Books and beyond

If you enjoy reading classic novels and have never tried the author Edith Wharton give one of her novels a try!  Edith Wharton (1862-1937) is a Pulitzer-prize winning American author of novels and short stories often depicting New York Society.  Wharton is perhaps best known as a novelist of manners those themes include the corrupting power of wealth, the struggle between the individual and society and propriety and decorum, particularly for women.

My favorites:

Ethan Frome- (1911)-Young and beautiful Mattie Silver arrives in the mountain village of Starkfield to help her ailing cousin Zeena, but finds herself attracted to Zeena’s husband, Ethan Frome.  This title is also a major motion picture available on DVD at the Jeffco libraries.

The Age of Innocence- (1920)- Wharton’s Pulitzer-prize winning
novel of upper-class New York society in the late 19th century.  Newland Archer is engaged to the lovely May Welland, a proper member of the elite society, when he falls for the married and disgraced Countess Olenska.  This title is also a major motion picture available on DVD at the Jeffco libraries.

The House of Mirth- (1905)- This novel examines the status of women at the turn of the nineteenth to the twentieth century and features the beautiful heroine Lily Bart who has been brought up with one goal in life: marry a wealth man from a good family.  But what if Lily wants to marry for love not money?