The Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton — Part 2

BOTTICELLI’S MADONNA IN THE LOUVRE...January 1891 THE TOMB OF ILARIA GIUNIGI...........February 1891 THE SONNET...........................November 1891 TWO BACKGROUNDS.............

“Oh, THAT!” He glanced down the printed slip, and then folded it with the gesture of one who handles something harmless and familiar. “What’s the matter with you this afternoon,...

A CONFOUNDEDLY HARD PLACE TO GET LOST IN! That had been her husband’s phrase. And now, with the whole machinery of official investigation sweeping its flash-lights from shore to...

“Oh, I can’t tell you, if you don’t know,” she said, almost reproachfully. “Many words are supposed to define it--love and sympathy are those in commonest use, but I am not even...

The encounter set the glasses spinning and three or four spun off and clattered to the stones. The sherbet-seller called on all the saints, and Tony, clapping a lordly hand to h...

“You must know that the Marquess Zanipolo, though a great noble, is not a rich man. True, he has large estates, but he is a desperate spendthrift and gambler, and would sell his...

Mrs. Ballinger winced at the discrimination, but let it pass. “We can hardly make that our chief subject--at least not TOO intentionally,” she suggested. “Of course we can let o...

Miss Glyde was evidently making a desperate effort to reinforce her statement; but accuracy of detail was not her strongest point. At length she began in a deep murmur: “Surely...

I must have let a little too much amazement escape through my surprise, for he answered with a deprecating laugh: “Yes--she’s an awful simpleton, you know, Mrs. Stroud. Her only...

If the reasoning by which her friends justified her course was somewhat cruder and less complex than her own elucidation of the matter, both explanations led to the same conclus...

He followed her into the drawing-room and closed the door. Julia, as she advanced, was vaguely aware that the room at least was unchanged: time had not mitigated its horrors. Th...