Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton once wrote, “Life is the saddest thing next to death (Johnson and Zimmerman).” She is also said to have been “among the first American writers to gain a sense of the world as an evil place (Johnson and Zimmerman).”

Edith Newbold Jones was considered to be a “product of New York City” (Johnson and Zimmerman) and was born on January 24, 1862 (a day she tried to keep secret (“Edith Wharton Biography” bookrags.com)) in the wealthier side of New York City. It is said that “her privileged lifestyle lead to many of her finest works (“Edith Wharton”).” However, even though her last name was Jones, there was a slight suspicion that her tutor growing up was her real father, and Edith believed this (“Edith Wharton Biography” bookrags.com). The ever-popular term “Keeping up with the Joneses” is also “a phrase coined about Edith Wharton’s family (“Edith Wharton”).”

Edith Wharton was born just a few years before the end of the Civil War. When it ended in 1865, many things began to change for everyone, and that was one thing that Wharton’s family strongly disliked—changes (Johnson and Zimmerman). Therefore, in 1866, her family traveled to Europe and visited Italy, Germany, France, and Spain (Johnson and Zimmerman), and this was where “she spent much of her childhood (Johnson and Zimmerman).” In fact they stayed there for about six years after the war (“Edith Wharton Biography” Bio.)

In 1872, she and her family came back to New York, but they spend their summers away from the city in Newport, Rhode Island. Then in 1873, Walter Pater publishes his “Studies in the History of the Renaissance (Davis “Timeline”).” This is an important fact because in her novel The Age of Innocence she writes,

“Newland Archer prided himse...

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Johnson, Doug, and Phoebe Zimmermann. "Edith Wharton, 1862-1937: Wrote Novels of the Young and Innocent in a Dishonest World." voanews.com. Voice of America, 2007. 15 Feb 2012. .

Lewis, R.W.B. “A Writer of Short Stories.” Edith Wharton. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986.

Naipaul, V. S. "A review of 'Of Age and Innocence'." New Statesman 56.1447 (6 Dec. 1958): 827. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Roger Matuz and Cathy Falk. Vol. 66. Detroit: Gale Research, 1991. Literature Resource Center. 27 Feb. 2012. .

Wharton, Edith. The Age of Innocence. New York: The Modern Library, 1948, “A Note on the Author of The Age of Innocence”- 68.