She died 84 years ago today and is still one of the greatest writers who ever wrote. Ethan Frome is my favorite of her novels. I love the way she writes about the New York Familes of the 19th and early 20th Century. They really ruled New York in every way. They in there way was the Mafia before the Mafia. Thank you Miss Wharton for all your books.

"Her marriage had been too concrete a misery to be surveyed philosophically."...ha! How true for many of us.

There was a time when everyone read Wharton's Ethan Frome in High School. It was mandatory for a well rounded education. We have lowered our standards in basic education.

One of the most beautifully produced entrees into a writer's life that I have seen. Lovely and engaging.

Miss Wharton was my favorite author in youth... now81 I still rem her books with affection&admiration.

We were fortunate years ago to tour the house. Magnificent! Henry James visited there. The gardens are marvelous. A trip to see the house and gardens is worth it if you are in the area. A slice of life preserved to perfection!

A sensitive and hugely engaging documentary into this extraordinary woman's life. Thanks for the upload!

She was my Grandma's idol Im 83 and still read her letters to my gdmother

I met Edith Wharton through Martin Scorsese and his movie The Age of Innocence. I remember vividly both the pleasure the film gave me and the joy I felt when I discovered that the book was even better. I knew nothing about the author but fell in love with her way of writing. Still am today. Thank you for this documentary, whose only fault is to doubt the importance of the House of Mirth 😉

The soul waits for a footstep that never comes. Wow

8:33-11:08 Irene Worth. Per Wikipedia, "In the mid-1990s, she devised and performed a two-hour monologue Portrait of Edith Wharton, based on Wharton's life and writings. Using no props, costumes or sets, she created characters entirely through vocal means."

Her Pulitzer The Age of Innocence captures a time 189~ she explains the wealthy life and the honor of a man’s word. Many call her a snob because it was always said the phrase Keeping Up With The Joneses was meant for Edith’s family.

I love The Age of Innocence. It’s a must read

"She excelled at the rare art of taking things for granted."

This show was so strange. It came to an abrupt end spending only a few minutes on what happened between her divorce and her death in 1937. I feel it it should have been a half hour longer at least. If you have an interest in Edith Wharton I highly recommend that you search for an article in the New Yorker on her and her letters from June of 2009. It turns out that although she was different from the other rich girls in the New York of her childhood, she was not alone and was not a socialite with a limited education who somehow became a great writer. No, it turns out she had a sympathetic governess who she remained in touch with who helped her learn multiple languages and with whom she discussed literature.

@1:49, the authors description of Wharton's view on the American woman's position in society would be true of women everywhere at the time..today our freedoms to enjoy life on our own terms was fought for long and hard by those brave grandmothers of ours. It behooves us to honor their struggle, not by destroying ourselves in a modern society intent on destruction of all things feminine, but by building on them to achieve, attain and enjoy the life we have honorably.

The first time I read Edith Wharton was her short story "Roman Fever", in high school. Made such an impression on me. I hope she is resting in peace.

Edith Wharton is still one of my most favorite writers. True American literature in every sense. Henry James could have learned a lot about readable writing style from her.

One of my all time favourite authors!

There is something so wholesome and mature about this tale. It's a way of life and a point of view that have completely vanished, You could once upon a time, chase an echo of it at the end of an East coast dinner party - but it was a ghost. It's calming and most of all better viewed through a lens of the educated. Thank you.

The guy she was supposed to marry ended up dying a couple of years after their broken engagement from tuberculosis. His mother did not want them to marry and she ended up with his inheritance after his death.

I visited The Mount, her home in Lenox in the Berkshires. I have read a great deal of Edith Wharton and she was a wonderful writer, with a number of memorable novels - House of Mirth, Ethan Frome, The Custom of the Country. Oh, and The Age of Innocence, made into a memorable movie in the '90s. The 1990's.

Walter Berry should have married her. It reminds me of Barbara Pym, who had a brief affair and a lifelong friendship with a man she met when she was going to college at Oxford. He didn’t marry Ms. Pym either, he married someone else, but he was at Barbara’s deathbed. Men oftentimes think they are settling when they court someone whose looks don’t quite come up to snuff. They think the grass is greener somewhere else and so pass up spending their life with a soulmate and opt for the ornament of a pretty wife.

I am SO happy to see Irene Worths’ readings in this! I became very interested in EW in the 1990’s when Miss Worth was doing her one woman show of Mrs Wharton. I never got to see it. A scene from “the Age of Innocence”was filmed at a building I worked in and I’ve been hooked ever since. She’s perfect! This is a treat.

She suffered typhoid fever at age 8 and was affected by that illness into herb20's, according to another on lone documentary. This documentary is beautifully done.

Thank you Edith for freeing me of all bondage including waiting for nothing

I recall hearing Scorsese refered to The Age of Innocence as his most violent film it's probably my most favourite of his too not just for the performances including the great Daniel Day Lewis but for the truth of social expectations biases conformity the class system etc. The shame and slow character assassination a woman receives for divorce or daring to feel any love or passion inappropriately wearing the wrong clothes to the Opera etc.

She wrote my favorite novel the house of mirth...

"She wasn't meant to be happy" what a ridiculous statement. She was starved for love, tenderness and the emptiness was from not knowing how to, reconcile the abandonment of her as a person and the rejection of her capabilities also. However, as pathetic as her marriage was, had she married anyone else she may have been subjected to bullying, abuse and countless atrocities committed on women. So this meaningless marriage enabled her to grow intellectually.

I have always loved Edith Wharton. Not only for her writings but for her sensibilities. I have visited the Mount in Lenox Massachusetts and felt the esthetic grandeur of what she considered to be the correct assemblage of a home.

Fancy judging and deciding 'she was a woman who wasn't meant to be happy' on a couple of photographs and the way she was 'rigidly' posing! One had to hold a shot in formal attire for that era anyway.

21:21 You're wrong: not learning anything about sex in the 1950s made my life vastly more difficult.

I loved "the age of innocense." One of my most fave movies.

I love Edith Wharton. I think I have written everything published by her, at least everything I've been able to find. Her writing is wonderful.

🤗 One of my very favorite female authors, along with Pearl Buck, Patricia Highsmith, and Marguerite Yourcenar.

Very much enjoyed! Well Done. She, herself, is a great CHARACTER. 🙂!

I love her writing

brilliant documentary 👍

A brilliant woman. But so sad about her love life. Teddy and Morton were complete xxxxxxx

Excellent documentary. Thank you for the upload.

So lovely. Thank you.

My favorite book in hs that I read was Ethen Frome...beautiful story...I read it straight through in 2 nights...

As much I like Edith Wharton ,I Wish there is a BBC Documentary on Henry James .

Thank you for this wonderful video!

What on earth do you mean, “she was never meant to be happy”? That’s a ridiculous statement.

Or, as Lord Curzon was reported to have told his wife as he was enjoying his conjugal rights " Madame, ladies do not move "

I like my snob 😂 😂 😂 😂. Oh I get got it, we got manners.

The House of Mirth is a worthwhile read.

just watched the house of mirth directed by terence davies. goodness gracious what a beautiful tragedy. came here to learn more!

20:00 The expectations for women in the 1890s sounds very much like the ones that were in place in the 1950s.

Interesting that Louis Auchincloss has the same American-British way of speaking as FDR!

Ian Holmes Voice Marvellous 💕

This documentary starts with Lily Lodge (a.o. actress) implying that Edith Wharton was a snob and was thus not forgiven by the New York elite of her time and age. I have read almost everything written by Edith Wharton and one thing she is not and that is a snob. In fact she very often ridicules the socalled high society of New York at the turning of the century.

Sister Carrie, Ethan Fromm, and so many others i can't even name , had me captivated from the beginning. I fell in love with Ms. Edith Wharton from the beginning. I think I'll suggest to Santa Clause a collection of her books, kepp them, enjoy them and than pass them down if my neices ever outgrow their narcissism and can emphasize with someone else's position in life. Let us pray.🙏🙏🙏

Edith Wharton, one of the greatest American authors! House of Mirth, Age of Innocence, Ethan Frome, just for starters. But I suggest "The Custom of the Country," which is not as well-known. It's wonderful, both funny and tragic. The main character is an awful woman named Undine Spragg. The first line: "Undine, how could you?" basically summarizes the theme of the whole book - how could she have done so many awful things, all for the sake of fame and fortune.

Great documentary, thx ❤

What is the piano piece at 17:44 please anyone? Thanks in advance.

Wonderful 👍🌻

Thank you for sharing.

I was once dragged my mother and a friend of her's on a tour of the Newport "cottages." I can't recall now which house we were in when I'd finally had enough. We were being shown a linen "closet" nearly as big as my NYC apartment living room.. At the end of the lecture we were asked if we had any questions. No one spoke, so I raised my hand. "How many people died of black lung to build this "cottage"? My mother was appalled and made her opinion known to the whole group. I suspected at the time that there was at least one other woman in the group who'd thought of a similar question but hadn't dared to ask it. My mother had never read a nook by Edith Wharton, nor would she ever. She didn't know who Edith Wharton was.

I love House of Mirth!!

I was just at The Mount last week. Beautiful estate.

Thoroughly enjoyed this.

Very much enjoyed this documentary..

Watching this now, in 2022, what strikes me most is the fact that the world seems to be becoming less intelligent as the years go on. People in the 90s were more intelligent than young people today and the people around 100 years ago were far more intelligent than people today.

Wonderful !!! Great video 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

OK docu, the best Wharton doc, so far, on YT. ~~ Let's not be harsh on Morton Fullerton. He was a sexy playboy. Edith adored him. (Walter Berry was a snobby queen),

Love EW and everything about her and everything she wrote.

Her books were horrifying to a young girl! It’s a testament to her writing that I could be so moved!” A lady does not write”because if she does her thoughts and feelings would tilt the society.

Does anyone here know where I can get these books in large print? Thx ❤

Sometimes we just wish that life was about something… anything but these interpretations of what we might even half perceive to be truths… somebody save me….

Ultimately a sad story and a sad life. Kudos to Louis for his typically acerbic comments.

Very interesting, life, especially that of Edith Wharton.....

Warton's novels are a real portrayal of a gracious but brutal society that no longer exists in America and in some ways we are the worse without it I think. She was a Snob and many of her Views on society ect would land her in hot water today but I can respect a snob who is honest and open with there snobbery .

her likening at the beginning can be transmuted into the houses of ones astrological birth chart

To write is to expose. The fear of the fake.

"Greenlawn Cemetary, which is in the Bronx, north of New York." Excuse me, but I live in the Bronx, and it is very much New York. If you're going to be a Brit and do a doc about a NY writer, you might want to know what you're talking about.

I ❤her writing

she had amazing gardens

This is actually a sad story. I dont know what to make of this except dont get married and pursue your dreams. ❤️

Ethan Fromm was my favorite of all her writings. What is yours?

Wasn't there a Didi French film based on a book of hers, or was it another English author...?? (It was so good -- but depressing!)

“How tedious”, she said, in her best highbrow voice.

While this was fascinating I am left feeling that perhaps my love of her books was just a bit, a little bit, lessened for having watched this film.

💛

Women don't get much of a deal from life according to this biography. But she wrote such wonderful, well plotted books! Her life sounds tragic, but her books are well worth reading today.

Who is the lady deprived of a debutaunte ball ?

A lot of female writers used male names when they wrote.

Deeelightfull...

thanks for sharing this great documentary Poor Professor R W B Lewis 1:56 who's badly fitting dentures forced him so swallow and slap and clack and sniff back phlegm and whistle like a canary it was hard to hear what he was saying the noise was so disgusting and distracting it made me realise how audio technology is so advanced today compared to when this was produced so distractions and repulsions can be easily edited off the soundtrack 🤣

Controversial question, aren't modern women being trapped also? We are told that we have to go to university, have to work for a corporation, have to put off or even downright discouraged from marriage and having children and encouraged to participate in casual sex and abortion, we are encouraged to put what offspring we do have into care as quick as we can and get back to work. Some women put off their peak fertile years so that we have to pay for expensive fertility treatments that many can't afford. Many end up never pair bonded and very bitter. At the same time we are encouraged to berate, insult the intelligence, and deride our sisters that want a life where they like to cook and care for their families. I was from the 80-90s generation of feminism where they SAID they were about women making the choice that was right for them. I thought I would always be a career woman. I never anticipated having all of my assumptions upended after I had our first child and went back to work a few weeks later. I was absolutely miserable for the next 18 months. I wasn't neurotic and constantly calling the daycare. It was a lot of little things like her yeasty diaper rash and they wouldn't allow the doc's salve prepared by the pharmacy (which worked btw) because it wasn't an approved treatment. This was a military daycare, a military doctor and a military pharmacy that made it. I went through a lot from my female coworkers and in online mom's groups because I made a choice that was right for me and my family. I can't count how many times I was accused of "betraying ALL women", "giving in to the patriarchy", "internalized misogyny", "holding women back", or how many times I was told to just die, kill myself, and wishes that I would get divorced or that my family would hate me. This was all done by other women. How is the current woman's cage much different from back in Edith Wharton's day except it is almost entirely women demanding their way of being a woman is the only way? Unfortunately, modern women's cage often excludes the lasting joy and happiness because they really seem to hate men and even the thought of children. Just take a look at women's happiness and depression levels since the 60s, it's hard not to see something there.

‘Her hips were too wide’ lol story of my life

Is there anything funnier than Americans thinking that money can make one upper class? I think there were even debutantes balls at some point in their "history" 😂

I'm a huge fan of Ms. Wharton, but I find her life very limited in perspective if she felt like she had limited chances in life. Had she put on her walking coat and just walked south block after block for hours she'd have seen how her life drastically differed from other people on the island of Manhattan they shared and called home.

I wonder if Ms Wharton's concern for, and interest in, the "American Woman" ever extended to the lives of Black, Native, even immigrant women? Imagine the honour in which she would be held, today if only she had. Nevertheless, her historical place in American society and the glimpses she allows, through her writings, of an age long-dead, is fascinating.

That would be the New York Harry Kessler writes about in his diary.

As a young person, I tried my best to read her work, but found it all to be founded on one long everlasting gripe. Maybe I was TOO young for her. Yet I loved George Eliot and still do, possibly because her tragedies were leavened by humanity and hope.

This surely must be Elizabeth Taylor reading these excerpts. I want to know where that is from, if anyone knows?

40 lb gown for .........$30,000 ?

I had an ex like her own who used to ‘ yawn’ all the time. Just plain rude.