Edith Wharton

"The Custom of the Country" and its unique relationship with ideas of feminism and the culture of the early 20th century elite.

Whether exploring the dread of everyday life or the horrors of the occult, her ghost tales documented a nation haunted by isolation, class, and despair.

A reissued collection, long out of print, revives the author’s masterly stories of horror and unease.

Cameron Laux looks at how The Age of Innocence – published 100 years ago – marked a pivotal moment in US history.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman authored the beloved short story "The Yellow Wallpaper," but also supported eugenics and nativism.

Where does Edith Wharton's idea of innocence fall into our own world?

Under pressure from his wealthy family, Leonard “Kip” Rhinelander claimed that his new wife, Alice Beatrice Jones, had tricked him into believing she was white.

Isabella Stewart Gardner builds a place to house her art.

Uncovering the resort where rich women sought the elusive right to divorce

The rise and fall of the WASP.

As the HBO series The Gilded Age suggests, charity allowed wealthy women to play a visible role in public life. It was also a site of inter-class animosity.

The American Scene is Henry James’s indictment of what Americans had made of their land.

Cate Doty on the evolution of a society mainstay.

How did the genre of self-help go from one focused on collective empowerment to one serving the class hierarchy as it stands?