Edith Wharton

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Pennsylvania

Enriched Classics offer readers accessible editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and commentary. Each book includes educational tools alongside the text, enabling students and readers alike to gain a deeper and more developed understanding of the writer and their work. An entrancing but sad story of a poverty-stricken Massachusetts farmer caught in a loveless marriage. The main characters are Ethan Frome, his wife Zenobia, called Zeena, and her young cousin Mattie Silver. Frome and Zeena marry after she nurses his mother in her last illness. Although Frome seems ambitious and intelligent, Zeena holds him back. When her young cousin Mattie comes to stay on their New England farm, Frome falls in love with her. But the social conventions of the day doom their love and their hopes. Ethan’s love for his young cousin leads to one day of explosive emotions with tragic consequences. The story forcefully conveys Wharton’s abhorrence of society’s unbending standards of loyalty. Enriched Classics enhance your engagement by introducing and explaining the historical and cultural significance of the work, the author’s personal history, and what impact this book had on subsequent scholarship. Each book includes discussion questions that help clarify and reinforce major themes and reading recommendations for further research. Read with confidence.

Ethan Frome

725a64d8-2aa9-45f8-863e-ff8fef0351db-1

Maryland

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.

Old New York

c5f6f6f9-2be8-40f5-a854-a51094abd02a-1

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

New York

The classic satire of New York society and the American Dream through the misadventures of an insatiable young striver

Ambitious and wholeheartedly materialistic, Undine Spragg is a beautiful heiress who sees men as a means to an end. New York millionaires and French aristocrats fall at her feet, but each conquest is merely a stepping-stone in Undine's quest for power and position--and in her elusive search for happiness.

A biting satire from one of America's greatest writers, The Custom of the Country features a compelling and driven antiheroine, a sharp-eyed critique of the marriage market and its objectification of women, and a knowing send-up of Gilded Age snobbery.

The Custom of the Country

8a5f6ab0-d9df-4254-aba5-517f49332a48-1

California

The Reef

3227eec7-4108-44a2-acd6-cd15985becce-1

The classic satire of New York society and the American Dream through the misadventures of an insatiable young striver Ambitious and wholeheartedly materialistic, Undine Spragg is a beautiful heiress who sees men as a means to an end. New York millionaires and French aristocrats fall at her feet, but each conquest is merely a stepping-stone in Undine’s quest for power and position—and in her elusive search for happiness. A biting satire from one of America’s greatest writers, The Custom of the Country features a compelling and driven antiheroine, a sharp-eyed critique of the marriage market and its objectification of women, and a knowing send-up of Gilded Age snobbery.

11 timeless classics which have stood the test of time, and their enduring themes have proved popular through the ages. Each with its own concise introduction to guide the reader's thoughts and launch them into the text, these are accessible editions for the academic and general reader alike.

Sophia Eck

Kentucky

Set among the glittering salons of Gilded Age New York, Edith Wharton’s most popular novel is a moving indictment of a society whose soul-crushing limitations destroy a woman too spirited to be contained by them. The beautiful, much-desired Lily Bart has been raised to be one of the perfect wives of the wealthy upper class, but her drive and her spark of independent character prevent her from conforming sucessfully. Her desire for a comfortable life means that she will not marry for love without money, but her resistance to the rules of the social elite endangers her many marriage proposals and leads to a dramatic downward spiral into debt and dishonor. One of Edith Wharton’s most bracing and nuanced portraits of the life of women in a hostile, highly ordered world, The House of Mirth unfolds with the force of classical tragedy.

The House of Mirth

d94ef9d9-b90f-4d6e-9c98-b6e16833d338

Essays about the French and their culture, written during World War I.

French Ways and Their Meaning

8c8699e8-d5e8-4154-9821-e93c0f959cbd-1

Edith Wharton's novels of manners seem to grow in stature as time passes. Here she draws a beautiful social climber, Undine Sprague, who is a monster of selfishness and honestly doesn't know it. Although the worlds she wants to conquer have vanished, Undine herself is amazingly recognizable. She marries well above herself twice and both times fails to recognize her husbands' strengths of character or the weakness of her own, and it is they, not she, who pay the price.

Edith Wharton bundle- Old New York and The House of Mirth

Edith Warton

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

Oklahoma

The glimpse of the moon (LARGE PRINT)

766d1f1e-736a-4156-a99b-52e850931c21-1

Louisiana

The Age of Innocence

Colorado

An immensely popular bestseller upon its publication in 1905, The House of Mirth was Edith Wharton's first great novel. Set among the elegant brownstones of New York City and opulent country houses like gracious Bellomont on the Hudson, the novel creates a satiric portrayal of what Wharton herself called "a society of irresponsible pleasure-seekers" with a precision comparable to that of Proust. And her brilliant and complex characterization of the doomed Lily Bart, whose stunning beauty and dependence on marriage for economic survival reduce her to a decorative object, becomes an incisive commentary on the nature and status of women in that society. From her tragic attraction to bachelor lawyer Lawrence Selden to her desperate relationship with social-climbing Rosedale, Lily is all too much a product of the world indicated by the title, a phrase taken from Ecclesiastes- "The heart of fools is in the house of mirth." For it is Lily's very specialness that threatens the elegance and fulfillment she seeks in life. Along with the author's other masterpiece, The Age of Innocence, this novel claims a place among the finest American novels of manners.

ae19e1bb-bfd4-4e89-b66f-b180a2e16045-1

Arkansas

The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton's most famous novel, is a love story, written immediately after the end of the First World War. Its brilliant anatomization of the snobbery and hypocrisy of the wealthy elite of New York society in the 1870s made it an instant classic, and it won the
Pulitzer Prize in 1921. Newland Archer, Wharton's protagonist, charming, tactful, enlightened, is a thorough product of this society; he accepts its standards and abides by its rules but he also recognizes its limitations. His engagement to the impeccable May Welland assures him of a safe and
conventional future, until the arrival of May's cousin Ellen Olenska. Independent, free-thinking, scandalously separated from her husband, Ellen forces Archer to question the values and assumptions of his narrow world. As their love for each other grows, Archer has to decide where his ultimate
loyalty lies.
Stephen Orgel's introduction and notes set the novel in the context of the period and discusses Wharton's skilfull weaving of characters and plot, her anthropological exactitude, and the novel's autobiographical overtones.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert
introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.


Ethan Frome works his unproductive farm and struggles to maintain a bearable existence with his difficult, suspicious and hypochondriac wife, Zeena. But when Zeena's vivacious cousin enters their household as a 'hired girl', Ethan finds himself obsessed with her and with the possibilities for happiness she comes to represent.

Penguin English Library Ethan Frome

New Mexico

Out of print for several decades, here is Edith Wharton's superb satirical novel of the Jazz Age, a critically praised bestseller when it was first published in 1927.

Sex, drugs, work, money, infatuation with the occult and spiritual healing--these are the remarkably modern themes that animate Twilight Sleep.

The extended family of Mrs. Manford is determined to escape the pain, boredom, and emptiness of life through whatever form of "twilight sleep" they can devise or procure.

Though the characters and their actions may seem more in keeping with today's society, this is still a classic Wharton tale of the upper crust and its undoing--wittily, masterfully told.

Twilight Sleep

c74d1f16-658e-4b8f-9f4d-82b6a3ba5463-1

Connecticut

Ethan Frome works his unproductive farm and struggles to maintain a bearable existence with his difficult, suspicious, and hypochondriac wife, Zeenie. But when Zeenieas vivacious cousin enters their household as a ahired girl, a Ethan finds himself obsessed with her and with the possibilities for happiness she comes to represent. In one of American fictionas finest and most intense narratives, Edith Wharton moves this ill-starred trio toward their tragic destinies. Different in both tone and theme from Whartonas other works, Ethan Frome has become perhaps her most enduring and most widely read novel.

New Jersey

Michigan

First published in 1905, THE HOUSE OF MIRTH shocked the New York society it so deftly chronicles, portraying the moral, social and economic restraints on a woman who dared to claim the privileges of marriage without assuming the responsibilities. Lily Bart, beautiful, witty and sophisticated, is accepted by 'old money' and courted by the growing tribe of nouveaux riches. But as she nears thirty, her foothold becomes precarious; a poor girl with expensive tastes, she needs a husband to preserve her social standing and to maintain her in the luxury she has come to expect. Whilst many have sought her, something - fastidiousness or integrity- prevents her from making a 'suitable' match.

The ribbon is distressed, but the book inside is in excellent condition.

Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

The House of Mirth / the Reef / the Custom of the Country / the Age of Innocence

The four novels in this volume show Wharton at the height of her powers as a social observer and critic, examining American and European lives with a vision rich in detail, satire, and tragedy.

Edith Wharton: Novels (LOA #30)

23d966b1-3335-456b-8615-af1ead5aef33-0

"I put most of myself into that opus," Edith Wharton said of The Reef, possibly her most autobiographical novel. Published in 1912, it was, Bernard Berenson told Henry Adams, "better than any previous work excepting Ethan Frome."
A challenge to the moral climate of the day, The Reef follows the fancies of George Darrow, a young diplomat en route from London to France, intent on proposing to the widowed Anna Leath. Unsettled by Anna's reticence, Darrow drifts into an affair with Sophy Viner, a charmingly naive and impecunious young woman whose relations with Darrow and Anna's family threaten his prospects for success.
For its dramatic construction and acute insight into social mores and the multifaceted problem of sexuality, The Reef stands as one of Edith Wharton's most daring works of fiction.

Reef

On a bleak New England farm, a taciturn young man has resigned himself to a life of grim endurance. Bound by circumstance to a woman he cannot love, Ethan Frome is haunted by a past of lost possibilities until his wife's orphaned cousin, Mattie Silver, arrives and he is tempted to make one final, desperate effort to escape his fate. In language that is spare, passionate, and enduring, Edith Wharton tells this unforgettable story of two tragic lovers overwhelmed by the unrelenting forces of conscience and necessity.
Included with Ethan Frome are the novella The Touchstone and three short stories, 'The Last Asset,' 'The Other Two,' and 'Xingu.' Together, this collection offers a survey of the extraordinary range and power of one of America's finest writers.

Browse by categories

Save this search

Edith Wharton

Ethan Frome

Edith Wharton

Old New York

Edith Wharton

The Custom of the Country

Edith Wharton

The Reef

Edith Wharton

The Custom of the Country

Edith Wharton

Ethan Frome

Edith Wharton

The House of Mirth

Edith Wharton

French Ways and Their Meaning

Edith Wharton

The Custom of the Country

Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton bundle- Old New York and The House of Mirth

Edith Wharton

The glimpse of the moon (LARGE PRINT)

Edith Wharton

Old New York

Edith Wharton

The Age of Innocence

Edith Wharton

The House of Mirth

Edith Wharton

The Age of Innocence

Edith Wharton

Penguin English Library Ethan Frome

Edith Wharton

Twilight Sleep

Edith Wharton

Ethan Frome

Edith Wharton

Twilight Sleep

Edith Wharton

The Custom of the Country

Edith Wharton

The House of Mirth

Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton: Novels (LOA #30)

Edith Wharton

Reef

Edith Wharton

Ethan Frome and Other Short Fiction