Wharton, Edith

Wharton, Edith, née Newbold Jones (1862–1937), American novelist and short story writer. She devoted her considerable energy to a cosmopolitan social life, which included a close friendship with H. James, and to a literary career. Her first volume of short stories, The Greater Inclination (1899), was followed by a novella, The Touchstone (1900), but it was The House of Mirth (1905), the tragedy of failed social climber Lily Bart, which established her as a leading novelist. Many other works followed, including Ethan Frome (1911), a grim and ironic tale of passion and vengeance on a poor New England farm; The Custom of the Country (1913), which wittily recounts a poor, provincial girl's ascent of the social ladder via a succession of marriages; The Age of Innocence (1920), which describes the frustrated love of a New York lawyer, Newland Archer, for Ellen Olenska, the separated wife of a dissolute Polish count; The Mother's Recompense (1925); and Hudson River Bracketed (1929), contrasting Middle West with New York society. She published many volumes of short stories, various travel books, and an autobiography, A Backward Glance (1934). Her observant, satiric, witty portrayal of social nuance, both in America and Europe, shows her keen interest in what she called the ‘tribal behaviour’ of various groups.