Wordsworth American Classics

3 total works

The Custom of the Country

by Edith Wharton

Published 1 January 1965

Edith Wharton's satiric anatomy of American society in the first decade of the twentieth century appeared in 1913; it both appalled and fascinated its first reviewers, and established her as a major novelist. The Saturday Review wrote that she had 'assembled as many detestable people as it is possible to pack between the covers of a six-hundred page novel', but concluded that the book was 'brilliantly written', and 'should be read as a parable'. It follows the career of Undine Spragg, recently arrived in New York from the Midwest and determined to conquer high society. Glamorous, selfish, mercenary, and manipulative, her principal assets are her striking beauty, her tenacity, and her father's money. With her sights set on an advantageous marriage, Undine pursues her schemes in a world of shifting values, where triumph is swiftly followed by disillusion. Wharton was re-creating an environment she knew intimately, and Undine's education for social success is chronicled in meticulous detail. The novel superbly captures the world of post-Civil War America, as ruthless in its social ambitions as in its business and politics.

Ethan Frome

by Edith Wharton

Published 1 January 1910

Edith Wharton herself drew many connections between her two novellas--"Ethan Frome and "Summer--which address the consequences of forbidden sexual passion and the tragedy of thwarted dreams. While Wharton continues to be one of the most frequently taught American writers, this New Riverside Edition volume is the first to pair these texts along with supporting critical and contextual materials. Supplementary materials include related writing about the Berkshires, essays about cultural norms in New England, and critical essays.

The House of Mirth

by Edith Wharton

Published 14 October 1905

The House of Mirth follows the tragic fall of Lily Bart, a beautiful socialite who loses her footing in the savage social-climbing world of New York high society in the nineteenth century.

Lily Bart has no fortune, but she possesses everything else she needs to make an excellent marriage: beauty, intelligence, a love of luxury and an elegant skill in negotiating the hidden traps and false friends of New York's high society. But time and again Lily cannot bring herself to make the final decisive move: to abandon her sense of self and a chance of love for the final soulless leap into a mercenary union. Her time is running out, and degradation awaits. Edith Wharton's masterful novel is a tragedy of money, morality and missed opportunity.

‘Edith Wharton's 1905 novel gave literature one of its most complicated tragic heroines’ Independent