Search Results

1Age of Innocence

By Edith Wharton

In an era before the advent of electric lights, telephones or motor vehicles, there exists a small cluster of aristocratic "old revolutionary stock" families that rule New York's social life. Under the rules of this society, "being things" is better than "doing things" and reputation and outward appearances come at the exclusion of everything else. In this Gilded Age, when America’s expansion and increased industrialism produce a group of newly wealthy robber barons and financiers, the patient, time-honored values of the old ruling class, and century, are giving way to the expediencies of the new. Caught at this cusp, a triangle of lovers, who must choose between the expectations of family and society, and the deepest yearnings of the heart.<br /><br /> Newly engaged couple, Newland Archer, a young lawyer, and May Welland, a society debutante, are part of the old world, where the "right people" follow the "correct rules" and marry into "acceptable families." The arrival from Europe of May’s cousin, the Countess Ellen Olenska, complicates their union, as Ellen’s mysterious past threatens to cast a shadow of scandal over the newly betrothed couple. Newland Archer, at first critical of Ellen's bohemian lifestyle, and her seemingly wilful ignorance of the rules and customs of his Old New York, is soon captivated by Ellen's warmth, spirit, and her generous and loving heart. Will he cast off the life for which he's been groomed, or sacrifice happiness for duty and the greater good of the social order?<br /> (Summary by Brenda Dayne)

2Summer

By Edith Wharton

The story is one of only two novels by Wharton to be set in New England. The novel details the sexual awakening of its protagonist, Charity Royall, and shares many plot similarities with Wharton's better known novel, Ethan Frome. Only moderately well-received when originally published, Summer has had a resurgence in critical popularity since the 1960's. (Summary by Wikipedia)

Mary and Ned Boyne have fled their dreary life in Wisconsin for a home in rustic Dorsetshire. But you can only run so far, and some things - some secret things - may follow you. A creepy and tragic ghost story from one of the masters. (Summary by John Silence)

4House of Mirth

By Edith Wharton

The House of Mirth (1905), by Edith Wharton, is a novel about New York socialite Lily Bart attempting to secure a husband and a place in rich society. It is one of the first novels of manners in American literature, and one of the first to openly explore how American Victorian society offered little social mobility for women. (Summary from Wikipedia).

5Custom of the Country

By Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton was a novelist of manners of late 19th Century New York "Society", who spent much of her life in France. In this novel she tells the story of Undine Sprague, the thrice- (or more) married, upwardly mobile beauty from "Apex City", transplanted to New York, and finally to France, leaving the dead and wounded in the wake of her "experiments in happiness". (Summary by Karen Merline)

6Glimpses of the Moon

By Edith Wharton

"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)

7Ethan Frome

By Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton's 1911 novel Ethan Frome tells the story of a tragic love triangle. Set in the highly symbolic wintry landscape of Starkfield, Massachusetts, the narrative centers on the title character's fraught relationships with his "sickly, cantankerous" wife Zeena and his young, beautiful cousin Mattie Silver. (Summary by Elizabeth Klett)

8Bunner Sisters

By Edith Wharton

“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 side street 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)

9Reef

By Edith Wharton

George Darrow, Anna Leath’s first love, is finally coming from London to propose to her. However, he drifts to an affair with Sophy Viner, Anna’s daughter’s naïve and young governess. Sophy’s relationship with Darrow and Anna’s family can threaten his success. In this novel, as in many of Wharton’s other well known novels, we see the eternal love triangle. With her sly and lovely writing style, Wharton delivers to us in this wonderful novel a cast of unforgettable characters and many unforgettable scenes which we can vividly imagine. What would Darrow choose: success or love? Would Anna marry him despite his affair with Sophy? (Summary by Stav Nisser.)

10Fruit of the Tree

By Edith Wharton

When published in 1907, this novel about the lives of a wealthy mill owner, her socially progressive husband and friends caused a stir due to its treatment of drug abuse, mercy killing, divorce and second marriages. (Summary by Margaret)

11House of Mirth (Version 2)

By Edith Wharton

Wharton's classic story of an aging (by Victorian-era standards) spinster socialite who would rather marry for money than for true love. (Summary by BellonaTimes)

12Sanctuary

By Edith Wharton

Kate Orme, shocked by the discovery of her fiance's complicity in a tragedy, and by society's willingness to overlook such transgressions, nevertheless marries him. Years later, her son faces a moral crisis similar to the one that showed her his father's moral weakness. (Introduction by Christine Dufour)

13Fighting France, from Dunkerque to Belfort

By Edith Wharton

American novelist Edith Wharton was living in Paris when World War I broke out in 1914. She obtained permission to visit sites behind the lines, including hospitals, ravaged villages, and trenches. Fighting France records her travels along the front in 1914 and 1915, and celebrates the indomitable spirit of the French people. (Summary by Elizabeth Klett)

14Age of Innocence (version 2)

By Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction with this 1920 novel about Old New York society. Newland Archer is wealthy, well-bred, and engaged to the beautiful May Welland. But he finds himself drawn to May's cousin Ellen Olenska, who has been living in Europe and who has returned following a scandalous separation from her husband. (Introduction by Elizabeth Klett)<br /><br /> Proof listened by Stav Nisser & Betty M.

15Touchstone

By Edith Wharton

Stephen Glennard's career is falling apart and he desperately needs money so that he may marry his beautiful fiancee. He happens upon an advertisement in a London magazine promising the prospect of financial gain. Glennard was once pursued by Margaret Aubyn, a famous and recently deceased author, and he still has her passionate love letters to him. Glennard removes his name from the letters and sells them, making him a fortune and building a marriage based on the betrayal of another. (Summary by Wikipedia)

16Greater Inclination

By Edith Wharton

This is Edith Wharton's earliest published collection of short stories (1899). Like much of her later work, they touch on themes of marriage, male/female relationships, New York society, and the nature and purpose of art. One of the stories, "The Twilight of the God," is written as a short play. The role of Warland is read by mb, and the role of Oberville by Bruce Pirie. (Summary by Elizabeth Klett)

17Crucial Instances

By Edith Wharton

This is Edith Wharton's second published collection of short stories (1901). One of these seven stories, "Copy: A Dialogue," is written as a short play. The role of Hilda is read by Arielle Lipshaw, and the role of Ventnor by Mark F. Smith. (Summary by Elizabeth Klett)

18Summer (version 2)

By Edith Wharton

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? (Introduction by Elizabeth Klett)

19Madame de Treymes

By Edith Wharton

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. (Introduction by Elizabeth Klett)

20Ethan Frome (version 2)

By Edith Wharton

Ethan Frome is a novel published in 1911 by the Pulitzer Prize-winning American author Edith Wharton. It is set in the fictitious town of Starkfield, Massachusetts, New England, where an unnamed narrator tells the story of his encounter with Ethan Frome, a man with dreams and desires that end in an ironic turn of events. (Summary by Wikipedia)

21Age of Innocence (Dramatic Reading)

By Edith Wharton

The Age of Innocence centers on an upper-class couple's impending marriage, and the introduction of a woman plagued by scandal whose presence threatens their happiness. Though the novel questions the assumptions and morals of 1870s' New York society, it never devolves into an outright condemnation of the institution. In fact, Wharton considered this novel an "apology" for her earlier, more brutal and critical novel, The House of Mirth. Not to be overlooked is Wharton's attention to detailing the charms and customs of the upper caste. The novel is lauded for its accurate portrayal of how the 19th-century East Coast American upper class lived, and this, combined with the social tragedy, earned Wharton a Pulitzer Prize — the first Pulitzer awarded to a woman. Edith Wharton was 58 years old at publication; she lived in that world, and saw it change dramatically by the end of World War I. The title is an ironic comment on the polished outward manners of New York society, when compared to its inward machinations. (Summary by Wikipedia) <BR><BR>Cast list:<BR> Newland Archer: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/5694">Winston Tharp</a><br> Lawrence Lefferts: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/2825">Ernst Pattynama</a><br> and: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/4705">Algy Pug</a><br> Christine Nillson : <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/1259">Elizabeth Klett</a><br> and: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/13140">Jenn Broda</a><br> Sillerton Jackson: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/4570">Bill Mosley</a><br> Young Man/Thorley/Waiter/Mr. Merry: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/7008">John Trevithick</a><br> Mrs. Manson Mingott: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/1259">Elizabeth Klett</a><br> May Welland: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/7138">CaprishaPage</a><br> Mrs. Welland: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/6281">Beth Thomas</a><br> and: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/11790">TJ Burns</a><br> Ellen Olenska: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/6544">Amanda Friday</a><br> and: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/8883">Lydia</a><br> Mrs. Archer: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/3536">Arielle Lipshaw</a><br> Julius Beaufort: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/3470">Jason Mills</a><br> Janey Archer: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/7679">Libby Gohn</a><br> Henry van der Lyden: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/6535">Ron Altman</a><br> Louisa van der Lyden: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/7766">Maryanka</a><br> Gertrude Lefferts/Maid: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/7315">Charlotte Duckett</a><br> Nastasia : <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/4009">Diana Majlinger</a><br> Duke of St. Austrey: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/7170">Alan Mapstone</a><br> Mrs. Struthers: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/7816">Stefanie Heinrichs</a><br> Butler: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/7822">Oxenhandler</a><br> Mr. Letterblair: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/8169">tovarisch</a><br> Ned Winsett: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/6754">ToddHW</a><br> Mr. Welland: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/7170">Alan Mapstone</a><br> Marchioness Medora Manson: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/7679">Libby Gohn</a><br> Dr. Carver: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/7170">Alan Mapstone</a><br> and <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/3912">Bob Neufeld</a><br> Reggie Chivers: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/7740">Drpage</a><br> The Rector/Gov. of New York: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/8169">tovarisch</a><br> M. Riviere: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/6754">ToddHW</a><br> Miss Blenker/Young Lady: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/7656">Naomi Park</a><br> Miss Sophy Jackson: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/1259">Elizabeth Klett</a><br> Regina Beaufort: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/7315">Charlotte Duckett</a><br> Mrs. Lovell Mingott: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/7717">Astrid Fingerhut</a><br> Dallas: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/7079">Chuck Williamson</a><br> Narration: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/7138">CaprishaPage</a><br> and: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/7510">Kathrine Engan</a><br> and: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/14337">ambsweet13</a><br> and: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/14461">Pari</a><br> Editing: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/7138">CaprishaPage</a><br> and: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/6754">ToddHW</a>

American writer Edith Wharton is known for her novels of manners set in old New York; yet much of her adult life was spent in France. She lived in Paris throughout World War I and was heavily involved in refugee work. Her 1918 novella The Marne dramatizes the events of the war as seen through the eyes of 15-year-old Troy Belknap, an American boy who longs to join up and save his beloved France. (Summary by Elizabeth Klett)

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 (two stories, however, are set in Italy). 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 (and sometimes not so gentle) irony and curiosity about human behavior. (Summary by Nicholas Clifford)

24Decoration of Houses

By Ogden Codman, Jr. and Edith Wharton

The Decoration of Houses, a manual of interior design written by Edith Wharton with architect Ogden Codman, was first published in 1897. In the book, the authors denounced Victorian-style interior decoration and interior design, especially those rooms that were decorated with heavy window curtains, Victorian bric-a-brac and overstuffed furniture. They argued that such rooms emphasized upholstery at the expense of proper space planning and architectural design and were, therefore, uncomfortable and rarely used. Wharton and Codman advocated the creation of houses with rooms decorated with strong architectural wall and ceiling treatments, accentuated by well-suited furniture, rooms based on simple, classical design principles such as symmetry and proportion and a sense of architectural balance. The Decoration of Houses is considered a seminal work and its success led to the emergence of professional decorators working in the manner advocated by its authors. (Summary by Wikipedia)

25Tales of Men and Ghosts

By Edith Wharton

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 (say) 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. (Summary by Nicholas Clifford)

26Sanctuary (version 2)

By Edith Wharton

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

27Custom of the Country (version 2)

By Edith Wharton

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

28House of Mirth (Version 3)

By Edith Wharton

The House of Mirth tells the story of Lily Bart, a woman who is torn between her desire for luxurious living and a relationship based on mutual respect and love. She sabotages all her possible opportunities for a wealthy marriage, loses the esteem of her social circle, and dies young, poor, and alone. - Summary by Wikipedia

29Valley of Decision

By Edith Wharton

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. - Summary by Mary Kay

30Long Run

By Edith Wharton

A wealthy bachelor businessman looks back on the romance that he fumbled with a beautiful married woman he and his college buddy both had crushes on when younger. ( Matt Pierard)

This is an overlooked novel by the author of House Of Mirth, Age Of Innocence, and more. She already became the first woman to win the Pulitzer prize for literature before this novel was written. Edith Wharton is known for her combination of social observations, criticism, and compassion. This WWI novel is told from the point of view of parents, forced to live their own lives when their son is at the front. John and Julia are divorced parents. When their only son George enlists, Julia and her second husband do their best to give him a desk job. But George shocks everybody by enlisting. His mother is horrified, his father and stepfather are secretly proud. But would he return alive? - Summary by Stav Nisser

El país del placer llamada así por la primera traducción en español de esta novela de Edith Wharton publicada por la revista La España Moderna en 1910 (título original en inglés: The House of Mirth) es la segunda novela de Edith Wharton, publicada en 1905. Narra el drama personal de una mujer agraciada en la alta sociedad de Nueva York de inicios del siglo XX. - Summary by Phileas Fogg

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.

34Old New York

By Edith Wharton

Old New York (1924) is a collection of four novellas (False Dawn; The Old Maid; The Spark; New Year's Day) by Edith Wharton, revolving around upper-class New York City society in the 1840s, 1850s, 1860s, and 1870s. - Summary from Wikipedia

Edith Wharton, a successful author of fiction herself, gives us some in-depth analysis of the writing of short stories and novels. Then she offers practical suggestions on how to get started writing fiction, with liberal references to Arthur Quiller-Couch. She appears to prefer a list of scenes over an outline. The overall outline of a novel is painted in broad strokes, almost like a step-by-step fill in the blanks recipe. if someone were to call it a How-To book it wouldn't be far off. The last chapter, on Proust seemed a little strange to me as it doesn't tie back much to the previous commandments. (Summary by William Jones) Proof-listeners: were Rita Boutros, Michele Eaton, & TriciaG

Wharton miraculously finds it possible to satirize the very rich while simultaneously showing compassion and even grudging admiration for some of her victims. Every character she introduces is vividly depicted, no matter how minor. Yet for all the clarity of these depictions, the lives these people live, though busy, are empty and meaningless. The novel is a brilliant description of evasion and inauthenticity. - Summary by T. A. Copeland

37Hermit and the Wild Woman, and other Stories

By Edith Wharton

Seven short stories by Edith Wharton, American author of The House of Mirth. "The Hermit and the Wild Woman" (rather different than Wharton's usual fare) is about a religious hermit who retires from the world after childhood trauma, and his relationship with a former nun whose "sinful" desire to bathe has driven her out of her cloister. The remaining six stories are set in high society, and explore the foibles and manipulations of the wealthy and influential (including artists and political figures). (Summary by Winnifred Assmann)

38Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton, Volume One

By Edith Wharton

Five early short stories by Edith Wharton, American author of The House of Mirth. Includes “Kerfol,” “Mrs. Manstey's View,” “The Bolted Door,” “The Dilettante,” and “The House of the Dead Hand.” With one possible exception (“The Dilettante”), these early stories are dark tales about ghosts (canine and human), dark deeds of the past and present and how they haunt their perpetrators and victims, and narrators/central characters with a fierce determination to pursue their hearts’ desires at all costs. Even the one exception, which seems more like Wharton’s later tales of the complicated relationships between men and women, is haunted by the ghost of the past. (Summary by Winnifred Assmann)