Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
3/5
Ebook111 pages1 hour
The Old Maid
By Edith Wharton and Roxana Robinson
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
3/5
()
About this ebook
Delia rejected passion in favor of a secure marriage but cousin Charlotte followed her own heart, even though it meant remaining unwed and giving up her baby. Charlotte's sacrifice has allowed the child, Tina, an advantageous position in New York City's fashionable society as Delia's adopted daughter. Now Tina's a graceful young woman and ready to marry — and the anguish that Charlotte has long suppressed is ready to explode.
In addition to her mastery of the novella, Edith Wharton was a keen observer of her own privileged class. Her skill at capturing telling details of nineteenth-century society elevates this soap-opera scenario of a mother's self-denial into a memorable and compelling drama. First published in serial form in The Red Book Magazine in 1922, the story has since become a classic of American literature and has served as the basis for a Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play as well as a classic Hollywood film. This edition features an Introduction by Roxana Robinson, author of Cost.
In addition to her mastery of the novella, Edith Wharton was a keen observer of her own privileged class. Her skill at capturing telling details of nineteenth-century society elevates this soap-opera scenario of a mother's self-denial into a memorable and compelling drama. First published in serial form in The Red Book Magazine in 1922, the story has since become a classic of American literature and has served as the basis for a Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play as well as a classic Hollywood film. This edition features an Introduction by Roxana Robinson, author of Cost.
Author
Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton (1862–1937) was an American novelist—the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for her novel The Age of Innocence in 1921—as well as a short story writer, playwright, designer, reporter, and poet. Her other works include Ethan Frome, The House of Mirth, and Roman Fever and Other Stories. Born into one of New York’s elite families, she drew upon her knowledge of upper-class aristocracy to realistically portray the lives and morals of the Gilded Age.
Read more from Edith Wharton
Twilight Sleep The Mother's Recompense Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Writing of Fiction: The Classic Guide to the Art of the Short Story and the Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Age of Innocence Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Buccaneers: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Children Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEthan Frome Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Custom of the Country Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Touchstone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Roman Fever and Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Glimpses of the Moon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ethan Frome & Summer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Custom of the Country Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Old Maid: The 'Fifties Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Manhattan Noir 2: The Classics Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The House of Mirth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Son at the Front Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Backward Glance: An Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Reef Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Custom of the Country Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Complete Works of Edith Wharton. Illustrated: The Age of Innocence, The House of Mirth, Ethan Frome and others Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEthan Frome and Other Short Fiction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Custom of the Country: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Short Stories Of Edith Wharton - Volume I: Madame de Treymes & Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to The Old Maid
Related ebooks
Evelina: Or, The History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Custom of the Country Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mansfield Park Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Private World of Georgette Heyer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Semi-Detached House Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fascinator Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCousin Phillis Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Agnes Grey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Castle Richmond Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMother Knew Best: Memoirs of a London Girlhood Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnna of the Five Towns Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Touchstone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What Katy Did Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLucia's Progress Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Voyage Out Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Vicar of Bullhampton Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dead Secret Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Man and Wife Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Reef Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shirley Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cranford Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Younger Sister Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Struggle for Fame Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEleanor’s Victory Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo Name Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBritannia Mews: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Harry Heathcote of Gangoil Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Demon in the House Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Tragic Bride Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Forsyte Saga Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Classics For You
The Fellowship Of The Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Odyssey: (The Stephen Mitchell Translation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Master & Margarita Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Color Purple Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ulysses: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dune Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Confederacy of Dunces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Canterbury Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Things They Carried Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wuthering Heights (with an Introduction by Mary Augusta Ward) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Republic by Plato Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mythos Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rebecca Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Farewell to Arms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Have Always Lived in the Castle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little Women (Seasons Edition -- Winter) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/520000 Leagues Under the Sea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Man and the Sea: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Learn French! Apprends l'Anglais! THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY: In French and English Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Count of Monte Cristo Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sense and Sensibility (Centaur Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Jungle: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Count of Monte-Cristo English and French Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5For Whom the Bell Tolls: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Persuasion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related podcast episodes
Amy Smilovic, Founder of Tibi, Gives a Style Master Class Through Her Lens of Creative Pragmatism 0% found this document usefulEpisode 72: Angel Strawbridge 0% found this document usefulThe Odd Women By George Gissing: George Gissing's The Odd Women (1893) is the grou… 0% found this document usefulPride and Prejudice 0% found this document usefulSwann's Way by Marcel Proust ~ Full Audiobook 0% found this document usefulI Think it’s Best Picked Off (S2 E10, "The Bracebridge Dinner") 0% found this document usefulA Rome of One's Own (With Emma Southon): Men aren’t the only ones who think about the Roman Empire all the time. 0% found this document usefulAngela Milne — One Year’s Time with Simon David Thomas 0% found this document usefulWho Knew Medea Could Be Even Angrier, Even More Bloodthirsty? (Seneca’s Medea Part 1) 0% found this document usefulSummer Reading 2021: It’s time for our annual look at what we’ve been … 0% found this document usefulMetropolitan Stories: A Novel by Christine Coulson 0% found this document usefulS3E1 Frances Quinn - on Biscuits, Baking and Brilliance 0% found this document useful?On Love, Loss and Life in New York, with Coco Mellors? 0% found this document useful78. Unforgettable | The Six Mitford Sisters 0% found this document usefulAdulthood Made Easy: Sam's Soliloquy 0% found this document usefulThe Victorian Chaise-longue by Marghanita Laski: The Victorian Chaise-longue (1953) is a terrifyin… 0% found this document usefulDiana Evans 0% found this document useful
Related articles
Great Read The Australian Women's WeeklyUNLIMITED
Great Read
Jul 13, 2022
7 min readCommonplace Book The American ScholarUNLIMITED
Commonplace Book
Jun 4, 2018
I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me. —Fred Allen I have always wondered, in reading travels, at the childish joy travellers felt at meeting people they knew, and their sense of loneliness when they did not, in
4 min readHome with Jane Time Magazine International EditionUNLIMITED
Home with Jane
May 15, 2020
2 min readLeap Of Faith Marie Claire AustraliaUNLIMITED
Leap Of Faith
Jul 18, 2024
7 min readThere’s Something About Mary Bennet The AtlanticUNLIMITED
There’s Something About Mary Bennet
Aug 19, 2016
6 min readThe Pursuit Of Love: Why Are We Still So Obsessed With The Mitford Sisters? Evening StandardUNLIMITED
The Pursuit Of Love: Why Are We Still So Obsessed With The Mitford Sisters?
May 11, 2021
Is there any greater example of the Problematic Fave than the Mitford sisters? They were posh, gossipy, fabulous, stylish and politically extreme. Were a couple of them – let’s just say it – outrageously right-wing? Yes. But are we still – myself inc
6 min readOn The Edge Of A Field In Sumner, Mississippi The American Poetry ReviewUNLIMITED
On The Edge Of A Field In Sumner, Mississippi
Nov 1, 2021
I pick cottonwith my own handsin the town where Emmett Till’skillers were acquittedin 1955, at the bottomlandsfed by the swollen Tallahatchie. History of the last empireexplained in its white,dreamy bolls. Cash cropso valuable that plantationowners b
1 min readJane Austen Trivia All About HistoryUNLIMITED
Jane Austen Trivia
Mar 26, 2020
Who knew that Jane brewed her own beer? In a letter to her sister Cassandra in January 1800, Jane told her, “We are brewing spruce beer again.” During this period, brewing was a traditional chore for women because water was often contaminated and it
5 min readMariana and Ibarra Are Waiting The Threepenny ReviewUNLIMITED
Mariana and Ibarra Are Waiting
Dec 1, 2021
9 min readMay Fiction Reader's Digest UKUNLIMITED
May Fiction
Apr 19, 2022
A Lady’s Guide to Fortune-Hunting by Sophie Irwin (HarperCollins, £14.99) IF YOU DIDN’Tknow that Sophie Irwin once wrote a dissertation on Georgette Heyer—the queen, and possibly inventor, of Regency Romance novels—then it wouldn’t be hard to guess f
2 min readHome with Jane TIMEUNLIMITED
Home with Jane
May 15, 2020
2 min readWriting Back to Guy and Harriet Pringle The MillionsUNLIMITED
Writing Back to Guy and Harriet Pringle
May 11, 2018
I met Guy and Harriet Pringle in the winter of 1987. In those days, Turkish public television had a rather ingenious arrangement with public radio; they would show the dubbed series, and the radio would play the original soundtrack. I do not remember
9 min readElizabeth's More Serious Sister Mary Takes The Spotlight In 'The Other Bennet Sister' NPRUNLIMITED
Elizabeth's More Serious Sister Mary Takes The Spotlight In 'The Other Bennet Sister'
Apr 9, 2020
3 min readWhy Gossip Is Fatal to Good Writing The AtlanticUNLIMITED
Why Gossip Is Fatal to Good Writing
Nov 11, 2024
8 min readTop Goss! Woman's Day Magazine NZUNLIMITED
Top Goss!
Feb 28, 2021
5 min readPreparation, Iowa Wild WestUNLIMITED
Preparation, Iowa
Jan 28, 2020
3 min readThe Old English Manner Country LifeUNLIMITED
The Old English Manner
Jan 22, 2020
6 min readThe Forgotten Brontë Sister Country LifeUNLIMITED
The Forgotten Brontë Sister
Jan 15, 2020
4 min readSaying Goodbye to Law & Order The AtlanticUNLIMITED
Saying Goodbye to Law & Order
Jun 28, 2020
5 min readThe Movie That Understands the Secret Shame of Motherhood The AtlanticUNLIMITED
The Movie That Understands the Secret Shame of Motherhood
Jan 5, 2022
5 min readIn 'Kiss Me In The Coral Lounge,' Helen Ellis' Home Life Takes Center Stage NPRUNLIMITED
In 'Kiss Me In The Coral Lounge,' Helen Ellis' Home Life Takes Center Stage
Jun 15, 2023
3 min readThe Seductive Countess From Kirribilli The Australian Women's WeeklyUNLIMITED
The Seductive Countess From Kirribilli
Jun 16, 2021
7 min read'On the Wrong Side of Five-and-Thirty': How Jane Austen Grew Up The AtlanticUNLIMITED
'On the Wrong Side of Five-and-Thirty': How Jane Austen Grew Up
Jul 18, 2017
3 min readCaleb Carr, Military Historian And Author Of Bestselling Novel 'The Alienist,' Dies At 68 The IndependentUNLIMITED
Caleb Carr, Military Historian And Author Of Bestselling Novel 'The Alienist,' Dies At 68
May 24, 2024
3 min readJan Morris The Paris ReviewUNLIMITED
Jan Morris
Jun 15, 2018
I have always rather envied the poet Ovid, who was banished from Rome by the emperor Augustus, you may remember, to a remote place called Tomis on the shores of the Black Sea. There he died, ten years later, and his exile has gone into legend and int
17 min readGilmore Girls: The Lead Male Characters On The Show, Ranked Worst To Least Awful The IndependentUNLIMITED
Gilmore Girls: The Lead Male Characters On The Show, Ranked Worst To Least Awful
Oct 5, 2020
5 min readPhilip The Patriarch New IdeaUNLIMITED
Philip The Patriarch
Apr 18, 2021
5 min readFarida Ado TIMEUNLIMITED
Farida Ado
May 28, 2018
AS IN THE REGENCY-ERA ENGLAND OF JANE AUSTEN’S novels, women in the city of Kano in northern Nigeria are on the cusp of radical social changes, as globalized development pulls against conservative Islamic traditions. To help make sense of changing ti
1 min readThe Difficult Genius of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala The AtlanticUNLIMITED
The Difficult Genius of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Jan 30, 2019
10 min readTaking It On The Chin Country LifeUNLIMITED
Taking It On The Chin
Mar 3, 2021
4 min read
Related categories
Reviews for The Old Maid
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
3/5
1 rating0 reviews
Book preview
The Old Maid - Edith Wharton
Enjoying the preview?
Page 1 of 1