Edith Wharton (nee Edith Newbold Jones, 1862-1937) was an American author who famously drew upon her own experiences as a socialite to write about the American upperclass during and after The Gilded Age.
She was born during The American Civil War to a wealthy and well-connected New York family. She began writing poems and novellas at a young age, but as this was not considered a socially acceptable pastime for a young lady, her writings were put on hold until after her societal debut. She married Edward Robbins Wharton in 1885 and slowly became a very prolific writer, beginning first with short stories and novellas, and then her first novel, The Valley Of Decision, in 1902. Wharton and her husband traveled frequently to Europe, which resulted in several nonfiction books about her interests. However, the marriage was mutually unhappy and it ended in divorce in 1913.
She would become best known for The Age of Innocence, published in 1920, for which she would become the first female winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.
Wharton also had an interest in design and architecture, and designed her country home, The Mount, in the Berkshires. Today, it stands as a museum about her life and writing.
Selected works:
Tropes in her works:
- The Disease That Shall Not Be Named: Subverted in the short story "Roman Fever". Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade reminisce about their youth when high-class girls like them were discouraged from going out after dark in Rome, as it would cause them to catch "Roman Fever," a debilitating illness that would leave them bed-ridden for months. Neither specifically say what it is, but the narrative hints that it might be malaria. It's really a euphemism to hide pregnancies. When a young girl goes out with her beau after dark and gets pregnant, the family uses the socially acceptable excuse, "Oh, she caught Roman fever" in order to hide her from society until the baby is born.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In the novella "Bunner Sisters," about two unmarried sisters in 1800s New York City, the eldest sister Ann Eliza rejects a proposal of marriage from Mr. Ramy, a man who had been visiting the sisters regularly for a time, but who she (and everyone else, including many readers) thought was interested in her younger sister Evelina. Ann Eliza's sacrifice was more on her sister's behalf than Mr. Ramy's, however: Ann Eliza felt that Evelina deserved what Ann Eliza thought would turn out to be happiness more than Ann Eliza did.
- Sexy Discretion Shot: In "Summer", The Protagonist and her soon-to-be lover kiss at the town festival. The reader is promptly treated to a long paragraph offering an elaborate description of fireworks going off.
- Wife Husbandry: In "Summer", Lawyer Royall takes in Charity when she is 5 and then drunkenly enters her room in an attempt at starting a sexual relationship when she turns 17. He continues to make advances, proposing to her twice.
