Edith Wharton's 
Published Works

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Before 1900

1877

Fast and Loose
The first novel Wharton wrote was the last to be published. Written from 1876-1877 under the penname David Oliveri between the ages of 14 and 15, it was not published until 1977, forty years after her death.
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1878

Verses
Privately printed in Newport by one of her parents (in her memoir, Wharton credited her mother; elsewhere, her father), Verses contains 24 poems by Wharton
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1897

The Decoration of Houses
Wharton’s first major published work was a work of non-fiction, co-authored with Ogden Codman
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1898

Stories by Foreign Authors: Italian
Edith Wharton translated three of the five stories in this collection: “A Great Day” and “College Friends” by Edmondo de Amicis
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1899

The Greater Inclination
Edith Wharton’s first published short story was “Mrs. Manstey’s View,” published in Scribner’s Magazine
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1900 - 1920

1900

The Touchstone
Wharton’s first novella (longer than a short story, shorter than a novel), tells of the young lover of a recently deceased, famous female author.
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1901

Crucial Instances
Originally titled The Line of Least Resistance after the story she thought was her best, the title was changed and the story removed after a neighbor in Lenox
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1902

The Valley of Decision
A historical novel set in the 18th century, The Valley of Decision centers on a young Italian nobleman who attempts to reform his dukedom according to the principles of the Enlightenment
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1902

The Joy of Living
Mrs. Patrick Campbell, an English actress who George Bernard Shaw wrote Pygmalion for, requested that Wharton translate this play by the German playwright Hermann Sudermann.
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1903

Sanctuary
Sanctuary tells the story Kate Peyton, who marries a charming, but morally weak, man in hopes that she can provide their child with the moral strength the father lacks.
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1904

The Descent of Man
The title comes from a work of Charles Darwin, whose theory of evolution greatly shaped Wharton’s world-view.
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1904

Italian Villas and Their Gardens
Wharton wanted to write a scholarly work on Italian villas and their gardens, her publisher wanted a more popular work.
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1905

Italian Backgrounds
One of her several books on Italy, Italian Backgrounds documents several trips she took throughout Italy over more than a decade.
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1905

The House of Mirth
The book that made Wharton’s reputation, The House of Mirth features Lily Bart, a beautiful woman of elite New York society.
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1907

Madame de Treymes
Fanny de Malrive, an American unhappily married into an aristocratic French family, wants a divorce so that she can marry John Durham, who she knew from New York.
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1907

The Fruit of the Tree
Wharton followed her hugely successful novel of elite New York City society, The House of Mirth, with this novel, which largely takes place in a Hudson Valley mill town.
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1908

The Hermit and the Wild Woman and Other Stories
The title story takes place in medieval Italy and tells of a hermit whose life is disrupted by a woman who has fled a convent.
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1908

A Motor-Flight through France
The motor-car has restored the romance of travel” is how Wharton begins; the rest of the book backs up her claim.
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1909

Artemis to Actæon and Other Verse
Her second collection of poetry contains some of her best poetry, including “Vesalius in Zante,” a historical poem about a 16th-century physician
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1910

Tales of Men and Ghosts
Tales of Men and Ghosts contains 10 short stories written by Wharton written between 1908 and 1910.
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1911

Ethan Frome
In Wharton’s classic tale of winter New England, an engineer brought in to work at a nearby power-house is fascinated
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1912

The Reef
Anna Leath, the widow of the wealthy but cold Frasier Leath, rekindles her relationship with George Darrow, who wooed her as a youth.
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1913

The Custom of the Country
Undine Spragg—how can you?” asks the heroine’s mother in the opening to The Custom of the Country.
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1915

Fighting France: From Dunkerque to Belfort
Fighting France begins with the outbreak of World War I and describes how mobilization transformed France and the French.
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1916

The Book of the Homeless
Edith Wharton drew upon her wide circle of acquaintances to produce this collection of pieces to raise money for her wartime charities.
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1916

Xingu and Other Stories
The opening title story, about a woman’s book club welcoming Osric Dane to discuss her latest novel, The Wings of Death
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1917

Summer
Wharton called Summer her “hot Ethan” probably as much for its setting—summertime in a small New England town
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1918

The Marne
The main character of The Marne is a teenage American boy living in Paris. Too young to enlist for the First Battle of the Marne
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1919

French Ways and Their Meaning
The United States Navy selected this book, which was written to explain France to American servicemen, for their ship libraries.
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1920 - 1940

1920

In Morocco
In September and October 1917, in the middle of World War I, Edith Wharton travelled to Morocco at the invitation of the Resident-General Lyautey.
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1920

The Age of Innocence
Newland Archer, a wealthy young man in 1870s New York City, is engaged to the beautiful, seemingly conventional May Welland.
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1922

The Glimpses of the Moon
Nick and Susy Lansing are newly wed, but perhaps not for long. They married because they realized they could travel Europe
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1923

A Son at the Front
The son at the front of the title is George, son of impoverished painter John Campton and stepson of the wealthy banker Anderson Brant.
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1924

Old New York
The four novellas that make up Old New York each take place in a different decade of the nineteenth century.
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1925

The Mother’s Recompense
Kate Clephane, who twenty years earlier left her husband and abandoned her daughter, returns to America from Europe for her daughter’s wedding
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1925

The Writing of Fiction
Although Wharton wrote many articles on writing and writers, this is her only book on the subject.
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1926

Here and Beyond
Wharton’s first collection of short stories after World War I contains no stories directly about the war.
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1926

Twelve Poems
Only 130 copies of these 12 poems were published. Several of the poems, such as “The Tryst,” address the death and destruction wrought by World War I.
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1927

Twilight Sleep
Every minute of Pauline Manafort’s day is planned out in advance, ensuring maximum efficiency.
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1928

The Children
Martin Boyne, a forty-six-year-old American engineer who has spent most of his adult working abroad
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1929

Hudson River Bracketed
Hudson River Bracketed is the first of two novels about Vance Weston, an aspiring writer from the West who visits the Hudson Valley
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1930

Certain People
Wharton’s eighth collection contains six stories. “After Holbein” is a darkly comic tale of a society gentleman who mistakenly visits an old friend for dinner.
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1932

The Gods Arrive
The Gods Arrive is only sequel Wharton wrote, though she considered writing sequels to The Valley of Decision and The Age of Innocence.
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1933

Human Nature
Wharton dedicated this book to her friend Bernard Berenson, an American art historian and collector who lived in Italy.
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1934

A Backward Glance
Wharton’s memoir is unconventional. In many ways, it is less about her and more about the people
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1936

The World Over
The World Over contains two of her most famous stories, “Pomegranate Seed” and “Roman Fever.”
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1937

Ghosts
Do you believe in ghosts?’ is the pointless question often addressed by those who are incapable of feeling ghostly influences to—I will not say the ghost-seer
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1938

The Buccaneers
I am writing a new novel of the same period as The Age of Innocence…This one, however, is considerably less innocent,” is how Wharton described The Buccaneers to a friend.
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1939

Eternal Passion in English Poetry
Every anthology is always some one person’s anthology,” wrote Wharton somewhat misleadingly in her introduction to this collection of English language
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1936

The World Over

The World Over contains two of her most famous stories, “Pomegranate Seed” and “Roman Fever.” “Pomegranate Seed” is the haunting tale of a young wife who slowly becomes convinced her husband is receiving letters from his dead wife. In “Roman Fever,” a sharply ironic examination of friendship, two middle-aged women reminiscence on their girlhoods spent together in Rome.

When it was published, perhaps the best-known story was “Charm Incorporated,” originally titled “Bread upon Waters,” which was made into the movie Strange Wives (1934). Wharton was not a fan of films and “Charm Incorporated” is partly a satire on Hollywood. But, she was a fan of money and received $5,000 for the movie rights (approximately $100,000 today).

Published in April 1936