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The Best Short Stories of Edith Wharton

edith wharton

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Wharton, American author, is best known for her stories and ironic novels about upper class people. Wharton's central subjects were the conflict between social and individual fulfillment, repressed sexuality, and the manners of old families and the nouveau riche, who had made their fortunes in more recent years. Among her numerous novels, short stories, and travel writings are The House of Mirth, Ethan Frome, and the Pulitzer prize-winning Age of Innocence. In this volume Wharton explores the anguish and hypocrisy hanging over the lives of divorced women in The Other Two, Souls Belated, Autres Temps and The Last Asset. In Roman Fever she points out that defiance is often the weakest defense for a woman. She takes gentle jabs at women's clubs in Xingu, an old snob in After Holbein and the musty odor of New England's Indian Summer in Angel at the Grave. No collection of Wharton's stories would be complete without one of her ghost stories, Pomegranate Seed being one of her best. And finally, in Bunner Sisters she reminds us that she occasionally strayed down streets where no calling cards were ever left. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.

300 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1958

This edition

Format
300 pages, Paperback
Published
April 16, 2004 by Kessinger Publishing
ISBN
9781417911837
ASIN
1417911832
Language
English

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About the author

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edith wharton

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Edith Wharton was an American writer and designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray, realistically, the lives and morals of the Gilded Age. In 1921, she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, for her novel, The Age of Innocence. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame, in 1996. Her other well-known works are The House of Mirth, the novella Ethan Frome, and several notable ghost stories.

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Rating(4.4 / 5.0, 8 votes)
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8 reviews All reviews
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AnotsuKagehisa13
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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It feels RIDICULOUS to be discovering Edith Wharton for the first time as a full-grown woman - I can't go around recommending her because everyone has read her already. But there's something Edith Wharton-y about being a woman who makes an important discovery when she is tragically too old for it to matter, so it feels appropriate.
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Zerox0
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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I like Edith Wharton and her short stories are interesting, but let's be honest. She loves a depressing ending. And I don't.
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goldenrabbit
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Roman Fever 1-31-2021
Two childhood friends grow up together really not knowing each other that well for friends. Now they are wealthy widows and Mrs Slade and Mrs Ansley spend some time together at an upscale restaurant in Rome sitting by the low balcony wall. Both guessing what their daughters are up to this night and reminiscing about the grandmothers getting Roman Fever.
Mrs Slade decided to tell a secret from long ago. She says as a joke but it surely did not come across that way, but Mrs Ansley has thrown down the gauntlet and my mouth dropped open!
Very short and very precise 3 stars.
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KillyChides
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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I didn't read this exact book because GR doesn't have mine listed. Reading these short stories introduced me to a lighter, more satirical Edith Wharton, relative to her novels.

The satirical Xingu is wonderful and fun for anyone who has ever belonged to a book group/club. "Fun" is not normally a word I associate with Wharton but this story was a lot of fun.

Roman Fever is also fabulous.

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lunariaflora
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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At her very best, which some of these stories are, Wharton is as good as Jane Austen. Nearly all the stories share the theme of saving face when confronted by society's expectations.
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4xdblack
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Wharton’s many layered characters are refreshing and complex. Every time I read something by her, I just want to devour everything she’s ever written.
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sladke
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Edith Wharton writes well and I've enjoyed reading her a lot. But...still she has something lacking in my opinion that makes her less than great (excepting Ethan Frome).
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RowzyHowdy
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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My favorite quote from this book:
"Her mind was an hotel where facts came and went like transient lodgers, without leaving their address behind, and frequently without paying for their board." Edith Wharton, Xingu

My second favorite:
"Must the most intelligent choice work more disastrously than the blundering combinations of chance?" Edith Wharton, Souls Belated
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