Edith Wharton - Hardcover

Lee, Hermione

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0701166657 ISBN 13: 9780701166656

Publisher: Chatto & Windus, 2007

Synopsis

The name 'Edith Wharton' conjures up 'Gilded Age' New York, in all its snobbery and ruthlessness - the world of The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth. But this definitive biography by Hermione Lee overturns the stereotype. This Edith Wharton is not the genteel, nostalgic chronicler of a vanished age but a fiercely modern woman, writing of sex and incest, love and war - a woman of passionate conviction and conflicting ambitions and desires.

Born in 1862 during the Civil War, Wharton broke away from her wealthy background. She travelled adventurously in Europe, eventually settling in Paris: during the First World War she committed herself to war-work, and lived in France, her 'second country' until her death in 1937. She created fabulous homes in New England and in France, and her life was filled with remarkable friends, including Henry James, Bernard Berenson, Aldous Huxley and Kenneth Clark. She ran her professional life with fierce energy, but she also had her secrets, including a passionate mid-life love-affair, recorded in a coded diary. She was unhappily married, childless, and divorced, and knew loneliness and anguish. Her brilliant, disturbing fiction shows her deep understanding of the longing and struggle in women's lives.

This masterly new biography draws on new material and delves into every aspect of Wharton's extraordinary life-story. It shifts the emphasis towards Europe, placing her in her social context and her history. In particular, it shows in fascinating detail how she worked and what lies at the heart of her magnificent and subtle books.

About this title

Review:

'A magnificent and subtle biography of a magnificent and subtle writer.' -- Sunday Times

'Lee is a confident and vivd critic...epic and definitive biography' -- The Times

'Lee's biography excels in its discussions of [Whartons']writing' -- The Sunday Times

'This is a glorious biography'
-- Independent on Sunday Independant on Sunday

"painstaking and elegant... One of this book's great pleasures is
Lee's discussion of Wharton's work".
-- Daily Telegraph, rev. by Kasia Boddy

'Lee's portrait blossoms into a thing of beauty in its own right' -- Vogue

'a superb biography' -- Irish Times

`brilliant biography' -- Daily Express, rev'd by Jennifer Selway

`every page is alive with colour...Lee's extended critiques are
both meticulous and accessible.' -- Daily Mail, rev'd by Stephanie Cross

`monumentally conceived and impressively executed...' -- Guardian, rev'd by Elaine Showalter

Book Description:

A rich and powerful new life of a great novelist. The first biography by a British woman writer, it overturns the accepted view, displaying her as a tough, erotically brave, startlingly modern writer. Much more than the biography of Wharton for our generation - it is a touchstone in the art of the biographer, a must for everyone who cares about the period.

About this edition

• Publisher: Chatto & Windus
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0701166657
• ISBN 13: 9780701166656
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 864