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Edith Wharton: Novellas and Other Writings
Collected in this Library of America volume are no fewer than six of the works of Edith Wharton: novels, novellas, and her renowned autobiography, A Backward Glance. Together they represent nearly a quarter century in the productive life of one of the most accomplished and admired of American writers.
Madame de Treymes (1907) is set in fashionable Paris society, where a once free-spirited American woman is trying to extricate herself, with the help of a fellow countryman, from her marriage to an aristocratic Frenchman. Wharton’s keen sense of the American-European contrast shows Paris society as stifling as life in any New England village.
Such a village is the scene of Ethan Frome (1911), a tale of marital entrapment even more relentless. Ethan’s unhappy marriage and his desperate love for his wife’s cousin Mattie drive him to an act of shattering violence. The magnificent coda is a classic of American realistic fiction.
Set in the same region of the Berkshires, Wharton called Summer (1917) “the Hot Ethan.” It is the story of a young woman’s initiation into the intricate sexual and social mores of a small town—and her revolt against them. The complex relationship between Lawyer Royall and his ward, Charity, is one of Wharton’s most subtle and evocative.
Observations of the American scene continue in the four novellas that make up Old New York (1924). They take us from the 1840s of “False Dawn,” where a young man is ostracized for his avant garde taste in art, to the 1870s of “New Year’s Day,” where a domestic scandal unfolds. “The Spark” tells of a seemingly ordinary socialite who nevertheless was touched by his Civil War experiences. “The Old Maid,” a story of illegitimacy in which a mother refuses to claim her parental rights so her daughter might have advantages she cannot offer, is one of Wharton’s most popular.
The poignancies of parenthood are also the theme of The Mother’s Recompense (1925). Kate Clephane, a divorced woman who has been living in Europe, returns to New York to find her former lover engaged to her daughter—and to face the emotional tangles of this unusual triangle. Wharton also explores here the changes that have taken place in New York since World War I.
The fullest portraits of New York are saved for A Backward Glance (1934), one of the most compelling of American autobiographies. It is a fascinating record of Wharton’s literary career, of her friendships (including a loving appreciation of Henry James), as well as her thoughts on writing.
Another perspective is offered in “Life and I,” an autobiographical fragment that shows a younger Wharton writing with great frankness about her early life. It is published here for the first time.
Madame de Treymes (1907) is set in fashionable Paris society, where a once free-spirited American woman is trying to extricate herself, with the help of a fellow countryman, from her marriage to an aristocratic Frenchman. Wharton’s keen sense of the American-European contrast shows Paris society as stifling as life in any New England village.
Such a village is the scene of Ethan Frome (1911), a tale of marital entrapment even more relentless. Ethan’s unhappy marriage and his desperate love for his wife’s cousin Mattie drive him to an act of shattering violence. The magnificent coda is a classic of American realistic fiction.
Set in the same region of the Berkshires, Wharton called Summer (1917) “the Hot Ethan.” It is the story of a young woman’s initiation into the intricate sexual and social mores of a small town—and her revolt against them. The complex relationship between Lawyer Royall and his ward, Charity, is one of Wharton’s most subtle and evocative.
Observations of the American scene continue in the four novellas that make up Old New York (1924). They take us from the 1840s of “False Dawn,” where a young man is ostracized for his avant garde taste in art, to the 1870s of “New Year’s Day,” where a domestic scandal unfolds. “The Spark” tells of a seemingly ordinary socialite who nevertheless was touched by his Civil War experiences. “The Old Maid,” a story of illegitimacy in which a mother refuses to claim her parental rights so her daughter might have advantages she cannot offer, is one of Wharton’s most popular.
The poignancies of parenthood are also the theme of The Mother’s Recompense (1925). Kate Clephane, a divorced woman who has been living in Europe, returns to New York to find her former lover engaged to her daughter—and to face the emotional tangles of this unusual triangle. Wharton also explores here the changes that have taken place in New York since World War I.
The fullest portraits of New York are saved for A Backward Glance (1934), one of the most compelling of American autobiographies. It is a fascinating record of Wharton’s literary career, of her friendships (including a loving appreciation of Henry James), as well as her thoughts on writing.
Another perspective is offered in “Life and I,” an autobiographical fragment that shows a younger Wharton writing with great frankness about her early life. It is published here for the first time.
1137 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1934
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190 people want to read
About the author
Edith Wharton
1,441 books5,269 followersEdith Wharton emerged as one of America’s most insightful novelists, deftly exposing the tensions between societal expectation and personal desire through her vivid portrayals of upper-class life. Drawing from her deep familiarity with New York’s privileged “aristocracy,” she offered readers a keenly observed and piercingly honest vision of Gilded Age society.
Her work reached a milestone when she became the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, awarded for The Age of Innocence. This novel highlights the constraining rituals of 1870s New York society and remains a defining portrait of elegance laced with regret.
Wharton’s literary achievements span a wide canvas. The House of Mirth presents a tragic, vividly drawn character study of Lily Bart, navigating social expectations and the perils of genteel poverty in 1890s New York. In Ethan Frome, she explores rural hardship and emotional repression, contrasting sharply with her urban social dramas.
Her novella collection Old New York revisits the moral terrain of upper-class society, spanning decades and combining character studies with social commentary. Through these stories, she inevitably points back to themes and settings familiar from The Age of Innocence. Continuing her exploration of class and desire, The Glimpses of the Moon addresses marriage and social mobility in early 20th-century America. And in Summer, Wharton challenges societal norms with its rural setting and themes of sexual awakening and social inequality.
Beyond fiction, Wharton contributed compelling nonfiction and travel writing. The Decoration of Houses reflects her eye for design and architecture; Fighting France: From Dunkerque to Belfort presents a compelling account of her wartime observations. As editor of The Book of the Homeless, she curated a moving, international collaboration in support of war refugees.
Wharton’s influence extended beyond writing. She designed her own country estate, The Mount, a testament to her architectural sensibility and aesthetic vision. The Mount now stands as an educational museum celebrating her legacy.
Throughout her career, Wharton maintained friendships and artistic exchanges with luminaries such as Henry James, Sinclair Lewis, Jean Cocteau, André Gide, and Theodore Roosevelt—reflecting her status as a respected and connected cultural figure.
Her literary legacy also includes multiple Nobel Prize nominations, underscoring her international recognition. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature more than once.
In sum, Edith Wharton remains celebrated for her unflinching, elegant prose, her psychological acuity, and her capacity to illuminate the unspoken constraints of society—from the glittering ballrooms of New York to quieter, more remote settings. Her wide-ranging work—novels, novellas, short stories, poetry, travel writing, essays—offers cultural insight, enduring emotional depth, and a piercing critique of the customs she both inhabited and dissected.
Her work reached a milestone when she became the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, awarded for The Age of Innocence. This novel highlights the constraining rituals of 1870s New York society and remains a defining portrait of elegance laced with regret.
Wharton’s literary achievements span a wide canvas. The House of Mirth presents a tragic, vividly drawn character study of Lily Bart, navigating social expectations and the perils of genteel poverty in 1890s New York. In Ethan Frome, she explores rural hardship and emotional repression, contrasting sharply with her urban social dramas.
Her novella collection Old New York revisits the moral terrain of upper-class society, spanning decades and combining character studies with social commentary. Through these stories, she inevitably points back to themes and settings familiar from The Age of Innocence. Continuing her exploration of class and desire, The Glimpses of the Moon addresses marriage and social mobility in early 20th-century America. And in Summer, Wharton challenges societal norms with its rural setting and themes of sexual awakening and social inequality.
Beyond fiction, Wharton contributed compelling nonfiction and travel writing. The Decoration of Houses reflects her eye for design and architecture; Fighting France: From Dunkerque to Belfort presents a compelling account of her wartime observations. As editor of The Book of the Homeless, she curated a moving, international collaboration in support of war refugees.
Wharton’s influence extended beyond writing. She designed her own country estate, The Mount, a testament to her architectural sensibility and aesthetic vision. The Mount now stands as an educational museum celebrating her legacy.
Throughout her career, Wharton maintained friendships and artistic exchanges with luminaries such as Henry James, Sinclair Lewis, Jean Cocteau, André Gide, and Theodore Roosevelt—reflecting her status as a respected and connected cultural figure.
Her literary legacy also includes multiple Nobel Prize nominations, underscoring her international recognition. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature more than once.
In sum, Edith Wharton remains celebrated for her unflinching, elegant prose, her psychological acuity, and her capacity to illuminate the unspoken constraints of society—from the glittering ballrooms of New York to quieter, more remote settings. Her wide-ranging work—novels, novellas, short stories, poetry, travel writing, essays—offers cultural insight, enduring emotional depth, and a piercing critique of the customs she both inhabited and dissected.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
August 11, 2021
3 1/2 stars
Ethan Frome/ Summer/ Old New York
Ethan Frome/ Summer/ Old New York
February 24, 2017
A great collection of Wharton's shorter novels (plus one memoir). Everything in here is excellent; you get 1,000 pages of top-quality Edith Wharton. And the biographical Chronology at the end of this Library of America edition gives a remarkable picture of her life even in the notes' almost telegraphic form.
January 10, 2021
I took this book out from the library for one reason; Ethan Frome. Edith Wharton wrote several pieces of literature, and Ethan Frome is one of them.
Ethan Frome is the story of our narrator finding the history of our titular character. Frome has a tragic past. The initial prologue beckons us into the first chapter, where we meet a younger Ethan Frome. Frome is unhappily married and considers running off with his wife's cousin, Mattie. Frome's wife, Zeena, knows all this and isn't happy about it. Ethan and Mattie are in love with each other, but society would keep them apart. Tragedy eventually strikes, and we find ourselves back where we began.
Ethan Frome is well-written. The characters are fleshed out, and we understand their motivations. Wharton added some "local color" to the dialogue, allowing for the accents to be understood. I had the option of reading this story in High School, but I chose to read Moby-Dick instead. I don't know if I made the correct choice, but Ethan Frome is unquestionably shorter.
Ethan Frome is the story of our narrator finding the history of our titular character. Frome has a tragic past. The initial prologue beckons us into the first chapter, where we meet a younger Ethan Frome. Frome is unhappily married and considers running off with his wife's cousin, Mattie. Frome's wife, Zeena, knows all this and isn't happy about it. Ethan and Mattie are in love with each other, but society would keep them apart. Tragedy eventually strikes, and we find ourselves back where we began.
Ethan Frome is well-written. The characters are fleshed out, and we understand their motivations. Wharton added some "local color" to the dialogue, allowing for the accents to be understood. I had the option of reading this story in High School, but I chose to read Moby-Dick instead. I don't know if I made the correct choice, but Ethan Frome is unquestionably shorter.
Read
May 20, 2020I only read Summer from this volume (I've read Ethan Frome in the past). While I wasn't passionate about it like I am The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth, Wharton's attention to detail and complex characters never fail to garner my admiration.
Read
July 18, 2022Not going to rate this because there were so many different stories in it and I'm not sure how I feel on all of them. I didn't particularly like Summer, partly because (what I felt to be) the author's horror at abortion hit a particular sore spot so soon after Roe v Wade being overturned - you could probably argue there was some nuance there, but I was feeling sensitive and couldn't bring myself to give it the benefit of the doubt, so that wasn't a particularly pleasant reading experience. I also felt that Wharton's autobiography wasn't all it could've been, just because she seems to like talking about all her friends more than herself. Which is...fine, but not what I'm looking for in an autobiography, which I feel needs to involve a certain amount of egotism and willingness to bare your life. I honestly came away from it feeling I knew more about Henry James than I did Edith Wharton. Some of her anecdotes were interesting, but the whole thing was kind of tiring because it felt like one very long dinner conversation, story after story about people she knows and I don't.
Anyway, I liked the rest of the collection reasonably enough. This was a lot to read by one author in a go, though, and I'm not particularly fanatical about Wharton, so I was feeling slightly worn out by the end.
Anyway, I liked the rest of the collection reasonably enough. This was a lot to read by one author in a go, though, and I'm not particularly fanatical about Wharton, so I was feeling slightly worn out by the end.
January 14, 2022
Ethan Frome*****
Read
February 4, 2015I've only read three of the stories in this collection, so I'll just give my reviews on those:
Madame de Treymes -- a novella about Americans in Paris; it deals with divorce and conventions in France. It is short enough to work together in one piece, unlike the earlier novels. Apart from The Age of Innocence, I think Wharton is best in shorter forms.
Ethan Frome - I first read this one forty years ago in High School, but didn't remember much of it. It is very different from anything else I have read so far by Wharton: it deals with very poor people, rather than the rich and famous, concentrates on three isolated characters rather than "society", and has a much simpler and direct kind of emotional conflict. I assume that the reason my high school chose this rather untypical novella as the one Wharton to read is because the conflict is more "existential" than "social", and requires less imagination to understand or sympathize with the characters.
Summer - This is another novella in the world and style of Ethan Frome. I found these two novellas to be much less realistic than her other works -- perhaps paradoxically, because the characters are obviously meant to be "real" as opposed to the artificial characters in the "society" books. To me, though, they seemed less based on real people and events, and more like people out of novels. I think they are basically just a negative reflection of the other characters -- the kind of people that a Lily Bart in a fit of self-loathing would imagine as being "authentic". Where the characters in the other works smother their emotions in a web of over-analysis and calculation, these characters are largely puppets of unanalyzed emotions; where the others suffer from their own choices among imaginary options, these seem to have no real choices; where the others are defined by an artificial "society", these seem to exist almost in isolation from any society at all; and so forth. The two subjects of Wharton's writing seem to me to be at opposite ends of the social spectrum, with no links or intermediate strata -- either "high society" or incredibly exaggerated poverty and isolation.
Madame de Treymes -- a novella about Americans in Paris; it deals with divorce and conventions in France. It is short enough to work together in one piece, unlike the earlier novels. Apart from The Age of Innocence, I think Wharton is best in shorter forms.
Ethan Frome - I first read this one forty years ago in High School, but didn't remember much of it. It is very different from anything else I have read so far by Wharton: it deals with very poor people, rather than the rich and famous, concentrates on three isolated characters rather than "society", and has a much simpler and direct kind of emotional conflict. I assume that the reason my high school chose this rather untypical novella as the one Wharton to read is because the conflict is more "existential" than "social", and requires less imagination to understand or sympathize with the characters.
Summer - This is another novella in the world and style of Ethan Frome. I found these two novellas to be much less realistic than her other works -- perhaps paradoxically, because the characters are obviously meant to be "real" as opposed to the artificial characters in the "society" books. To me, though, they seemed less based on real people and events, and more like people out of novels. I think they are basically just a negative reflection of the other characters -- the kind of people that a Lily Bart in a fit of self-loathing would imagine as being "authentic". Where the characters in the other works smother their emotions in a web of over-analysis and calculation, these characters are largely puppets of unanalyzed emotions; where the others suffer from their own choices among imaginary options, these seem to have no real choices; where the others are defined by an artificial "society", these seem to exist almost in isolation from any society at all; and so forth. The two subjects of Wharton's writing seem to me to be at opposite ends of the social spectrum, with no links or intermediate strata -- either "high society" or incredibly exaggerated poverty and isolation.
March 13, 2011
I just completed reading Edith Wharton's novella, "Ethan Frome" in a two week group read and discussion in the "Readers Review" group on Goodreads. Personally, this is not one of my favorite Wharton works. It is important though, and it makes you think about the choices that we make in our lives and the potential consequences associated with them. This is a grim and wintry story, and one that at times can be extraordinarily painful to read; which is probably precisely what Edith Wharton intended when she wrote it.
I will continue to add to this review as I read the other novellas and stories in this collection of Wharton's works.
I will continue to add to this review as I read the other novellas and stories in this collection of Wharton's works.
July 10, 2015
I got the compilation specifically to read Ethan Frome and then also read Madame de Treymes. I have not read the other selections in the compilation. I am consistently in awe of Wharton's mastery of characterization. Her books always leave me feeling a bit uncomfortable in large part because I seemingly understand and care for the characters so much. I like her work, very much but am not passionate about it. Definitely would recommend but I am personally not likely to re-read her works. I would love to read her works as part of a lit class, I imagine the discussions would be lively and deep.
March 6, 2009
I enjoyed her autobiographical essays at the end of this edition, Summer, Madame De Treymes, and Ethan Frome. Each work comes from a different period of time in her life, so readers can see how her style changed and improved. The stories are insights into the past, especially Summer. I was amazed at the way she wrote a teenage girl - all the arrogance and innocence. Definitely not what I would describe as a romantic, life hits Edith's characters hard and often, but not outlandishly. I hope to return to this author in the future.
February 12, 2009
I've recently fallen into a Wharton phase, inspired in part by an upcoming paper I'll be delivering. As background I'm reading through a lot of Wharton, and enjoying it immensely. "Madame de Treymes" is delightful; the layered ironies of an American author writing about Americans at the hands of Parisian society (or is it the other way around?) is delightful, as is the prose and the tale. One could learn international détente from this work.
January 2, 2021
Madame De Treymes - finished - 01/03/15
Ethan Frome - finished 01/10/16
[good lord, is there a less likable character in american fiction than zenobia frome?]
Summer - finished 03/03/17
Old New York - finished 10/09/18
The Mother's Recompense - finished 05/31/19
A Backward Glance - finished 04/19/20
Life and I - finished 1/1/21
Ethan Frome - finished 01/10/16
[good lord, is there a less likable character in american fiction than zenobia frome?]
Summer - finished 03/03/17
Old New York - finished 10/09/18
The Mother's Recompense - finished 05/31/19
A Backward Glance - finished 04/19/20
Life and I - finished 1/1/21
December 4, 2007
so i finished the first novella, madame de treymes. not bad but maybe a bit over my head. i'll definitely need to invest in the cliffs notes for this book but wharton is worth it.
May 11, 2009
A decent book physically speaking, but as far as the writing itself goes, just not my cup of tea. I prefer Atherton when it comes to these sorts of subjects.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews