The Touchstone by Edith Wharton, Fiction, Literary, Classics

by Edith Wharton

Overview

The Touchstone was Edith Wharton's first published novella, and it's spare, perhaps even underwritten. Even so, this Faustian tale of a man who stoops to publish love letters for money has mesmerizing, even dangerous qualities -- it has betrayals, greed, and consequences faced: hidden meanings emerge in places where we do not expect to find them. Perhaps, like Stephen Glennard in The Touchstone, we will go mad with guilt, proving we do after all have a conscience. . . .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781598183733
Publisher:	Aegypan
Publication date:	07/01/2006
Pages:	124
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.44(d)

About the Author

Edith Wharton (1862 - 1937) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1927, 1928 and 1930. Wharton combined her insider's view of America's privileged classes with a brilliant, natural wit to write humorous, incisive novels and short stories of social and psychological insight. She was well acquainted with many of her era's other literary and public figures, including Theodore Roosevelt.

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.

Library Journal

They [Edith Wharton and Henry James] are giants, equals, the tutelary and benign gods of our American literature.” —Gore Vidal

From the Publisher