In his brilliant introduction to the present volume, the noted writer Gore Vidal makes this comment: "At best, there are only three or four American novelists who can be thought of as 'major' and Edith Wharton is one. ... I can only say that I envy anyone reading for the first time The Age of Innocence or New Year's Day." In these works, as in most of Mrs. Wharton's fiction, her subject is America's upper classes as they flourished in the late 19th...

"With this volume (a companion to Collected Stories 1911-1937), The Library of America presents the finest of Wharton's achievement in short fiction, drawn from the more than eighty stories she published over the course of her career. Here, in settings familiar and exotic, are all of Wharton's characteristic qualities and themes: her candid exploration of relations between the sexes; her satire, sometimes gentle, sometimes despairing, of social class...

Powers has gathered all the surviving correspondence between the two novelists, which reveals how these mutual admirers became devoted friends near the end of James's life. Though very few letters survive from Wharton's side, she's still a strong presence here as James admires her travels and projects, his awe alternating with delicious irony. Though full of references to her failing marriage and his failing health and hopes, his letters are buoyed...

"With this volume (a companion to Collected Stories 1891-1910), The Library of America presents the finest of Wharton's achievement in short fiction, drawn from the more than eighty stories she published over the course of her astonishing career. Here, in settings familiar and exotic, are all of Wharton's characteristic qualities and themes: her candid exploration of relations between the sexes; her satire, sometimes gentle, sometimes despairing,...

"Features four lesser-known works from the Pulitzer Prize-winning Jazz Age author of The Age of Innocence, including a social-class-mobility romance that is believed to have been the literary inspiration for The Great Gatsby." --

The House of Mirth (1905), the bestseller that established Wharton's reputation, recounts the story of the beguiling Lily Bart, whose efforts to retain her class standing by marrying a man of sufficient means and status are her ultimate undoing. The Custom of the Country (1913) is the saga of the ruthlessly grasping Undine Spragg, who cycles through husband after husband in a vain attempt at happiness; alas, whatever she can't have is what she most...

Four young American girls journey from America to England in search of romance and adventure in this exquisite production of Edith Wharton's final book.