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Edith Wharton’s Followers (5,217)

Edith Wharton

Born

in New York City, The United States

January 24, 1862

Died

August 11, 1937

Genre

Fiction

Influences

Henry James, Jane Austen ...more

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Edith Wharton emerged as one of America’s most insightful novelists, deftly exposing the tensions between societal expectation and personal desire through her vivid portrayals of upper-class life. Drawing from her deep familiarity with New York’s privileged “aristocracy,” she offered readers a keenly observed and piercingly honest vision of Gilded Age society.
Her work reached a milestone when she became the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, awarded for The Age of Innocence. This novel highlights the constraining rituals of 1870s New York society and remains a defining portrait of elegance laced with regret.
Wharton’s literary achievements span a wide canvas. The House of Mirth presents a tragic, vividly drawn character s Edith Wharton emerged as one of America’s most insightful novelists, deftly exposing the tensions between societal expectation and personal desire through her vivid portrayals of upper-class life. Drawing from her deep familiarity with New York’s privileged “aristocracy,” she offered readers a keenly observed and piercingly honest vision of Gilded Age society.
Her work reached a milestone when she became the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, awarded for The Age of Innocence. This novel highlights the constraining rituals of 1870s New York society and remains a defining portrait of elegance laced with regret.
Wharton’s literary achievements span a wide canvas. The House of Mirth presents a tragic, vividly drawn character study of Lily Bart, navigating social expectations and the perils of genteel poverty in 1890s New York. In Ethan Frome, she explores rural hardship and emotional repression, contrasting sharply with her urban social dramas.
Her novella collection Old New York revisits the moral terrain of upper-class society, spanning decades and combining character studies with social commentary. Through these stories, she inevitably points back to themes and settings familiar from The Age of Innocence. Continuing her exploration of class and desire, The Glimpses of the Moon addresses marriage and social mobility in early 20th-century America. And in Summer, Wharton challenges societal norms with its rural setting and themes of sexual awakening and social inequality.
Beyond fiction, Wharton contributed compelling nonfiction and travel writing. The Decoration of Houses reflects her eye for design and architecture; Fighting France: From Dunkerque to Belfort presents a compelling account of her wartime observations. As editor of The Book of the Homeless, she curated a moving, international collaboration in support of war refugees.
Wharton’s influence extended beyond writing. She designed her own country estate, The Mount, a testament to her architectural sensibility and aesthetic vision. The Mount now stands as an educational museum celebrating her legacy.
Throughout her career, Wharton maintained friendships and artistic exchanges with luminaries such as Henry James, Sinclair Lewis, Jean Cocteau, André Gide, and Theodore Roosevelt—reflecting her status as a respected and connected cultural figure.
Her literary legacy also includes multiple Nobel Prize nominations, underscoring her international recognition. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature more than once.
In sum, Edith Wharton remains celebrated for her unflinching, elegant prose, her psychological acuity, and her capacity to illuminate the unspoken constraints of society—from the glittering ballrooms of New York to quieter, more remote settings. Her wide-ranging work—novels, novellas, short stories, poetry, travel writing, essays—offers cultural insight, enduring emotional depth, and a piercing critique of the customs she both inhabited and dissected.
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Combine Editions
Edith Wharton’s books

Average rating: 3.81 · 568,656 ratings · 44,121 reviews · 1,329 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Age of Innocence 3.97 avg rating — 193,668 ratings — published 1920 — 4035 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Ethan Frome 3.46 avg rating — 136,486 ratings — published 1911 — 3212 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The House of Mirth 3.97 avg rating — 105,017 ratings — published 1905 — 2977 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Summer 3.67 avg rating — 18,603 ratings — published 1917 — 1055 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Custom of the Country 4.07 avg rating — 15,892 ratings — published 1913 — 897 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Ethan Frome and Other Short Fiction 3.67 avg rating — 15,207 ratings — published 1911 — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Buccaneers by Edith Wharton, Marion Mainwaring 3.86 avg rating — 8,403 ratings — published 1938 — 64 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton 3.89 avg rating — 5,008 ratings — published 1934 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Glimpses of the Moon 3.85 avg rating — 4,824 ratings — published 1922 — 455 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	La solterona 3.89 avg rating — 2,794 ratings — published 1922 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Edith Wharton…

Series by Edith Wharton

Old New York (4 books)
by

Edith Wharton,

Carlos Mayor Ortega (translator)

3.93 avg rating — 6,266 ratings

Vance Weston (2 books)
by

Edith Wharton

3.87 avg rating — 403 ratings

Julia Armfield doesn’t believe in star signs or personality tests, but if you tell her your birth order, she knows everything about...

Polls

March 2018 Short Story Poll

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, 76 pages, 1895

64 votes, 18.8%

A Good Man Is Hard To Find by Flannery O'Connor, 24 pages, 1955

35 votes, 10.3%

Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving, 25 pages, 1818

34 votes, 10.0%

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, 101 pages, 1952

34 votes, 10.0%

White Nights by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 82 pages, 1848

32 votes, 9.4%

The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West, 112 pages, 1918

25 votes, 7.4%

Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez, 120 pages, 1981

21 votes, 6.2%

Chess Story by Stefan Zweig, 104 pages, 1941

20 votes, 5.9%

The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin, 32 pages, 1894

16 votes, 4.7%

Xingu by Edith Wharton, 48 pages, 1916

14 votes, 4.1%

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott, 96 pages, 1884

13 votes, 3.8%

Letter to a Child Never Born by Oriana Fallaci, 128 pages, 1975

11 votes, 3.2%

To Build a Fire by Jack London, 32 pages, 1902

11 votes, 3.2%

The Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish, 94 pages, 1666

10 votes, 2.9%

340 total votes

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Edith Wharton’s Followers (5,217)

Edith Wharton

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Edith Wharton’s books