The Edith Wharton BBC Radio Drama Col..., Edith Wharton
The Edith Wharton BBC Radio Drama Col..., Edith Wharton
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The Edith Wharton BBC Radio Drama Collection

Author: Edith Wharton

Narrator: Anna Massey, Ben Miles, Eleanor Bron, Tom Hollander, Jessica Raine, Don Gilet, Full Cast, Dan Stevens, Sian Thomas

Unabridged: 16 hr 16 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/21/2020

Categories: Fiction, Classic


Synopsis

BBC radio productions of classic works by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edith Wharton - plus two bonus documentaries

American author Edith Wharton is renowned for her merciless satires of marriage and money, set in the upper-class milieu into which she was born. Included here are a superb selection of her novels, short stories and plays, recorded for BBC Radio - as well as two programmes exploring her life and work.

The House of Mirth - Bewitching socialite Lily Bart is hunting for a wealthy husband - but time is running out... Starring June Barrie, Carole Mowlam and Keith Alexander.

Madame de Treymes - John Durham's fight for the woman he loves sparks a confrontation with a powerful and devious French family. Starring Anna Massey and Philip Voss.

The Reef - Jodhi May, Sian Thomas and Ben Miles star in Edith Wharton's neglected classic following the complicated love lives of four Americans in France.

The Age of Innocence - Recently engaged Newland Archer is drawn to his fiancee's cousin, the exotic, independent Countess Ellen Olenska. Starring Eleanor Bron, Ryan McCluskey and Susan Lynch.

The Custom of the Country- Beautiful Undine Spragg arrives in New York, setting her sights on Ralph Marvell. But will he live up to her expectations? Starring Rebecca Night, Dan Stevens and Tom Hollander.

Ethan Frome - Trapped in an unhappy marriage, Ethan Frome becomes obsessed with his wife's cousin. Dominic Mafham, Jessica Raine and Laurel Lefkow star in this tragic love story set in rural Massachusetts.

The Shadow of a Doubt - Former nurse Kate Derwent carries a terrible secret. Phoebe Fox, Francesca Annis and Paul Ready star in this newly-discovered play from 1901.

Great Lives: Edith Wharton - Naomi Wolf joins presenter Matthew Paris to talk about Wharton and her work.

In Our Time: Edith Wharton - Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Wharton's novels of America's Gilded Age.

First published 1901 (The Shadow of a Doubt), 1903 ('The Dilettante'), 1905 (The House of Mirth), 1907 (Madame de Treymes), 1910 ('Afterward'), 1911 (Ethan Frome), 1912 (The Reef), 1913 (The Custom of the Country), 1920 (The Age of Innocence)

About Edith Wharton

American author Edith Wharton is distinguished for her stories and ironic novels about early-twentieth-century, upper-class Americans and Europeans. Although Ethan Frome, a stark New England tragedy, is probably her best-known work, she earned recognition and popularity for her "society novels," in which she analyzed the changing scene of fashionable American life in contrast to that of Old Europe.

Wharton's literary talent was epitomized in her novel The Age of Innocence, for which she won a Pulitzer Prize, and which was made into a film in 1993. Other major works of hers include The House of Mirth, The Reef, and The Custom of the Country. She published more than forty volumes, including novels, short stories, poems, essays, travel books, and memoirs.

Born Edith Newbold Jones into a wealthy and socially prominent New York family in 1862, she was educated privately by European governesses both in the United States and abroad. In 1885, Edith reluctantly married Edward Wharton, a Boston banker, who was twelve years her senior. The marriage ended in divorce twenty-eight years later.

Wharton spent long periods of time in Europe and settled in France from 1910 until her death. Her familiarity with continental languages and European settings influenced many of her works. She became a literary hostess to young writers, including Henry James, at her Paris apartment and her garden home in the south of France. During World War I, she was a war correspondent, ran a workroom for unemployed but skilled woman workers, and took charge of 600 Belgian child refugees who had to leave their orphanage at the time of the German advance.

Wharton was also active in fund-raising activities and participated in the production of an illustrated anthology of war writings by prominent authors and artists of the period. The French government awarded her the Cross of the Legion of Honor in 1915. Wharton died in 1937.


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