Edith Wharton was born in 1862 in New York City to a wealthy family. She had some difficulties in her relationships and drew from her life experiences when writing her novels. Although she faced challenges, she ultimately found success as a writer. Her novel The Age of Innocence was very popular and won her the Pulitzer Prize, becoming a bestseller despite a friend's prediction that few would read it given it depicted old New York society. The novel provided insights into the strict social norms and financial propriety of the time while also portraying life's darker realities. It established Wharton as a historian and remains widely read today.
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Wharton Mba Essays
1. Edith Wharton
Biographical Summary Edith Wharton lived a very interesting life. She had grown up in a
relatively high class family. She had some trouble in her relationship though. Most of her novels
are written about her past life experiences. Although she did have challenges to face, Edith
Wharton ended up extremely well. On January 24, 1862, Edith Wharton was born in New York
City. Her parents are George Fredric Jones and Lucretia Stevens Rhinelander. They were descents
from English and Duitch colonists who made money banking, real estate, and shipping. She has two
brothers, Frederic Rhinelander and Henry Edward. The family moved to Spain for about a year and
then moved to Pairs. Summer of 1870, they moved to Germany, and there Edith got typhoid...show
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Even though some people may like her or not, she still has remained a great American writer for
many years. In Edith Wharton's autobiography, one of her friends, Walter Berry, had said that her
book The Age of Innoncence was good but they "are the only people who will ever read it. [They]
are the last people left who can remember New York and Newport as they were then, and nobody
else will be interested" (Wharton 369). I completely disagree with Walter Berry. Her novel
became a huge hit and many people had read it. She was the first women to win a Pulitzer Prize
for this novel. This novel was one of her best pieces of work ever written. Even though people did
not grow up in that time period and in that exsact area, some people can relate. Some people live
in a society, even now, that is very strict and wants everyone to be perfect. Also, people do not
even have to be able to relate to the situation to enjoy the novel. Many people even now say that
this is one of their favorite novels she has written. This novel helped her become the historian she
is today. Another source said that the novel "was as much about the sexual propriety and
financial rectitude of her parents' age as it was about their aversion to the uglier side of life".
("Wharton, Edith"). I agree with this statement. This novel was about the olden age. It was about
how you can look two ways on life. In the novel you got to see two sides of people. One side was a
dreamy yet refined
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