Showing results by author "Edith Wharton" in All Categories

Countess Ellen Olenska, separated from her European husband, returns to old New York society. She bears with her an independence and an awareness of life which stirs the educated sensitivity of the charming Newland Archer, engaged to be married to her cousin, May Welland. Though he accepts the society's standards and rules he is acutely aware of their limitations. He knows May will assure him a conventional future but Ellen, scandalously separated from her husband, forces Archer to question his values and beliefs.

Beautiful, sophisticated and endlessly ambitious Lily Bart endeavours to climb the social ladder of New York's elite by securing a good match and living beyond her means. Now nearing 30 years of age and having rejected several proposals, forever in the hope of finding someone better, her future prospects are threatened. A damning commentary of 20th-century social order, Edith Wharton's tale established her as one of the greatest British novelists of the 1900s.

A BBC radio collection of full-cast dramatisations, bringing together Edith Wharton’s most popular and best-loved works. 

The story follows the life of Tina, a young woman caught between the mother who adopted her - the beautiful, upstanding Delia - and her true mother, her plain, unmarried ‘aunt’ Charlotte, who gave Tina up to provide her with a socially acceptable life. The three women live quietly together until Tina’s wedding day, when Delia’s and Charlotte’s hidden jealousies rush to the surface.

Nick Lansing and Susy Branch are young, attractive but impoverished New Yorkers. They are in love and decide to marry, but realise their chances of happiness are slim without the wealth and society that their more privileged friends take for granted. Nick and Susy agree to separate when either encounters a more eligible proposition.

American writer Edith Wharton is known for her novels of manners set in old New York; yet much of her adult life was spent in France. She lived in Paris throughout World War I and was heavily involved in refugee work. Her 1918 novella The Marne dramatizes the events of the war as seen through the eyes of 15-year-old Troy Belknap, an American boy who longs to join up and save his beloved France. (Summary by Elizabeth Klett)

The Ultimate Classics Collection: Volume Two is the second instalment of our wide-ranging classic collections. Volume Two features 13 essential classic novels from Jane Austen; Edith Wharton; Leo Tolstoy; D.H. Lawrence, and many more, alongside selected poetry from Christina Rossetti; Elizabeth Browning; and Emily Dickinson. Read by a cast of incredible narrators including Joanne Froggatt, Adjoa Andoh, Jonathan Keeble, and many more, this is your new go-to collection to catch up on those classics you've always wanted to hear.

Single-minded and spoilt, Undine Spragg arrives in New York determined to procure for herself a social status to match her family’s wealth. Ambition, greed and an arresting beauty soon secure her path to marriage...and also to divorce. The Custom of the Country is a sophisticated commentary on both, touching on the implications for a woman of ending a marriage at a time when the author herself was navigating that situation. As the mismatched Undine and Ralph travel to Europe, Wharton contrasts the pecuniary motivation of the nouveau riche in America with European tradition.

Single woman of 29, Lily Bart is Edith Wharton's quintessential trapped heroine. Orphaned following the death of her parents, Lily understands that she must use her beauty, grace, and charm to attain the social position she longs for, but she is caught between her desire for wealth and a strong moral conscience, which sabotages every opportunity she encounters.

The Ultimate Ghost Stories Collection is a fully indexed collection of classic ghost stories, read by three Audie-winning narrators. Included here are stories by Henry James, M.R. James, Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, Edith Wharton and Washington Irving.

Wharton's most erotic and lyrical novel, Summer explores a daring theme for 1917, a woman's awakening to her sexuality. Eighteen-year-old Charity Royall lives in the small town of North Dormer, ignorant of desire until the arrival of architect Lucius Harney. Like the succulent summer landscape in the Berkshires around them, Charity's romance is lush and picturesque, but its consequences are harsh and real.

The Greatest Female Writers Classics Collection is a stunning compilation of fifteen (audio)books by some of the most legendary women writers throughout history. From Mary Wollstonecraft’s groundbreaking call for women’s rights to Austen’s unparalleled witty romance...

This ghostly (and ghastly) collection includes: "The Upper Berth", "The Lady's Maid", "Markheim", "Ghost Stories of the Tiled House","What Was It?", "Madame Crowl's Ghost" and "The Golden Arm".

Twelve dramatisations of the best love stories ever written, performed by star casts Treat yourself to this stunning collection of classic stories of love, loss, obstacles overcome and desperate attraction. This is a beautiful, moving and at times thrilling listen which takes you on a journey...

Inside this bundle, you’ll find three stories which established Edith Wharton as a literary legend. Originally written over a hundred years ago, these stories have stood the test of time to resonate in the hearts of people to this very day. Reflecting the life of the upper-class aristocrats and socialites, The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence offer tragic tales, while Ethan Frome tells a story in a small wintery town of Massachusetts.

Edith Wharton's spellbinding final novel tells a story of love in the gilded age that crosses the boundaries of society—now an original series on AppleTV+! “Brave, lively, engaging...a fairy-tale novel, miraculouly returned to life.”—The New York Times Book Review Set in the 1870s, the...

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Edith Wharton’s 1913 satire of marriage and money in early-20th century American society. The play follows the beautiful Undine Spragg as she arrives in New York and sets her sights on Ralph Marvell, then travels to Paris where she meets a charming...

Inspired by a young man Edith Wharton met during her war relief work in France, A Son at the Front opens in Paris on July 30, 1914, as Europe totters on the brink of war. Expatriate American painter John Campton - whose only son, George, having been born in Paris, must report for duty in the French army - struggles to keep his son away from the front while grappling with the moral implications of his actions.

This carefully curated collection brings together some of the most influential and enduring works in American literature. Spanning the 19th and 20th centuries, these novels explore love and loss, identity and ambition, innocence and disillusionment—offering a powerful reflection of the American experience in all its complexity. Timeless in their themes and revolutionary in style, The Essential American Classics Collection is a must-have for readers seeking the heart and soul of American fiction.