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Edith Wharton’s Followers (5,428)

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. ...more

Combine Editions
Edith Wharton’s books

Average rating: 3.81 · 584,969 ratings · 46,754 reviews · 1,579 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Age of Innocence 3.97 avg rating — 199,430 ratings — published 1920 — 1575 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 — 139,972 ratings — published 1911 — 3124 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 3.98 avg rating — 107,252 ratings — published 1905 — 2967 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 — 19,206 ratings — published 1917 — 1040 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 — 16,462 ratings — published 1913 — 885 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 — 15,226 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 3.85 avg rating — 8,761 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 3.88 avg rating — 5,106 ratings — published 1934	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 — 5,002 ratings — published 1922 — 457 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 — 3,020 ratings — published 1922 — 75 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)

3.92 avg rating — 6,819 ratings

Vance Weston (2 books)
by

Edith Wharton

3.86 avg rating — 418 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

November 2014 New School Classics Poll

1920, The Age of Innocence byEdith Wharton, 305 pages

19 votes, 14.1%

1911, Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie, 155 pages

19 votes, 14.1%

1970, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, 291 pages

14 votes, 10.4%

1997, Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden, 428 pages

13 votes, 9.6%

1962, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, 211 pages

10 votes, 7.4%

1985, Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy, 337 pages

10 votes, 7.4%

1998, The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver, 546 pages

9 votes, 6.7%

1908, The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton, 198 pages

8 votes, 5.9%

1993, Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernières, 437 pages

7 votes, 5.2%

1994, Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier, 449 pages

7 votes, 5.2%

1956, Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin, 159 pages

5 votes, 3.7%

1914, Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham, 684 pages

3 votes, 2.2%

1920, Main Street by Sinclair Lewis, 454 pages

3 votes, 2.2%

1960, The Moviegoer by Walker Percy, 242 pages

3 votes, 2.2%

1939, How Green Was My Valleyby Richard Llewellyn, 448 pages

2 votes, 1.5%

1985, The Postman: Il Postino by Antonio Skármeta, 128 pages

2 votes, 1.5%

1966, Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih, 176 pages

1 vote, 0.7%

135 total votes

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Edith Wharton’s Followers (5,428)

Edith Wharton

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Edith Wharton’s books