Antiquarian and Classic Book Reviews
(January 24th, 1862 — August 11th, 1937)
Edith Wharton (born Edith Newbold Jones) was an American author and the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Literature.
Wharton was born to very wealthy parents living in New York. Her father’s last name was ‘Jones’ and it is said that the phrase ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ refers to her family. She travelled frequently to Europe and enjoyed the wealth of New York society in what is called the ‘Gilded Age‘.
Wharton participated actively in upper class society for most of her adult lives. Her insider knowledge of New York ‘aristocracy’ was used to produce many of her most famous novels. Though she had been writing from a young age and had privately self-published some small works as a teenager, she did not publish her first novel until she was forty.
Wharton was married once, and the marriage ended in divorce and infidelity. She never stopped travelling, and was known to associate with many of the foremost literary figures of her time. During her career, she published 15 novels, many short stories, poetry, non-fiction, travel writing, and two unproduced plays. The Age of Innocence was given the Pulitzer Prize in 1920.
Wharton died of a heart attack in her French country home in 1937.
Edith Wharton is a book author.
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Wharton explores eerie presences and does so with a flare that lingers in the air over your shoulder as you read. Her prose is elegant and languid, drawing the reader in with lush descriptions and then twisting each tale to a disturbing and artful ending.
Ethan Frome is one of the shortest classics you can read. My Penguin Classics edition clocks in at only ninety-nine pages. However, despite the length it is a powerful and sharp narrative full of symbolism, depth, and atmosphere.
There’s been a lot of analysis on the character of Madame Olenska, but in my opinion it’s in the writing of a character like May Welland that truly shows how masterful writing. This is a review of Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence.
