The Greatest Works of Edith Wharton - The Touchstone - Leatherbound Edition

by Edith Wharton

Overview

An early but accomplished work by Edith Wharton, The Touchstone is a tale of money and moral compromise, and foreshadows some of the best novels of her later life. Stephen Glennard, an impoverished lawyer in the glamorous, money-driven society of New York, has one valuable possession: the letters written to him by the eminent and now-deceased author Margaret Aubyn. He has seldom read the letters—he took their writer for granted—but they assume an importance for Glennard when it becomes clear that their financial worth will ensure his future stability and pay for his marriage to the beautiful Alexa Trent. What he fails to realize is that Aubyn’s ghost, once unleashed upon the reading public, will exercise an influence over his own life that reduces all his hopes and pleasure to ashes. American novelist Edith Wharton is known for her finely crafted stories of New York mores, including her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Age of Innocence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781622366095
Publisher:	Greatest Books Publisher
Publication date:	09/01/2013
Pages:	155
Product dimensions:	7.20(w) x 10.30(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist and short story writer. Acclaimed for her depiction of privileged society at the turn of the 20th century and the conflicts between money and morals, she is the author of The House of Mirth, The Age of Innocence, and Ethan Frome.

Date of Birth:

January 24, 1862

Date of Death:

August 11, 1937

Place of Birth:

New York, New York

Place of Death:

Saint-Brice-sous-Forêt, France

Education:

Educated privately in New York and Europe

Table of Contents

	Foreword	vii
	The Touchstone	1
	Notes	93
	Biographical note	95

Editorial Reviews

Wharton's 1900 novel is a money-can't-buy-happiness tale. Down-on-his-luck Stephen Glennard sells a collection of letters from a celebrated dead author. His decision to market the letters gets him money and an entrance into society, but a mystery contained in the missives haunts him. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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