Edith Wharton

Writer

January 24, 1862 (75 years)

† August 11, 1937

New York City, New York, USA

Biography

Edith Wharton (born Edith Newbold Jones; January 24, 1862–August 11, 1937) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1927, 1928 and 1930. Wharton combined her insider's view of America's privileged classes with a brilliant, natural wit to write humorous, incisive novels and short stories of social and psychological insight. She was well acquainted with many of her era's other literary and public figure…

Filmography

7.1

Screen Two

Series of single made-for-television dramas.

7.0

The Buccaneers

A group of fun-loving American girls burst onto the scene in tightly corseted 1870s London, kicking off an Anglo-American culture clash. Sent to secure husbands and status, the buccaneers' hearts are set on much more than that.

7.0

The Age of Innocence

In 19th century New York high society, a young lawyer falls in love with a woman separated from her husband, while he is engaged to the woman's cousin.

5.6

Ethan Frome

Married couple, Ethan and Zeena, are in need an extra hand around the house due to Zeena's debilitated body and constant illness. The young woman who joins them is a beautiful, spirited person. She and Ethan fall in love much to the dismay of Zeena.

6.0

The Buccaneers

Because of their "new money" background, four American girls have difficulty breaking into the upper-crust society of New York. Laura Testvalley, the governess of one of the girls, suggests a London season and thus the young women set sail for England and the unsuspecting English aristocracy. In England, all the girls soon find eligible husbands and the youngest girl, Nan, seems to land the best husband of them all: the handsome and very wealthy Julius, Duke of Trevennick. The girls soon discover that English upper-class men are not at all what they expected and hoped for.

7.7

Shades of Darkness

With Norma West, Annette Wilkie-Miller, Francesca Annis, Eileen Atkins. An anthology of short mysterious dramas, each with a supernatural twist.

6.2

The House of Mirth

In early 20th century New York City, an impoverished socialite desperately seeks a suitable husband as she gradually finds herself betrayed by her friends and exiled from high society.

4.9

The Children

After years working in Brazil, middle-aged engineer Martin Boyner returns to Switzerland to marry his longtime friend, the recently widowed Rose Sellars. En route, he encounters an old acquaintance and soon finds himself entranced by and then caring for her seven emotionally abandoned children. The oldest girl, Judith, quickly beguiles Martin with her unsettling blend of innocence and maturity. And suddenly Martin's orderly blueprint for the future is thrown into disarray as Judith's youth and spirit transform his routine life into a dangerously passionate new equation.

7.1

The Old Maid

The lives of two cousins are complicated by the return of an ex-boyfriend and an illegitimate child.

N/A

The House of Mirth

Wharton creates a portrait of a stunning beauty who, though raised and educated to marry well both socially and economically, is reaching her 29th year, an age when her youthful blush is drawing to a close and her marital prospects are becoming ever more limited. The House of Mirth traces Lily's slow two-year social descent from privilege to a tragically lonely existence on the margins of society.

N/A

Bewitched

The story is set in a small English coastal town, around the turn of the century. A young woman, thought by many in the village to be a witch, dies suddenly one day. Not long after she's buried, the villagers begin to see her walking around the area and especially along the shoreline. The village minister begins to look into her life and her death, hoping to lay the spirit to rest.

5.2

The Age of Innocence

An engaged attorney and a divorcee fall for each other in 1870s Manhattan.

9.0

The Age of Innocence

Newland Archer is engaged to May Mingott of a prominent New York family. Shortly after the engagement is announced, Newland finds himself attracted to May's older married cousin Countess Ellen Olenska.

7.0

Strange Wives

When a young man marries a Russian girl, he finds that he has "married" her entire family.

6.0

The Marriage Playground

A delightful pre-code cocktail recipe. Take three couples (add gin and tonic), their several divorces and the seven children/stepchildren of their intermarriages and blend thoroughly, and you have a mixture a too-young-to-believe Frederic March will try to straighten out.

7.0

Afterward

A skeptical family moves into their new home despite warnings of a resident ghost. They soon become believers.

9.0

The Glimpses of the Moon

Although Susan Branch is herself without finances, she has many wealthy friends who supply her with clothes and gay times. She is in love with struggling author Nick Lansing, who also attracts the interests of Susan's chief patron, Ursula Gillow, and is persuaded by Ellie Vanderlyn to marry him for at least a year's happiness. Their marriage falls apart when their wedding gifts are spent; they become involved with the Vanderlyns' domestic affairs; and Ursula decides she wants Nick for herself. However, the lawyer handling the Lansings' divorce proceedings brings them back together, and Nick sells his novel. A lost film.

10.0

The Lady's Maid's Bell

Based on a short story by Edith Wharton. A lady's maid named Hartley finds employment with Mrs. Brympton, a lady who is confined to her country estate because of delicate health. Almost immediately Ms. Hartley realizes something ominous is occurring in the old house.

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