The Touchstone

by Edith Wharton

Overview

Published in 1900, eleven years prior to her masterpiece Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton's novella The Touchstone explores the emotional complexities of love and betrayal. Penniless and unable to marry the woman he loves, the financially struggling lawyer Stephen Glennard discovers a way out of his predicaments by selling love letters written to him by deceased author Margaret Aubyn. Glennard’s psychological anguish as he grapples with his guilt and the repercussions of his actions presents a poignant narrative of human conscience and morality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781554459513
Publisher:	eBooksLib
Publication date:	04/21/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	187 KB

About the Author

Edith Wharton (1862–1937) was an American author best known for the novel The Age of Innocence, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1921, making her the first female winner of the award.

Date of Birth:

January 24, 1862

Date of Death:

August 11, 1937

Place of Birth:

New York, New York

Place of Death:

Saint-Brice-sous-Forêt, France

Education:

Educated privately in New York and Europe

Table of Contents

	Foreword	vii
	The Touchstone	1
	Notes	93
	Biographical note	95

Editorial Reviews

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

From the Publisher

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.”

Dial

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.”

biographer R. W. B. Lewis

A forgotten Edith Wharton gem.”

Atlantic