Udine Spragg is from a western family who used slightly unorthodox methods for making money. She is in New York trying to better herself by marring up the social ladder. Her dissatisfaction causes her to have elicit affairs and several divorces...

This story collection includes: Kerfol, Mrs. Manstey's View, The Bolten Door, The Dilettante, The House of the Dead Hand, Afterward, The Fulness of Life, A Venetian Night's Entertainment, Xingu, The Verdict, and The Reckoning. According to Wikiped...

Edith Wharton is best known for her books about New York. Summer is one of two books set in New England. When Charity Royall was a child, she was treated badly by her father. Summer delves into her sexual awakening. Charity has many similarit...

Edith Wharton's novels and short stories are full of her humorous understanding of the upper classes. She left America for France beginning in 1907 and stayed during World War 1. The Reef tells the story of Americans in France and the social conf...

The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. A quote from Ecclesiastes is the genesis of the title for this novel of manners. Victorian women are portrayed as having few options in their liv...

Wharton's first novel is set in late 18th century Italy. Valsecca inherits a dukedom at a young age. During the French Revolution he had allied himself with the forces of social reform. Now he must face the tradition of feudalism, which comes w...