"It seemed to Ethan that his heart was bound with cords which an unseen hand was tightening with every tick of the clock."
Finding himself in the small town of Starkfield for the winter, the narrator sets out to learn the tragic story of Ethan Frome. The townspeople, however, are hesitant to tell him much. But one night he seeks shelter from a bad weather in the house of non other than Frome himself.
`Ethan Frome' (1911) is the beautifully written story of a loveless marriage and temptation, full of regret and raw emotion. Liam Neeson and Patricia Arquette are the leading roles in the 1993 movie of the same name.
Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was an American writer and designer. Her family belonged to the upper class of New York, and the phrase "Keeping up with the Joneses" is said to have referred to them. Wharton's list of works includes novels like `The Age of Innocence' and `Ethan Frome', and she was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize.
Winner of the 1921 Nobel Prize for Literature and Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, "The Age of Innocence" is Edith Wharton's masterful portrait of desire and betrayal during the splendid Golden Age of Old New York. Everything in Newland Archer's easy life seems to be perfectly on track; he has a comfortable position in society, a high-powered job and a beautiful and well-bred fiancée, May Welland. But when May's mysterious cousin Countess Ellen Olenska returns to New York after leaving a terrible marriage, Newland soon falls deeply in love with her. Torn between duty and passion, expectation and scandal, Newland struggles to make an impossible decision. Against a backdrop of a New York on the cusp of modernization, Wharton's classic skewers the orchestrated customs and inflexible mores of the 1870s high society. Among the novel's many film adaptations, Martin Scorsese's 1993 film stands out, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Winona Ryder and Richard E. Grant.
Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was an American author, best known for her sharp stories about the upper-class society into which she was born. Her major works include "The Age of Innocence" (1920), "Ethan Frome" (1911), and "The House of Mirth" (1905). She wrote over 40 books, which beyond novels included authoritative works on architecture, gardens, interior design, and travel. She was the first woman awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for "The Age of Innocence" in 1921.
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. First published in 1905, the transparent way in which Edith Wharton explored and challenged the little social mobility that American Victorian society offered women sent shockwaves through the very communities that she wrote about. This thought-provoking text is perfect for fans of novels such as Henry James' `The Portrait of a Lady'.
Edith Wharton (1863-1937) was an American author. Best known for her sharp, scathing, and fierce stories about the upper-class society into which she was born and its treatment of women, she wrote more than 40 books. Her major works include "The Age of Innocence" (1920), "Ethan Frome" (1911), and "The House of Mirth" (1905). Beyond novels, she wrote authoritative works on architecture, gardens, interior design, and travel. She was the first female author to win the Pulitzer Prize, and her work is unmissable for all fans of classic authors, from Joseph Conrad to Virginia Woolf.
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.
Edith Wharton (1863-1937) was an American author. Best known for her sharp, scathing, and fierce stories about the upper-class society into which she was born and its treatment of women, she wrote more than 40 books. Her major works include "The Age of Innocence" (1920), "Ethan Frome" (1911), and "The House of Mirth" (1905). Beyond novels, she wrote authoritative works on architecture, gardens, interior design, and travel. She was the first female author to win the Pulitzer Prize, and her work is unmissable for all fans of classic authors, from Joseph Conrad to Virginia Woolf.
Charity Royall is a 19-year-old girl, bored with her life in a small New England town. Ever since she was adopted by Mr. Royall as a child and saved from a life of poverty on the "mountain", she has been unsure of her place in society. She longs to escape the claustrophobic town and the now widowed Mr. Royall's unwanted advances. Enter Lucius Harney, sophisticated architect and ambitious city boy. Suddenly, Charity's hopes of escape awaken, as well as her newly found sexuality. But will Lucius Harney mean her salvation or her undoing? Considered shocking and highly erotic when it was first published, Edith Wharton's 1917 novella "Summer" is a compelling commentary on society's notions of what is expected of women when it comes to marriage, love and proper behavior.
Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was an American author, best known for her sharp stories about the upper-class society into which she was born. Her major works include "The Age of Innocence" (1920), "Ethan Frome" (1911), and "The House of Mirth" (1905). She wrote over 40 books, which beyond novels included authoritative works on architecture, gardens, interior design, and travel. She was the first woman awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for "The Age of Innocence" in 1921.
Please note: This audiobook has been created using AI voice.
Ethan Frome is a young man whose nascent ambitions were thwarted by illness and privation. Now his daily toils wring only the most meager living from his fading farm, and his marriage is as frigid as the winter that has beset his home in Starkfield, MA. Yet despite the swirling snows, a flame of passion sparked by the recent arrival of his wife's cousin, Mattie Silver, burns desperately within him. How far will he go to pursue a forbidden love and the prospect of true happiness? What will be the cost?
Please note: This audiobook has been created using AI voice.
Upperclass New York gentleman Newland Archer is set to wed May Welland in a pictureperfect union when the bride's cousin, Ellen Olenska, returns from a failed marriage overseas. As Newland endeavors to help Countess Olenska be reinstated into the family's good graces, his affections for her grow. Newland soon finds himself torn between his desire to conform to the society he knows and his newfound passion for the forbidden Countess.
The Age of Innocence was originally published in 1920 as a fourpart series in Pictoral Review, then later that same year as Wharton's twelfth novel. It went on to win the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, making Wharton the first woman to win the award.
"Se il ricorso della data è più di una semplice coincidenza - e per quanto mi riguarda ne sono certo - se ne deve arguire che la strana donna comparsa per due volte lungo il viale nel giorno della vigilia dei Morti, o era un fantasma o, cosa più probabile e preoccupante insieme, una donna in carne ed ossa invasata da una maliarda". Edith Wharton fu scrittrice di trame di spettri che appaiono nel lucore lunare, su di un ponte inumidito dal freddo notturno. Sagome oltretombali o esseri umani invasati, posseduti da ossessioni disperanti, costretti a vagare notturni tra i fumi ammorbati di una città ammorbata? Nel porre l'interrogativo la Wharton dichiara la propria concezione del fantastico come il mezzo narrativamente più adeguato per raccontare il proprio tempo malato (la fine del XIX secolo). Tant'è che l'autrice continua scrivendo che "la storia della stregoneria abbonda di casi del genere" e che un simile messaggero femminile, "inviato dalle potenze che governano queste manifestazioni", potrebbe aggirarsi tra le vie rabbuie per "invitare uomini e donne a qualche raduno di mezzanotte, in qualche luogo solitario dei dintorni". Non si tratta d'un caso isolato tant'è che "chiunque abbia la curiosità di assistere ad un sabba ben presto vedrà la propria curiosità trasmormarsi in desiderio" ed il desiderio tramutarsi in realtà. Attraverso le ombre di fantasmi la Wharton descrive il mondo diurno, spaventevole tanto quanto quello che scivola - a mezzanotte della vigilia del giorno dei Morti - su un lugubre viale ghiacciato da una nebbia tremenda.
"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.
Is Professor Linyard a sellout or merely a good provider? 'The Descent of Man' is a brilliant short story by Edith Wharton that leaves it to the reader to finds the answers.
B. J. Harrison started his Classic Tales Podcast back in 2007, wanting to breathe new life into classic stories. He masterfully plays with a wide array of voices and accents and has since then produced over 500 audiobooks. Now in collaboration with SAGA Egmont, his engaging narration of these famous classics is available to readers everywhere.
Edith Wharton was an American author and designer, born into New York City's high society. She is best known for her novel 'The Age of Innocence' (1920) and for being the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature.
"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.
'Afterward' is a chilling and disturbing short story that starts out on a happy note and then slowly unravels. It's made all the more haunting by Edith Wharton's impeccable prose.
B. J. Harrison started his Classic Tales Podcast back in 2007, wanting to breathe new life into classic stories. He masterfully plays with a wide array of voices and accents and has since then produced over 500 audiobooks. Now in collaboration with SAGA Egmont, his engaging narration of these famous classics is available to readers everywhere.
Edith Wharton was an American author and designer, born into New York City's high society. She is best known for her novel 'The Age of Innocence' (1920) and for being the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature.
"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... Elegantly eerie and similarily atmospheric, this Edith Wharton story makes a great companion to Henry James' 'The Turn of the Screw' (1898).
B. J. Harrison started his Classic Tales Podcast back in 2007, wanting to breathe new life into classic stories. He masterfully plays with a wide array of voices and accents and has since then produced over 500 audiobooks. Now in collaboration with SAGA Egmont, his engaging narration of these famous classics is available to readers everywhere.
Edith Wharton was an American author and designer, born into New York City's high society. She is best known for her novel 'The Age of Innocence' (1920) and for being the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature.
`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'.
Edith Wharton (1863-1937) was an American author. Best known for her sharp, scathing, and fierce stories about the upper-class society into which she was born and its treatment of women, she wrote more than 40 books. Her major works include "The Age of Innocence" (1920), "Ethan Frome" (1911), and "The House of Mirth" (1905). Beyond novels, she wrote authoritative works on architecture, gardens, interior design, and travel. She was the first female author to win the Pulitzer Prize, and her work is unmissable for all fans of classic authors, from Joseph Conrad to Virginia Woolf.
This collection of ten stories, first published in 1904, shows Edith Wharton dissecting some of the customs, habits and vagaries of courtship and marriage, particularly as practiced in the upper reaches of New York society at the turn of the twentieth century . Fidelity is only one problem; others may arise from the machinations and emotions of the protagonists or outsiders. Wharton handles the questions with her usual gentle irony and curiosity about human behavior.
"Bunner Sisters," like "The Age of Innocence" is set in 1870s New York, however the lives of Ann Eliza and Evelina Bunner reflect impoverished New York. The sisters run a "very small shop, in a shabby basement, in a sidestreet already doomed to decline." Shabby as it is, the sisters are happy in their small orderly community of supportive women. The story tells of the destruction of this life, and how the once content sisters are thrown into the realistic world outside of their little shop. (Summary by Margaret)
The Glimpses of the Moon (1922) is about Nick and Susy Lansing, both of whom live a decadent life in Europe by sponging off wealthy friends. They marry out of convenience and have an "open" relationship, but are unprepared for where their feelings will take them. (Summary by Elizabeth Klett)
Edith Wharton's 1913 novel is a devastating critique of American upward mobility, told through the journey of Undine Spragg from fictional Midwestern Apex City to New York to Paris. Undine is determined to acquire money and position through marriage, even if it means multiple divorces. - Summary by Elizabeth Klett
Odo Valsecca, a promising nobleman, inherits a dukedom at a young age and, over the course of his young life, must quickly learn the politics of royalty as he deals with other nobles, the church, the free-thinking movement, and, of course, his subjects, the peasants. Will he be able to rise to power in time, or will he quickly buckle under the pressures of the Italian court during the seventeenth century? Published in 1902, The Valley of Decision is Edith Wharton's first full length novel.
Edith Wharton's early novella focuses on Kate Orme, who begins the story happily in love with her fiance, only to discover that he hides a terrible secret. - Summary by Elizabeth Klett
Wharton's 1917 novella Summer, like her more famous work Ethan Frome, is set in a very small rural New England town. Charity Royall longs to escape the claustrophobic confines of North Dormer and the inappropriate advances of her guardian Mr. Royall, who adopted her as a child from the nearby Mountain community. Hope arrives in the form of city boy Lucius Harney, who has come to research the architecture of the region; but will his presence in Charity's life mean her salvation - or her undoing?
Edith Wharton's 1907 novella explores the milieu of Americans living abroad in Paris. New Yorker John Durham travels to Paris to woo an old flame, Fanny Frisbee, now the Marquis de Malrive. Fanny is separated from her husband and wants to marry John and return to America, but she doubts whether her Catholic husband will grant her a divorce. When John meets Fanny's sister-in-law, the enigmatic Madame de Treymes, he hopes she may be able to help them in their quest for happiness.
Old New York is a collection of four novellas by Edith Wharton, revolving around upper-class New York City society in the 1840s, 1850s, 1860s, and 1870s.
Kate Cephane, now living in self-imposed exile in France, left her three-year-old daughter Anne behind when she fled her impossibly unhappy marriage for a brief affair. When Anne asks her to return because she is getting engaged, Kate risks the scorn and scandal of New York elite society to be reconciled. When she finds out the identity of her daughter's fiancé, Kate is caught in the dilemma of how to prevent the marriage without revealing her past. Either way she will risk losing her daughter once more.
Tales of Men and Ghosts was published as a collection in 1910, though the first eight of the stories had earlier appeared in Scribner's and the last two in the Century Magazine. Despite the title, the men outnumber the ghosts, since only "The Eyes" and "Afterward" actually call on the supernatural. In only two of the stories are women the central characters, though elsewhere they play important roles. Wharton enjoys subjecting her subjects -- all of them American gentlemen and gentlewomen, in the conventional senses of the word -- to various moral tests and sometimes ironic tests. Some of the stories deal with the intellectual fashions of the day -- "The Blond Beast" basing itself, to some degree, on Nietzsche, and "The Debt" on variants of Darwinism. Though "Afterward" is set in England, and "The Letters" in France, the rest of the stories are squarely in Wharton's own New York city, rather than in what she calls "the soul-deadening ugliness of the Middle West," thus avoiding the need to come to terms with what fashion-conscious New Yorkers still today call "fly-over country" for everything that lies between the west bank of the Hudson River and San Francisco Bay.
