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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.
--front flap
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Subjects
biography, domestic fiction, poor, English fiction, Fiction, Triangles (Interpersonal relations), Married people, Rural poor, Accident victims, Farm life, Guardian and ward, Young women, Family life, Marriage, Social life and customs, Poverty, Classic Literature, Romance, Interpersonal relations, American literature, Rurual poor, American fiction (fictional works by one author), Manners and customsPeople
Ethan FromePlaces
New England, Berkshire Hills, MassachusettsTimes
19th centuryShowing 2 featured editions. View all 2 editions?
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1
Novellas and Other Writings (Backward Glance / Ethan Frome / Madame de Treymes / Mother's Recompense / Old New York / Summer)
1990, Library of America, Library of America, The, Literary Classics of the United States, Distributed by Viking Press
in English
0940450534 9780940450530
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2
Novellas and Other Writings: Madame de Treymes / Ethan Frome / Summer / Old New York / The Mother's Recompense / A Backward Glance
1990, Literary Classics of the United States, Distributed by Viking Press
Hardcover
in English
- 2nd printing
0940450534 9780940450530
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Book Details
Table of Contents
Edition Notes
Includes bibliographical references.
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Scriblio MARC recordCollingswood Public Library record
marc_openlibraries_phillipsacademy MARC record
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Work Description
Contains:
Backward glance.
Ethan Frome
Madame de Treymes.
Mother's recompense.
Old New York.
Summer.
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