friendship for decades; in 'Mrs. Manstey's View', a lonely widow's cherished glimpse of life beyond her window becomes the stage for a quiet tragedy; and in 'After Holbein', the elaborate pretences of two ageing New Yorkers reveal the haunting persistence of vanity and illusion.

1. Edith , Wharton

The House of Mirth

Edith Newbold Jones (Edith Wharton) (1862-1937) was born in New York City during the American Civil War. She enjoyed a diverse and very successful career as interior and garden designer, short story writer and award-winning novelist. It was The House of Mirth, published in 1905, that made Wharton famous, and in 1921 she became the first woman to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Her great novella Ethan Frome is also published in the Penguin English Library.

1. Edith , Wharton

Summer

Introducing Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-SmithCelebrating the range and diversity of Penguin Classics, they take us from snowy Japan to springtime Vienna, from haunted New England to a sun-drenched Mediterranean island, and from a game of chess on the ocean to a love story on the moon. Beautifully designed and printed, these collectible editions are bound in colourful, tactile cloth and stamped with foil.A novella regarded by Edith Wharton as one of her very best, Summer tells the tale of forbidden sexual passion and thwarted dreams set against the backdrop of a lush summer in rural Massachusetts. A sensation on first publication, its honest depiction of a young woman attempting to live on her own terms remains as vital today as it was in 1917.

1. Edith Wharton

The Writing of Fiction (Cram Edition)

1. Edith Wharton

The Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton