Seven short stories from one of the most celebrated authors of the early twentieth century have been updated with an eye toward readability for modern readers. The bones of the stories are just as she told them with no changes to plot or settings. Best of all the book includes the original unedited versions in appendices. The Hermit and the Wild Woman: One escapes from war, the other from a convent, only to find themselves together in their solitude. The...

Xingu is a short story about a woman's luncheon club devised as a means of keeping its members up to date with the latest goings on in the world. After the glamorous novelist Osric Dane stuns the other women with her bored disposition and blunt questions, the conversation is left stale – that is, until the previously quiet Mrs. Roby mentions the topic of Xingu. Thought mad by the rest of her peers, Mrs. Roby is suddenly engaged by a nowinquisitive...

The Descent of Man and Other Stories offers the author's well-known depictions of upper class life in New York, but also exhibits her remarkable talent in tales of humorous irony, history and the supernatural. Originally published in 1904 The Descent of Man and Other Stories features the author's nuanced prose and sharply observed characters in a chain of unforgettable tales. In several Wharton examines marriage, which was frequently arranged in...

Edith Wharton was an American novelist, poet and short story writer whose works display her mastery over the realistic fiction genre. Although she grew up in a world of refined manners and fashionable people, she was also aware of its superficiality, a theme that frequently appeared in her works. Her stories range widely from powerful social commentary to titillating ghost stories that made Wharton extremely popular beyond her living years. This collection...

What begins as an ordinary event quickly shifts into the bizarre after the narrator, a wealthy bachelor, meets their friend, Lanvivain, at an old mansion. Thinking about purchasing the property, the narrator and Lanvivain explore the mansion at Kerfol, attracted to the vast and ordinate property. Lanvivain enthusiastically urges the bachelor to buy the property, declaring that it matches his personality exactly. The narrator, however, is unconvinced,...

First published in 1899, "The Greater Inclination" was the first collection of short stories by Edith Wharton. It contains eight works, inducing seven short stories and a two-act play: "The Muse's Tragedy," "A Journey," "The Pelican," "Souls Belated," "A Coward," "The Twilight of the God," "A Cup of Cold Water," and "The Portrait."