<div>This anthology spans more than a century of noir fiction set in the heart of the Big Apple&mdash;&ldquo;17 sure winners&rdquo; from Edith Wharton, Donald Westlake, and more (Publishers Weekly, starred review).The island of Manhattan has been a breeding ground of crime, longing, and discontent since its earliest days as a city&mdash;and a natural setting for noir fiction since the genre was invented. And from Harlem to Greenwich Village to Wall Street, it has also been home to many a great writer. After the success of the first Manhattan Noir, dedicated to all-new stories, Lawrence Block combed through the borough&rsquo;s long literary history to deliver this stellar collection of classics, even stretching the bounds of noir to include poems by Edgar Allen Poe and others. Manhattan Noir 2: The Classics features entries by Edith Wharton, Stephen Crane, O. Henry, Langston Hughes, Irwin Shaw, Jerome Weidman, Damon Runyon, Evan Hunter, Jerrold Mundis, Edgar Allan Poe, Horace Gregory, Geoffrey Bartholomew, Cornell Woolrich, Barry N. Malzberg, Clark Howard, Jerome Charyn, Donald E. Westlake, Joyce Carol Oates, Lawrence Block, and Susan Isaacs.</div>

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Manhattan Noir 2

<div>The Pulitzer Prize&ndash;winning novel of desire and duty in Gilded Age New York A respected lawyer and scion of one of Manhattan&rsquo;s most important families, Newland Archer knows what people expect of him and is eager to comply. The first step on the path to happiness is to wed May Welland, a beautiful young woman of fine social standing. But the arrival of the worldly and exotic Countess Olenska, May&rsquo;s cousin, changes everything. Ellen Olenska&rsquo;s scandalous intention to divorce her husband, a Polish nobleman, is so far outside the realm of Newland&rsquo;s experience that he cannot help but be fascinated by her, and by the independence she represents. As he draws closer to the irresistible countess, he risks breaking May&rsquo;s heart and destroying his life of privilege forever. Winner of the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction&mdash;marking the very first time a woman was so honored&mdash;and the basis for several film and stage adaptations, including the 1993 Academy Award&ndash;winning motion picture directed by Martin Scorsese, The Age of Innocence is one of the best-loved American novels of the twentieth century. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices. </div>

The Age of Innocence

<div>Edith Wharton&rsquo;s classic story of one woman&rsquo;s quest for wealth and status after the turn of the twentieth century Beautiful, selfish, and driven, Undine Spragg arrives in New York with all of the ambition and naivet&eacute; that her midwestern, nouveau riche upbringing afforded her. As cunning as she is lovely, Undine has but one goal in life: to ascend to the upper echelons of high society. And so with a single-minded tenacity, Undine continues to maneuver through life, finding all the while that true satisfaction remains just beyond her grasp. Hailed by Elizabeth Hardwick as &ldquo;Edith Wharton&rsquo;s finest achievement,&rdquo; The Custom of the Country is a riveting novel of ruthless ambition and a literary master class in the art of the antiheroine. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.</div>

The Custom of the Country

<div>One of literature&rsquo;s keenest social critics, Pulitzer Prize&ndash;winning author Edith Wharton weaves a tragic small-town tale of epic proportions in this masterful novella Physically disfigured and trapped in a loveless marriage to a sickly older woman, Ethan Frome is a broken man. He lives a desolate, impoverished life in the town of Starkfield, Massachusetts, bound by an unassailable sense of duty. But long ago, Ethan dreamed of something beyond his bleak and tedious New England existence. Once, he had dared to have hope for the future. Ethan Frome tells the wrenching story of a love destined not to be and a man mired in his own private hell. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.</div>

Overdrive

Ethan Frome

<div>The classic tale of a young woman&rsquo;s struggle for love and money from the Pulitzer Prize&ndash;winning author of Ethan Frome and The Age of Innocence. Raised among New York&rsquo;s high society, Lily Bart is beautiful, charming, and entirely without means. Determined to maintain the extravagant lifestyle to which she is accustomed, Lily embarks on a mission to marry a wealthy man who can secure her station. However, the businesslike proposals from her many suitors remain fruitless, and her thoughts keep returning to the one man she truly loves. Bedeviled by debt, betrayal, and vicious gossip, she is forced to confront the tragic cruelty just beneath the surface of the Gilded Age. First appearing in Scribner&rsquo;s Magazine as a monthly serial, House of Mirth was a runaway bestseller upon its release as a full-length novel in 1905. Hailed as &ldquo;a fireworks display of brilliantly sardonic social satire deepened by a story of thwarted love&rdquo; by the Wall Street Journal, it was the first popular and critical success for Edith Wharton, who went on to become the first female author to win the Pulitzer Prize. Since its initial publication, House of Mirth has been adapted into two feature films and continues to captivate modern readers. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices. </div>

The House of Mirth

<div>An artist watches his son go to the frontlines of WWI in this novel from the Pulitzer Prize&ndash;winning author of The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth. Paris, 1914. An American painter living abroad, John Campton is excited to spend a month traveling with his son George. But their plans are cut short when war breaks out across Europe. Raised by his mother in the United States, George is American through-and-through. But he is technically a French citizen&mdash;and now he is called upon to fight for France. As John reconnects with his ex-wife in an attempt to keep George from the front, George makes a shocking decision that leaves John struggling to understand his role&mdash;as both an artist and a parent&mdash;in a time of war. Written in 1923, Edith Wharton&rsquo;s A Son at the Front offers heartbreaking drama as well as biting satire in its knowing depiction of life behind the frontlines of World War I. &ldquo;Wharton movingly portrays those left behind during war&mdash;not the wives and children but the devastated parents, who are forced to go on living at the cost of their own flesh and blood. Heartrending, tragic, powerful, this is not to be missed.&rdquo; &mdash;Publishers Weekly This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices. </div>

A Son at the Front

<div>A tale about money and a marriage of convenience in 1920s New York by the Pulitzer Prize&ndash;winning author of The Age of Innocence. This novel by the author of Ethan Frome, The House of Mirth, and other classics follows a couple as they venture everywhere from a lakeside villa to a Venetian palace, enjoying an extended honeymoon at other people&rsquo;s expense&mdash;until their calculations lead to complications. &ldquo;Nick and Susy Lansing, each suffering from a genteel lack of money, have married out of convenience rather than romantic rapture. Intending to live off the generosity of wealthy acquaintances, they have also agreed that each shall be free to pursue a more socially desirable mate. What they didn&rsquo;t anticipate is that they would fall genuinely in love with each other. As Wharton tells their story, the sharp irony of both her prose and her characters bleeds into pools of true feeling.&rdquo; &mdash;Kirkus Reviews</div>

The Glimpses of the Moon

<div>A rich visitor from the city seduces a local woman, but their affair may not survive the season, in this novel by the Pulitzer-winning author of Ethan Frome.Charity Royall was taken in as a child by an educated man in a small New England town. Her origins on &ldquo;the mountain&rdquo;&mdash;towering in the distance and whispered about in dark tones&mdash;remain murky to her. She only knows she is expected to be grateful for being rescued, and for her improved circumstances. Yet, bored in her work amid the moldering books at the rarely used library, she yearns for bigger and better things.Then, one summer afternoon, Lucius Harney strolls into the library. An architect from a prominent family, he seems sophisticated, intimidating, and alluring. Before long, Charity is involved in a romance both unexpected and daring. But the relationship brings consequences, and the desires and dreams that Lucius awakens in Charity may be dashed and her future changed forever . . . &ldquo;A literary classic.&rdquo; &mdash;Hartford Courant</div>

Summer

<div>Essays on the craft of fiction writing from the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize, for her novel The Age of Innocence.In The Writing of Fiction,Edith Wharton, a prolific writer and one of the twentieth century&rsquo;s greatest authors, shares her thoughts on fiction writing, devoting individual chapters to short stories and novels. She stresses the importance of writers putting thought into how they build their story, from selecting subject matter and fashioning characters to crafting situations and settings. She explores the history of modern fiction and the contributions of Honor&eacute; de Balzac and Stendhal. She even examines the difference between literary and commercial fiction, as well as the work of Marcel Proust.Although Wharton passed away in 1937, her advice here endures and is bound to inspire writers for ages to come. &ldquo;In The Writing of Fiction Edith Wharton gives us not only a period-appropriate glimpse into the mind of an exceptionally creative writer but also an appreciation for the thoughtfulness and discipline she brought to her craft. We are fortunate she was willing to share her observations.&rdquo; &mdash;Ralph White, author of Litchfield</div>

The Writing of Fiction

<div>In this classic by the Pulitzer Prize&ndash;winning author of The Age of Innocence, a mother&rsquo;s past complicates her daughter&rsquo;s future in 1920s New York.Trapped in an unhappy marriage with a controlling husband, Kate Clephane began an affair with a wealthy man, only to lose her daughter, Anne, and be exiled from New York society. Years later, after their entanglement has ended, Kate meets Chris Fenno in France. Although he is a much younger man, Chris is the love of Kate&rsquo;s life. However, their difficult circumstances get in the way of their burgeoning romance. Chris is called back to America, leaving Kate alone in a third-rate hotel on the French Riviera. Then, more than twenty years after she left the United States, Kate receives a telegram asking her to return to New York City. Anne is now fully grown and about to be married. When Kate arrives, she finds her daughter hopes to rebuild their relationship. However, their reunion may not be so peaceful when Kate discovers Anne&rsquo;s fianc&eacute; is not only a bit of an opportunist, but also the man Kate still loves.</div>

The Mother's Recompense

<div>The author of The House of Mirth explores the nature of romance as the love affairs of four Americans dramatically intertwine in early twentieth-century France. This novel explores the complicated nature of love, its limitations and its possibilities, through the intertwining love stories of four Americans. George Darrow is a diplomat in London when he runs into an old flame at a dinner party. Anna Leath left George to marry another man, but she is now a widow living with her family in France. After Anna mysteriously cancels a rendezvous with George, he meets the beautiful Sophy Viner, an aspiring young actress in search of a fresh start in Paris. Finally, there is Owen Leath, Anna&rsquo;s stepson, whose fianc&eacute;e is certain to make things more difficult for everyone . . . Originally published in 1912, The Reef is possibly Edith Wharton&rsquo;s most autobiographical novel. Wharton, of course, went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1921 for her novel The Age of Innocence.</div>

The Reef

<div>The Pulitzer Prize&ndash;winning author of The Age of Innocence explores the supernatural and other unknowns in six short stories.The acclaimed Gilded Age author travels around the world and into the unknown with these six tales.After recovering from a bad fever in a Swiss sanitorium, an American pays a social call to a friend&rsquo;s lonely sister on the coast of Brittany, but his journey takes a terrifying turn in &ldquo;Miss Mary Pask.&rdquo;A wealthy resident of a small Massachusetts town hides a sinister secret inside his home and it&rsquo;s piqued the interest of his neighbors in &ldquo;The Young Gentlemen.&rdquo;A Massachusetts farmer&rsquo;s wife calls in help when her husband is visited by his dead ex-lover in &ldquo;Bewitched.&rdquo;Death, doubt, and distrust blossom in the deserts of Morocco at an American Baptist mission in &ldquo;The Seed of Faith.&rdquo;An American author working on his next book heads to Paris to speak with his subject&rsquo;s late wife in &ldquo;The Temperate Zone.&rdquo;Recovering from serious illness, an American professor heads to the south of France, searching for quiet and seclusion in &ldquo;Velvet Ear-Pads.&rdquo; Inspired by the author&rsquo;s own global travels, Here and Beyond is a mix of ghost stories, character studies, and social drama. It was originally published in 1926.</div>

Here and Beyond

<div>In this comic novel by a Pulitzer Prize&ndash;winning author, a bachelor on a transatlantic cruise meets a group of runaway children who change his life forever. Martin Boyne is a cautious man of forty-six. The bachelor has been nursing a relationship with a widow for five years, and now he is crossing the Atlantic to be with her. He laments that he never meets interesting people in his travels, but that is about to change . . . The seven precocious Wheater siblings, traveling with their nanny, are running away from their parents. Their mother and father are always breaking up and reconciling, shuffling the children back and forth, and they have had enough. They simply want to be together . . . Moved by the children&rsquo;s plight and knowing of their parents, Boyne decides to help them as best he can. It is time to throw caution to the wind, and everyone, including Boyne, just may be better for it . . .</div>

The Children

<div>The Pulitzer Prize&ndash;winning author of Ethan Frome explores the longings and regrets of two spinster sisters in Gilded Age New York City. In a basement shop on a side street near Manhattan&rsquo;s Stuyvesant Square, sisters Ann Eliza and Evelina Bunner sell artificial flowers and various hand-sewn articles for women. They once held lofty aspirations for their business but have learned to be content in their quiet lives making a modest income selling to a select clientele of locals from the neighborhood. Things soon change after Ann Eliza buys Evelina a birthday present, and a bachelor clockmaker enters their world . . . </div>

Bunner Sisters

<div>A young woman is caught between two mothers in 1850s Manhattan in this novella by the Pulitzer Prize&ndash;winning author of The Age of Innocence. Tina is a girl torn between two women. There is her adoptive mother, Delia Ralston, a member of one of Manhattan&rsquo;s ruling families, and then there is Charlotte Lovell, the woman who gave her up so that she could have a chance at a better life. As Tina grows up, the tensions between Delia and Charlotte begin to fester as the two worry about what sort of woman Tina will become . . . Originally published in Edith Wharton&rsquo;s Old New York in 1924, The Old Maid examines ideas of motherhood, class, gender, and society while detailing the complex relationships between women. The novella was adapted into a Pulitzer Prize&ndash;winning stage play by Zoe Akins, which was in turn adapted into a feature film starring Bette Davis.</div>

The Old Maid

<div>The celebrated author of The Age of Innocence offers a biting satire of Jazz Age society in this tale of indulgence, infidelity, and family dysfunction. Nona Manford is in love with the wrong man&mdash;or at least, she&rsquo;s in love with a man whose wife won&rsquo;t grant a divorce. When she isn&rsquo;t preoccupied with her own romantic dilemma, Nona is busy trying to save the marriage of her stepbrother, Jim. But Jim&rsquo;s wife, Lita, is desperate to escape her domestic role for a life of dancing, champagne, and glamour. And meanwhile, the family&rsquo;s older generation isn&rsquo;t faring much better. An instant bestseller when it was first published in 1927, Edith Wharton&rsquo;s Twilight Sleep is both a scathing satire of Jazz Age frivolity and a psychologically probing portrait of a family coming apart at the seams.</div>

Edith Wharton
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Books By Edith Wharton (15 Books)