Edith Wharton was born in 1986 to an upper class family in New York City. She could trace her ancestry back three centuries, and was expected to live an aristocratic life. She was educated at home, and married Teddy Wharton in 1885, settling into her role as society marm. Her marriage ended with the discovery of Teddy's affair in 1913, and Edith set herself free to publish many books, of which the most well known is probably The Age Of Innocence. Edith Wharton was a contemporary of Teddy Roosevelt, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Henry James. The quality of her writing is just beginning to be appreciated.

Kate Orme is a young woman engaged to Denis Peyton. They are both aristocrats, and as such are expected to remain in rigid roles, with the man shielding the woman from all upsets. When Denis confesses to a despicable act to protect his family's name involving the death of a young, pregnant woman who was secretly married to his brother, Kate is shattered by the exposure of this act. She decides to marry Denis anyway to protect his future children, and sets out to become the perfect mother. She has a son, who she raises by herself after Denis' death, but this son seems to have inherited the faulty character gene of his father. When a situation arises to test the meddle of her son, Kate has her doubts as to her ability as a mother:

"As she sat there in the radius of lamp-light which, for so many evenings, had held Dick and herself in a charmed circle of tenderness, she saw that her love for her boy had come to be merely a kind of extended egotism. Love had narrowed instead of widening her, had rebuilt between herself and life the very walls which, years and years before, she had laid low with bleeding fingers. It was horrible... How she had come to sacrifice everything to the one passion of ambition for her boy..."

Wharton is, obviously, a first rate writer who has gone without accolades for far too long because of her gender. It is fitting that her works be rediscovered by a wider audience. Her insight into gender differences and difficulties is far ahead of her time...a time when women were relegated to narrow roles of motherhood because they were thought to be of inferior intellect. Aside from that, Wharton's writing is so smooth that the reader is instantly ensnared. A great read.

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The Scarlet Seed concludes the trilogy begun with The Heaven Tree and The Green Branch. The quote above comes near the end of the book, where young Harry broods over the destruction of his father's church, then sees how the stones from it are not only being used to rebuilt war-ravaged homes but are inspiring new artists.

After being Isambard's prisoner for two years, Harry begins to see his captor's political position weakening; but Harry has begun to understand that his imprisonment has taught him to face an enemy without fear and honed his sense of honor. He realizes that he owes something to Isambard, and when an enemy blinds him, he helps Isambard conceal it as long as possible as his brother William tries to usurp Parfois. But when Isambard's former mistress Benedetta arrives at Parfois to try to negotiate Harry's release, William takes Isambard and Benedetta prisoner. Harry escapes and persuades Llewelyn of Wales to attack Parfois. In the beseiged fortess plague is suspected, and Benedetta and Isambard are locked in the church Harry's father built to die. The church is destroyed during the battle.

After the tragedy and catharsis of these events, Pargeter's meditation on the eternal nature of art is easy to skim over, but should be read carefully; here she ties together her themes and shows how creation is never wasted -- "Eyes that have once seen it see all things differently thereafter, having learned the measure of wholeness."

EL MATERIAL QUE EXPONE LA AUTORA CONSTITUYE UN CLASICO DE LA PSICOLOGIA DEL SELF Y LAS RELACIONES OBJETALES DENTRO DE LA TEORIA PSICOANALITICA. ESTE LIBRO ES UNA LECTURA OBLIGATORIA PARA ENTENDER LOS PADECIMIENTOS NARCISISTAS Y LAS ALTERACIONES PROFUNDAS EN EL DESARROLLO. JACOBSON ABRE CAMINO A LOS TEORICOS CONTEMPORANEOS COMO KENBERG, KOHUT, STOLOROW,ETC; QUIENES DESARROLLAN Y CONFIRMAN SUS APRECIACIONES TEORICAS.

When I first started reading this book, I was so involved in it I could not stop reading it. It grabs your attention in the first chapter and makes you read on beacuse it keeps you wondering what is going to happen next. It then takes you on a weird twist at the end of the book which I never expected to heppen. I would highly recomend that everyone read this book.

This book really helped me to find a good audition Shakespeare piece. There is so much stuff by the Bard that its difficult knowing where to look. I highly recoomend this book.

The Dover Thrift Edition of "Short Stories" by Edith Wharton is a great collection of some of this writer's work. There are two common themes that run through this collection of 7 stories: (1) the writer and his/her place in society, and (2) women living through the complications of their emotional and/or sexual lives in the context of larger societal pressures. These thematic threads give the collection as a whole a pleasing coherence. The stories included are as follows:

"Expiation": about a woman novelist, this story looks at an intersection point in the worlds of literature and religion. "The Dilettante": about a troublesome romantic triangle. "The Muse's Tragedy": about the problematic emotional legacy of a respected poet. "The Pelican": follows the career of a female lecturer. "Souls Belated": about the relationship between a male novelist and a divorced woman. "Xingu": a comic tale about a snobby ladies' club that is hosting a woman novelist. "The Other Two": the story of a man's relationships with the two ex-husbands of his twice-divorced wife.

Wharton is an excellent writer, and her skills are really on full display in this collection. Peppered throughout the stories are a number of memorable (sometimes even Wildean) lines. Example: "It is always a bad sign when loud people come to a quiet place" (from "Souls"). An ideal choice for literature or women's studies courses (as well as for private reading). Recommended as companion texts: the novel "Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing," by May Sarton, and the Dover Thrift Edition of "Short Stories" by Theodore Dreiser; both of these fine books share themes in common with this Wharton collection.

Hannah had theater in her blood, as the daughter of the most beloved matinee idol, but fear and shyness kept Hannah from the stage. Gray Dylan met Hannah while she was touring with a theather company doing back stage production. He fell in love and followed her through the remaining tour stops. Hannah has a terrible secret that she is possitive makes her unloveable, so she fights both her new feelings for Gray and Gray's feeling for her. This story is wonderful. I bought this book on a whim, and fell in love with Edith Layton's writing. This book is the sequel to The Gilded Cage; which tells the story of Gray's older brother Josh.

This was was beautifuly written book with wonderful/whimsical illustrations. I am sorry that it is no longer in print and that more cannot enjoy it.

This book was written by my grandmother and she is indeed a great person. The book chronicles many amazing things my grandmother has done "by herself". From her trips over seas on cargo ships to her many adventures in life and so much more. She is an insiration to me in my own life and I am proud to be her granddaughter

This book has confirmed my belief that the best children's books come from Scandinavia. I don't know why, but it seems to be true.

When I was through with this magnificent story, all I could manage to do was sit there for a minute, hugging the book to me. I usually don't like this type of book. I'm the bookcover-judger type, but this story, about a boy's life on his grandmother's farm in southern Sweden, was rollicking and witty, a perfect escape from the world.