Collected Stories 1911-1937 - Hardcover

This collection 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 and its distinctions; her keen-eyed observation of the minutiae of character; her unflinching recognition of the power of conventional morality and the limits of passion, tempered by her delightful sense of play.

Here, in the second of two volumes, Wharton's humor is abundantly evident in sly and subtle stories like "Xingu" (in which a ladies' reading group is led to express its enthusiasm for an occult philosophy) and "Charm Incorporated" (about a mild-mannered Wall Street executive overwhelmed by his emigré wife's needy but wonderful relatives). As always, Wharton's is a provocative voice on the subject of sexuality and women's roles. In "The Day of the Funeral," "Joy in the House," and "Atrophy," love and desire confront the demands of polite society; in "Roman Fever," a formal tour de force, two middle-aged women on holiday with their modern daughters revisit the fierce competitiveness of their own youth. Of particular interest are Wharton's stories of the uncanny and the supernatural, like the grisly "A Bottle of Perrier," set in the North African desert, and the chilling "All Souls'," written just before her death. An unacknowledged master of American horror fiction, Wharton's lucid prose makes all the more powerful her exploration of the irrational forces underlying ordinary life.

Also included in this edition are a chronology of Wharton's life, explanatory notes, and an essay on the texts.

Maureen Howard, editor of this volume, is the author of seven novels, including GRACE ABOUNDING, EXPENSIVE HABITS, NATURAL HISTORY, and A LOVER'S ALMANAC, and has taught at Columbia, Princeton, and Yale. She lives in New York City.

Edith Wharton (1862-1937) is a central figure in American literature, a masterful chronicler of her age and prolific writer in many modes. Her major works include The House of Mirth (1905), Ethan Frome (1911), The Custom of the Country (1913) and The Age of Innocence (1920), for which she received the Pulitzer Prize, the first awarded to a woman.

Maureen Howard, the editor of this volume, is the author of numerous novels, including Grace Abounding, Expensive Habits, and Natural History, all of which were nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award. She has taught at a number of American universities, including Columbia, Princeton, Amherst, and Yale, and was awarded the Academy Award in Literature by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.