Short Stories (links)

Short Stories

Works by Edith Wharton (1862-1937)
An Edith Wharton Chronology (includes more exact dates of publication) 
Edith Wharton’s stories with original dates of publication

For information on films made from Edith Wharton’s works, go to the Edith Wharton Filmography.
All links to the U Virginia site have been updated as of 5/27/13.

• Collected Short Stories of Edith Wharton, Vols. 1 and 2

  The following presents the stories in the order listed in R. W. B. Lewis’s Collected Short Stories of Edith Wharton, Vols. 1 and 2. Barbara White writes that Wharton published 85 stories (see p. xiii and p. 77) during her career ( she leaves out “Les Metteurs en Scene,” which is a version of “The Introducers”); Lewis states that Wharton wrote 86 stories during her lifetime (vii) but does not include “Bunner Sisters” in this set, since he apparently considers it a novella. It was published in Xingu (1916) and thus is included here. This list includes all the stories, even those not available online.

  For literary criticsm on these stories, see the “Secondary Sources on Wharton’s Short Stories” bibliography and the individual bibliographies (below)

  Uncollected Stories 1891-1896 (5 stories)

  “Mrs. Manstey’s View” (Virginia .html)
  “The Fulness of Life” (MOA)
  “The Lamp of Psyche” (MOA)
  “That Good May Come” (MOA) (Virginia)
  “The Valley of Childish Things, and Other Emblems” (1896)

  The Greater Inclination (1899) (8 stories) (1916 edition; Page images at Google Books) (For exact dates of first publication, go to this page.)

• The Muse’s Tragedy (Scribner’s, Jan. 1899)  Secondary Sources
• A Journey
• The Pelican
• Souls Belated
• A Coward
• The Twilight of the God
• A Cup of Cold Water
• The Portrait

Early Uncollected Stories (1900) (3 stories) (For exact dates of first publication, go to this page.)

• April Showers
• Friends
• The Line of Least Resistance 

Crucial Instances (1901) (Page images at Google Books) (7 stories) (For exact dates of first publication, go to this page.)

• The Duchess at Prayer *Ghost Stories Bibliography
• The Angel at the Grave
• The Recovery
• Copy: A Dialogue (Scribner’s, June 1900)
• The Rembrandt
• The Moving Finger
• The Confessional

The Descent of Man, and Other Stories (1904) (page images at Google Books) (9 stories) (For exact dates of first publication, go to this page.)

• The Descent of Man (Scribner’s, 1904)
• The Mission of Jane (Harper’s Monthly, 1902)
• The Other Two (Collier’s Weekly, 1904)
• The Quicksand (Harpers Monthly, 1902)
• The Dilettante (Harper’s Monthly, 1903)
• The Reckoning (Harper’s Monthly, 1902)
• Expiation (Cosmopolitan, 1908)
• The Lady’s Maid’s Bell (Scribner’s, 1902) Ghost Stories Bibliography
• A Venetian Night’s Entertainment (Scribner’s, 1903)
• **Note: “The Letter” (below) was included in the Macmillan (London) edition of this work.

Uncollected Stories 1904-1908 (4 stories) (For exact dates of first publication, go to this page.)

• The Letter (Harper’s Monthly, 1904)
• The House of the Dead Hand
• “The Introducers” Ainslee’s (January 1906)
• Les Metteurs en Scene

The Hermit and the Wild Woman and Other Stories (1908). (page images at Google Books) (7 stories) (For exact dates of first publication, go to this page.)

• The Hermit and the Wild Woman (Scribner’s, Feb. 1906)
• The Last Asset (Scribner’s, August 1904)
• In Trust (Appleton’s Booklovers Magazine, 1906)
• The Pretext (Scribner’s, August 1908)
• The Verdict (Scribner’s, June 1908)
• The Pot-Boiler (Scribner’s, December 1904)
• The Best Man (Collier’s, 1905)

Tales of Men and Ghosts (1910) (page images at Google Books) (10 stories) (For exact dates of first publication, go to this page.)

• The Bolted Door (Scribner’s, 1908)
• His Father’s Son (Scribner’s, 1909)
• The Daunt Diana (Scribner’s, 1909)
• The Debt (Scribner’s, 1909)
• Full Circle (Scribner’s, 1909)
• The Legend (Scribner’s, 1910)
• The Eyes (Scribner’s, 1910)  Ghost Stories Bibliography
• The Blond Beast (Scribner’s, 1910)
• Afterward (Century Magazine, 1910) Ghost Stories Bibliography
• The Letters (Century Magazine, 1910)

The Greater Inclination and The Touchstone (1914 edition) (Google Books)

Xingu and Other Stories (1916) (Page Images at Google Books) (8 stories) (For exact dates of first publication, go to this page.)

• Xingu (Scribner’s, December 1911)
• Coming Home
• Autre Temps . . . (Century, July & August, 1911)
• Kerfol (Scribner’s, Mar 1916) Ghost Stories Bibliography
• The Long Run
• The Triumph of Night
• The Choice
• “Bunner Sisters“  *not included in Collected Stories 
  

Uncollected Story (1 story)

“Writing a War Story” (1919)

Here and Beyond (1926) (Readers outside the US can find this work at http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0606991h.html.) (6 stories) (For exact dates of first publication, go to this page.)

• Miss Mary Pask Ghost Stories Bibliography
• The Young Gentlemen Ghost Stories Bibliography
• Bewitched Ghost Stories Bibliography
• “The Seed of the Faith” (Scribner’s Magazine, 1919)
• The Temperate Zone
• Velvet Ear Pads

Certain People (1930) (Readers outside the U.S. can access the book from the link here: http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupid?key=olbp31518) (6 stories) (For exact dates of first publication, go to this page.)

• Atrophy
• A Bottle of Perrier
• After Holbein
• Dieu d’Amour
• “The Refugees” (1919)
• Mr. Jones Ghost Stories Bibliography

Human Nature (1933) (5 stories) (For exact dates of first publication, go to this page.)

• Her Son
• The Day of the Funeral
• A Glimpse
• Joy in the House
• Diagnosis

The World Over (1936) (7 stories)
Charm Incorporated
Pomegranate Seed	*Ghost Stories Bibliography
Permanent Wave
Confession
Roman Fever	Excerpts from criticism * Bibliography
The Looking Glass
Duration

Ghosts (1937) )(1 new story)

• “All Souls” (new in this collection; the rest are reprinted from earlier collections)
• “The Eyes”
• “Afterward” (from 1910; original magazine version at U Virginia)
• “The Lady’s Maid’s Bell”
• “Kerfol”
• “The Triumph of Night”
• “Miss Mary Pask,”
• “Bewitched”
• “Mr. Jones”
• “Pomegranate Seed”
• “A Bottle of Perrier”

• Contemporary reviews of Edith Wharton’s works are available online at the University of Virginia E-text Center.

The University of Virginia Text Center has made available free versions of Wharton’s stories, poems, and novels for PalmOS devices and Microsoft E-books Readers.

• The Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton, volume 1. (Now available at the Wharton Society site, these texts can be searched for certain words or phrases.) Text files from Project Gutenberg. Includes

• “Kerfol”
• “Mrs. Manstey’s View” “Mrs. Manstey’s View” (MOA)
• “The Bolted Door”
• “The Dilettante”
• “The House of the Dead Hand” and  poems.

• The Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton, volume 2. (Now available at the Wharton Society site, these texts can be searched for certain words or phrases.)Text files from Project Gutenberg. Includes
  • “Afterward”
  • “The Fulness of Life” “The Fulness of Life“ (MOA)
  • “A Venetian Night’s Entertainment”
  • “Xingu”
  • “The Verdict”