920. Ethan Frome (Edith Wharton)

Cover of first edition

Synopsis from Amazon:
Ethan Frome works his unproductive farm and struggles to maintain a bearable existence with his difficult, suspicious, and hypochondriac wife, Zeenie. But when Zeenie’s vivacious cousin enters their household as a “hired girl,” Ethan finds himself obsessed with her and with the possibilities for happiness she comes to represent.

My rating: 1 star

456. The Age of Innocence (Edith Wharton)

Not a great movie

Synopsis from Amazon UK:
Countess Olenska, separated from her European husband, returns to old New York society. She bears with her an independence and an awareness of life which stirs the educated sensitivity of Newland Archer, engaged to be married to May Welland.

My rating: 3 stars

My review: It may have won the Pulitzer Prize but it (perhaps intentionally on Wharton's part) lacks the emotion which makes The House of Mirth one of my favorite books.

12. The House of Mirth (Edith Wharton)

Synopsis from Amazon UK:
The House of Mirth tells the story of Lily Bart, aged 29, beautiful, impoverished and in need of a rich husband to safeguard her place in the social elite, and to support her expensive habits - her clothes, her charities and her gambling. Unwilling to marry without both love and money, Lily becomes vulnerable to the kind of gossip and slander which attach to a girl who has been on the marriage market for too long. Wharton charts the course of Lily's life, providing, along the way, a wider picture of a society in transition, a rapidly changing New York where the old certainties of manners, morals and family have disappeared and the individual has become an expendable commodity.

My rating: 5 stars

Publication information:

• First published in 1905 by Charles Scribner's Sons
• First edition: Octavo, pp. [1-6] [1-2] 3-532 [533] [534: blank] [535-538: ads], eight inserted plates with illustrations by A. B. Wenzell, title page printed in orange and black, original red cloth, front panel stamped in gold and ruled in blind, spine panel stamped in gold, t.e.g., other edges untrimmed. Later printing with Scribner device on copyright page, but printed on wove paper with ads at rear advertising nine books by Wharton.