The Readers Review: Literature from 1714 to 1910 discussion
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Tales of Men and Ghosts
Edith Wharton Collection
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Tales of Men and Ghosts - Background & Resources
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In 1907 she moved to France and contrasted France and the U.S. in her novelette Madame de Treymes (published in 1907). During World War I, she gave her energy to relief work and made the events of the war part of her fiction.
Tales of Men and Ghosts (published in 1910) are considered cerebral ghost stories in the James manner. The ghosts re projections of men's mental obsessions.
Her philosophy of writing can be seen in the following quote: "every great novel must first of all be based on a profound sense of moral values, and then constructed with a classical unity and economy of means". She insisted that the author must "bear in mind at each step that his business is not to ask what the situation would be likely to make of his characters, but what his characters, being what they are, would make of the situation..."
Her home in the U.S. still exists and can be found in Lenox, Massachusetts. It is open during part of the year for tours, and a small pet cemetery with actual tombstones can be found on the property. The home, called The Mount, is said to be one of the most haunted properties in New England.
See edithwharton.org.
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Edith Wharton was born Edith Newbold Jones to a wealthy NY family who raised her to be an aristocratic lady, and not to pursue intellectual ambitions. By the time she was 16, she had already produced a volume of poetry which was privately published.
In 1885 she married and maintained a life of conventional gentility until, following a passionate affair, was divorced in 1913. Neither her marriage nor a nervous illness from which she suffered for 12 years impeded her productivity. While she began publishing poetry and stories, she is principally known as a 20th century novelist. Her short stories had a significant presence in the major U.S. literary magazines at the turn of the century. She was pursued by magazine editors, and was a very good negotiator for her own publishing agenda. She reminded editors that her short stories were rare commodities once she began focusing on novels.
After 1913, Wharton settling in Europe permanently where she met Henry James who became a major influence on her work. She also met Bernard Berenson, art historian.
A well-respected literary figure, the 1930's she was elected to both the National Institute of Arts and Letters, as well as the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
We've already covered "Afterward" here earlier, but I have no problem reading it a 4th, yes 4th, time.She wrote 93 short stories, all collected into anthologies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Wh...
Various formats of Of Men and Ghosts are listed on this page.
http://archive.org/details/talesofmen...
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Also, they actually do ghosts tours on Friday evenings.
Deborah wrote: "Last week I was lucky to be able to drive through beautiful autumn foliage to The Mount (Edith Wharton's home in Lenox). She actually designed this home. For many years it was in a deplorable sta..."A ghost can appear at any time.Did you see anything?
Wharton's one of my "guests I would invite for dinner." Fascinating woman.
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Deborah wrote: "She was definitely fascinating. I must say I really felt an affinity to her while being in her home. No ghosts were seen by me. A friend of mine conducted the tour, and so far she hasn't seen an..."And I'll bet it goes to work with you too.
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It's way late to be adding this but I've just discovered that I can access Librivox recordings via iTunes. Including Tales of Ghosts and Men.
*There will be no official schedule for our short story reading. Each of the stories within this collection will be given their own thread for discussion.