The Touchstone

by Edith Wharton Narrated by Grace Conlin

Overview

This spare, mesmerizing novel is Edith Wharton's money-can't-buy-happiness tale. Young Stephen Glennard is poor, but he has an unanticipated gambling chip: a collection of love letters from a scorned but now famous lover, the distinguished novelist Margaret Aubyn. To raise money for his forthcoming wedding to another woman, Stephen stoops to selling the letters. His decision brings him wealth and admission to society, but a mystery contained in the missives comes back to haunt him, and it may take a madness of guilt to remind Stephen that he does, after all, have a conscience.

Betrayal, greed, and consequences faced make this sly, masterful story a deft social and psychological portrait to stand with Wharton's best.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

They [Edith Wharton and Henry James] are giants, equals, the tutelary and benign gods of our American literature.” —Gore Vidal

Dial

A very unsual and brillant short novel in which a singular situation is worked out with that searching accuracy and psychological detail which characterized Mrs. Wharton’s short stories.”

biographer R. W. B. Lewis

The Touchstone is without doubt expertly written, and it contains a number of the beautifully articulated insights into the ambiguities of the moral life at which Edith Wharton was becoming a master.”

Atlantic

A forgotten Edith Wharton gem.”

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169603378
Publisher:	Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date:	01/01/2006
Edition description:	Unabridged

Videos