Novellas and Other Writings: Madame de Treymes / Ethan Frome / Summer / Old New York / The Mother’s Recompense / A Backward Glance

By Edith Wharton

Book Overview

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.

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.

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 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.

The fullest portraits of New York are saved for A Backward Glance (1934), one of the most compelling of American autobiographies. 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.

LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation's literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America's best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0940450534
• ISBN13: 9780940450530
• Release Date: April 1990
• Publisher: Library of America
• Length: 1137 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 5.2" x 8.1"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

a pleasure

It's been a pleasure reading this Edith Wharton's book. She involves us in an atmosphere of beauty and romance, that lead us to profound thinking about life.

Edith Wharton: Novellas, used book

I need this text to write my thesis, in American Literature. The text is hard to find outside the USA or the UK, and luckyly it arrived very soon ( 2 weeks) and in perfect condition, almost new. Italian buyers please keep in mind that you will be chargd of 10 more euros at the time of the delivery, because of some italian border fees and other stuff. The price is however very low, so I overall had not too much complaints.

Short novels of society

In a way, Edith Wharton was at her best in her novellas -- her stories are lean, taut and emotionally deep. And "Edith Wharton: Novellas and Other Writings" explores views on love, sex, marriage, the conventions of the 19th and early 20th century, and even her own life. They're not just fascinating, but beautifully written. "Ethan Frome" is the male half of a loveless marriage, with the fretful, fussy Zeena. Then Zeena's lovely cousin Mattie Silver comes to live with them, and she brings out a happier, more passionate side of Ethan. But when Mattie is sent away, Ethan must make a decision. He knows he can't stay in his horrible marriage, so will he run away with Mattie? The choice they make will affect all three lives. "Summer" shocked the 1917 public, with its frank-for-its-time look at a young woman's sexual awakening. It takes place in the New England village of North Dormer, where the young librarian Charity lives. But when Charity falls in love with an upper-class young rake named Lucius, she finds herself pregnant and unmarried -- a destructive combination in the 1900s. There's only one respectable way out. "The Mother's Recompense" explores the difficulties of Kate Clephane, who abandoned her husband and daughter, and now lives as an unhappy divorcee on the Riviera. She's unexpectedly invited back, to attend her daughter's wedding -- only to find that her daughter's fiancee is one of Kate's ex-lovers. Now Kate has to wrestle her own regrets and jealousies, to figure out whether to tell her daughter the truth. "Madame De Treymes" is a sort of Henry Jamesian novella, taking place in early twentieth-century Paris. It follows the unhappy lives abroad of two Americans -- the miserable Fanny Frisbee is married to a nasty aristocrat, and living in Paris. As a knight on a white horse, her friend John is trying to convince her to divorce her hubby and marry him... "Old New York" is a collection of four novellas, exploring different facets of, well, Old New York -- family strife, adultery, illegitimate children, and a young man's inner changes. And "A Backward Glance" is totally different -- Wharton's autobiography, describing not only her life, but her friendships with the artists of the day, and the inspirations for her rich fiction. Edith Wharton gave unvarnished looks at social conventions throughout her career -- she doesn't judge, she just tells it how it was, whether she's talking about the Roaring 20s or the uptight Victorian era. Divorce was almost unthinkable, affairs scandalous if revealed, and women had the cards stacked against them in matters of love, marriage and sex. So her works are even better when you set them in context, full of characters who were totally unlike her. Some were male, some timid and naive, some disgraced (she herself was divorced, though this didn't hurt her socially), and some completely broken by society's dictates. Few of her characters are much like Wharton, but she gets inside their heads and makes th

Ethan Frome

Ethan Frome is a man that has never been able to make decisions for himself. When he married his wife Zeena it the fact that she made a good companion for the situation with his mother. Their relationship was good at first but it slowly started to die when zeena became sickly. He always did what would be best for other people, but when zeena's cousin came to live with them he took time to see her because Mattie made him feel good about himself. Ethan has been in the same place all of his life and never found a true love. Then mattie came and for once ethan stopped looking at what would be best and started looking for that wonderful feeling.

quick to read but still has a twisted plot

I had to read this in under two hours for a literary project and I was very pleased to discover an author who managed to write such a constant yet emotional plot in less than 100 pages. It still hasn't dawned on me whether or not Durham was sensible in his choice. I will be writing a full analysis this week so if ever you need help, email me, and I'd be glad to be of service. Good read for the intellectually stimulating conversationalists.