The Old Maid The Fifties

Classic Edith Wharton, ‘The Old Maid’ was first published as a serial in ‘The Red Book Magazine.’ Through this heart-rending and haunting tale, Wharton takes aim at the notions of conformity and delivers a scathing judgement on the conventions of life in the early 20th Century. In the story, the unmarried and prudish Charlotte Lovell gives up her baby daughter, Tina, to her married cousin, Delia. As time goes by and Tina grows, the two women must decide which of them is the ‘real’ mother and whether Tina should ever know the truth of her past. A searing and melancholic story from the pen of one of America’s greatest novelists. Edith Wharton (1862 – 1937) was an American designer and novelist. Born in an era when the highest ambition a woman could aspire to was a good marriage, Wharton went on to become one of America’s most celebrated authors. During her career, she wrote over 40 books, using her wealthy upbringing to bring authenticity and detail to stories about the upper classes. She moved to France in 1923, where she continued to write until her death.

The Old Maid, Originally serialized in The Red Book Magazine in 1922, The Old Maid is an examination of class and society as only Edith Wharton could undertake. 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. Says Roxana Robinson in her Introduction, "Wharton weaves her golden, fine-meshed net about her characters with inexorable precision."

Tales of Old New York is a collection of four novellas by Edith Wharton, revolving around upper-class New York City society in the 1840s, 1850s, 1860s, and 1870s. The New York of these stories is the same as the New York of The Age of Innocence, from which several fictional characters have spilled over into these stories. The observation of the manners and morals of 19th century New York upper-class society is directly reminiscent of The Age of Innocence, but these novellas are shaped more as character studies. Table of Contents: False Dawn (The Forties) The Old Maid (The Fifties) The Spark (The Sixties) New Year's Day (The Seventies)

Old New York is a collection of four novellas by Edith Wharton, revolving around upper-class New York City society in the 1840s, 1850s, 1860s, and 1870s. The New York of these stories is the same as the New York of The Age of Innocence, from which several fictional characters have spilled over into these stories. The observation of the manners and morals of 19th century New York upper-class society is directly reminiscent of The Age of Innocence, but these novellas are shaped more as character studies. Table of Contents: False Dawn (The Forties) The Old Maid (The Fifties) The Spark (The Sixties) New Year's Day (The Seventies)

This is a dramatic version of an Edith Wharton novel set in the 19th century. The Old Maid is an examination of class and society as only Edith Wharton could undertake. 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.

Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper class New York "aristocracy" to realistically portray the lives and morals of the Gilded Age. In 1921, she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Literature, for her novel The Age of Innocence. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1996. Among her other well known works are the The House of Mirth and the novella Ethan Frome. Despite not publishing her first novel until she was forty, Wharton became an extraordinarily productive writer. In addition to her 15 novels, seven novellas, and eighty-five short stories, she published poetry, books on design, travel, literary and cultural criticism, and a memoir.