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    Edith Wharton: The Short Stories: Soul's Belated; The Muse's Tragedy; Roman Fever
    Edith Wharton: The Short Stories: Soul's Belated; The Muse's Tragedy; Roman Fever
    Edith Wharton: The Short Stories: Soul's Belated; The Muse's Tragedy; Roman Fever
    Audiobook1 hour

    Edith Wharton: The Short Stories: Soul's Belated; The Muse's Tragedy; Roman Fever

    Written by Edith Wharton

    Narrated by Janet Maw

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Perhaps best known for her classic novel The Age of Innocence, Wharton loved the short story form because its brevity allowed her to concentrate on telling the story. In these three powerful stories, Edith Wharton transports the listener to the turn of the century, where she depicts (without turning to sensationalism) the shocking topics of the time. Often, she opens just after an incident, allowing the listener to be immersed straight into the story.

    In 'Souls Belated' we meet a couple on a train, digesting and reacting to that morning’s event. In 'The Muse’s Tragedy', a young man meets his favourite poet’s muse and soon uncovers the truth about their much talked-about relationship. Atypically, 'Roman Fever' starts with a seemingly normal day in Rome and soon reveals a lot more than expected when two middle-aged women start recalling a past trip to the Italian capital. These stories are read by the accomplished actress Janet Maw.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThe Copyright Group
    Release dateJan 1, 2014
    ISBN9781780000404
    Edith Wharton: The Short Stories: Soul's Belated; The Muse's Tragedy; Roman Fever
    Author

    Edith Wharton

    Edith Wharton was born in 1862 to a prominent and wealthy New York family. In 1885 she married Boston socialite 'Teddy' Wharton but the marriage was unhappy and they divorced in 1913. The couple travelled frequently to Europe and settled in France, where Wharton stayed until her death in 1937. Her first major novel was The House of Mirth (1905); many short stories, travel books, memoirs and novels followed, including Ethan Frome (1911) and The Reef (1912). She was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature with The Age of Innocence (1920) and she was thrice nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. She was also decorated for her humanitarian work during the First World War.

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    Reviews for Edith Wharton

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    • 4/5
      Disappointing that although Roman Fever is listed in the title, the audiobook does not include it. I enjoyed the other two!
    • 4/5
      Excellent stories by Edith Wharton–most of them are ghost stories or feature other supernatural events but a few are more realistic, although they tend to have an uncanny or hallucinatory atmosphere. Wharton’s dense prose is a highlight and made all the stories enjoyable – there weren’t really any bad ones, although “The Triumph of Night” seemed longer than necessary and “The Fulness of Life” was a somewhat strange way of addressing her unsatisfactory relationship with her husband.Wharton tends to hint at things rather than outright showing them, especially in the first story, “The Lady’s Maid’s Bell”. This one is a classic haunted house story, as a new maid in an isolated country house sees her deceased predecessor and tries to decipher her messages. I have to admit that this one had me confused–I read it a couple times and then took to the Internet to see what everyone else thought of it. This story, along with “Kerfol” and “The Duchess at Prayer”, deals with adultery, and Wharton is highly sympathetic to possibly wayward wives. She shows the isolation and unhappiness of the wives, who have to endure their husbands leaving them for long periods of time (likely cheating themselves), and some relationships that cross over into abuse. Adultery on the male side is also a theme in “Bewitched” and “Pomegranate Seed”, although the supernatural events make these rather strange stories. Some of the other stories deal with the sad lot of various women–”Miss Mary Pask” is a lonely unmarried woman who is treated as an afterthought by her sister (this one managed to surprise me), “The Looking Glass” features an aging woman who becomes desperate as she loses her beauty, and “All Souls” is about an active, no-nonsense widow who has an eerie experience in her isolated house when she finds herself all alone. "Mr Jones" is another haunted house story, with the new owner of the house investigating the past and finding another horrible marriage. Even happy marriages are no protection: “Afterward” has a happily married woman moving to her dream house with her husband; she never pays attention to his business concerns, and eventually, some of his actions come to haunt them. Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      If you like the quiet ghost stories of Henry James but could do without the run-on sentences that you have to scan three times before they become comprehensible, this collection is exactly what you're looking for. Edith Wharton was a writer of great depth and subtlety, but because she strove for clarity, she's also readable. Here you'll find masterpieces of atmosphere ("All Souls'") and of characterization ("The Triumph of Night"), as well as the occasional novelty ("Kerfol"); if you're anything like me, you'll gladly read each of them multiple times. My personal favorites are "Afterward" (generally considered Wharton's best ghost story) and "Pomegranate Seed." Laszlo Kubinyi's illustrations are eerily beautiful accompaniments to the tales. Frankly, I've never understood why people are surprised that Wharton wrote ghost stories. Many authors of the first rank (Ivan Turgenev, D.H. Lawrence, F. Scott Fitzgerald) have engaged in at least a passing flirtation with the macabre, and for some--like James and Wharton--it was an abiding interest. The perception of ghost and horror stories as illegitimate or disreputable originated with small-minded literary critics, and can now be dispensed with.
    • 4/5
      A bit uneven, for sure, but there are some excellently creepy stories in here, particularly in the second half of the book. Among those I liked best: "Kerfol," "Mr. Jones," "Pomegranate Seed," and "Miss Mary Pask."
    • 4/5
      I'm not a short story fan, nor am I a horror/ghost story fan. However, I can recommend this book. Because--it's Edith Wharton. While there were a few stories I was puzzled by, or that didn't pull me in, or that were duds, in most of the stories Wharton's prose shone, the characters were well-developed, and the plots were varied and original. My favorites were: "The Dutchess at Prayer" in which an evil husband isolates his wife at an Italian country estate and, knowingly or unknowingly, seals her lover into a tomb; "A Bottle of Perrier," which is set in the middle eastern desert castle built by a medieval crusader, where the water tastes and smells terrible; and "Kesfol" where the ghosts of murdered dogs appear once a year on a Brittany estate.3 1/2 stars
    • 3/5
      Some of these stories are truly creepy, and some left me feeling sad. Edith Wharton wrote human conflict so well, and many of these stories are examples of that. There are gothic-feeling stories with haunted houses, lots of slowly-building tension, and suspense for days.
    • 4/5
      It's been way too long since I read any Wharton and I'd forgotten how much I enjoy her writing. The ghost stories in this collection are fairly understated from a spooky perspective which is how I like them - more gothic in style than full-blown horror and a lot of questions left unanswered in the reader's mind at the end of each story.
    • 5/5
      This collection of spooky stories contain eleven ghostly tales. The stories are not terribly scary but non the less they are enjoyable and although a couple are rather lame in general they offer a taste of early 20th century paranormal spookiness. A great book to read on October nights!
    • 3/5
      Edith Wharton's ghost stories read like they're written by either someone who doesn't believe in ghosts or someone who believes so strongly in them that they're trying to avoid scaring themselves. The afterword includes an excerpt that apparently didn't make it into Wharton's autobiography in which she admits to living in terror of the supernatural after nearly dying as a child, so perhaps Wharton was fearful of wandering too deeply into the unknown. The stories weren't spine-tingling for me, and I doubt they will produce chills for those who read more supernatural or horror stories than I do. Thrill-seeking readers won't find them here. Recommended mainly for Wharton completists.
    • 5/5
      On the other hand, Edith Wharton is a fantastic twentieth century author. Though I find her full length books a bit meandering, she is the master of the short story. (I have similar feelings about Henry James.) All of these ghost stories are interesting, easy to read, and paint a fabulous picture of life in the early twentieth century in New England and abroad. Even if you couldn't quite stomach The Age of Innocence or The House of Mirth, any collection of her stories is worth a second look.
    • 5/5
      The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton is a collection of 11 stories that are not so much traditional ghost stories as supernatural-themed ones. I didn’t know what to expect going into it, because they’re definitely a departure from the two Edith Wharton books I’ve read, The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence. Despite that, I enjoyed these stories—perfect reading for fall and Halloween!
    • 4/5
      "Afterward" is probably the story I think of most when I recall This collection, as it has been anthologized in several collections. But all these stories are well written, as are all Wharton's works, and make great reading in the Halloween season.
    • 4/5
      This book is perfect Halloween season reading! I finished it just past midnight in the shadowy small hours that comprise the boundary of All Hallows Eve (Halloween) and All Souls (All Saints) Day. This is quite appropriate, as the last story in the collection, All Souls, is set quite prominently in and around just that particular span of time.I enjoyed this unusual collection of ghost stories. They are different -- and perhaps more like "real-life" ghost encounters -- because they leave so many loose ends. There is no explaining everything (along natural or supernatural lines), there are even surprisingly few "bold and shocking" moments recounted. In many cases, it is the mystery and subtlety which works on the reader's mind.
    • 2/5
      Excellent old-fashioned suspense. The only problem was that the end of each story elicited the same reaction: "It can't be over all ready!". Wharton has an excellent power of imagery, and even in a short story, developed some of the most hauntingly romantic characters. Found "The Eyes" reminded me of Poe's Tell Tale Heart.
    • 5/5
      Edith Wharton's ghost stories clearly show the influence that Henry James had on her writing. Like his famous "The Turn of the Screw", the stories in this collection aren't outright scary but they are creepy and disquieting. Often the narrator doesn't even know that he or she has seen a ghost until thinking back on the event later. The same is true of the stories: the first time you read them, they seem straightforward but the more you think about them, the more unsettling they become.Wharton's writing is less prosy and and more plot-driven than James'; I enjoyed these stores more than "The Turn of the Screw", which I could barely get through. That said, a couple of the stories are ambiguous as to what exactly has happened -- "The Lady Maid's Bell" took me a while to figure out, as did "The Eyes"."Kerfol" is my favorite because Wharton gets the atmosphere just right. "Pomegranate Seed" and "All Souls'" are also among the best in the bunch for the same reason. This collection won't keep you up at night shivering in fear, but read it on a dark, winter day when you're all alone and see if you don't get a few goosebumps.