The Portable Edith Wharton

by Edith Wharton, Linda Wagner-Martin (Editor)

Best known for her novels depicting the stifling conformity and ceremoniousness of the upper-class New York society into which she was born, Edith Wharton also wrote brilliantly in many genres: essays, travel pieces, memoirs, and a variety of short stories. This unique collection provides a fresh look at Wharton's genius by including a generous sampling of her short stories, along with nonfiction, letters, excerpts from the novels The House of Mirth, The Reef, and The Age of Innocence, and Summer, reprinted in its entirety. Also included in this volume is an introduction by Linda Wagner-Martin, who examines the life and literary accomplishments of Edith Wharton, a chronology, notes, and bibliography.

SHORT FICTION:
Souls Belated (1899)
The Muse's Tragedy (1899)
Friends (1900)
The Choice (1908)
The Lady's Maid's Bell (1902)
The Other Two (1904)
The Hermit and the Wild Woman (1906)
His Father's Son (1909)
Afterward (1910)
The Eyes (1910)
The Letters (1910)
Autres Temps... (1911)
Xingu (1911)
Coming Home (1915)
Writing a War Story (1919)

NOVELS:
Summer (1917)
from The House of Mirth [Chapters I & II] (1905)
from The Reef [Chapers XXIII - XXVI] (1912)
from The Age of Innocence [Chapters XXX & XXXI] (1920)

LETTERS: 1894-1917

NONFICTION:
from "A Midsummer Week's Dream: August in Italy" (1902)
from "Paris to Poitiers" (1908)
"In Argonne" (1915)
from "In Lorraine and the Vosges" (1915)

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Short Stories, American

656 pages, Paperback

First published July 29, 2003

About the author

Edith 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.

Reviews

[Rocio Flores · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entre tanta literatura posmoderna, sentarse a leer historias bien contadas y con estructura, es un dulce respiro. Libro que recomiendo para todos aquellos que quieran empezar a adentrarse al mundo de la autora: Algunas veces acomodaticio, otras, con atisbos de una justicia que no logra conseguirse. House of Mirth sigue siendo mi novela favorita de la autora. Si buscas una lectura placentera, si tienes la necesidad de escuchar historias bien contadas, este libro te saciará.

[Ana Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed this collection of my favorite author Edith Wharton's lesser-known and shorter works. I enjoyed reading the short stories. Some of them were less engaging, but there were other standouts that ranged from comedic and entertaining to poignant and filled with the longing that is so characteristic of Wharton's writing. I really liked the novella Summer. It was a beautifully written story with descriptions that so well create an emotional world and setting. Wharton's letters reprinted here were generally rather dull. However, a couple of them were beautifully written windows into her life and personality. Finally, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the travel writing included at the end of the novel. Wharton's writing truly brought the places and people she saw in her travels to life in my mind. I was particularly struck by her descriptions of her time near the front in France during World War I, a beautiful reflection of her writing abilities, commitment to aiding those in need, and the stark horrors of war.

[Arwen Downs · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have finished the short story portion of this book, and hands-down find Edith Wharton to be one of my favorite short story writers. The ability to write a perfect short story is the ability to write just the best part of a story and strip away all the unnecessary parts but still leave enough to have a perfectly satisfying narrative. . . and Edith Wharton not only perfected the writing of short stories, but wrote on delightful and surprising subjects to write on. I don't know if I will venture into the longer fiction section, as it contains only excerpts, and I would rather just read the entire novels.

[Danna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Wharton's writing, but not always her subject. The novella, "Summer", explores a young woman's passionate attachment to a man who will never marry her because of her social class. I came away from it glad to be born in this era to a dad who emphasized education and work ethic. I wondered why Charity was so strong in rejecting Mr. Royall and so foolish in her submission to her lover. I would like to be able to query Ms. Wharton about what might happen next in the story, i.e. through the coming years of Charity's life. And why is this topic of love affairs so common in Wharton's writing?

The book pictured is an anthology.