This commercial success paved the way for Wharton’s classic pre-World War I novels, including The House of Mirth (1905) and Ethan Frome (1911). The historical romance, set in Italy before the 1789 French Revolution, sold some 25,000 copies in half a year. Wharton had published poetry and short stories before The Valley of Decision came out in 1902. Edith Wharton published her first novel when she was 40. In a letter to her lover Morton Fullerton, Wharton quipped: “Decidedly, I’m a better landscape gardener than novelist.' 4. Overlooking Laurel Lake, this stately home with manicured gardens and a Georgian-revival stable reflects her distinctive architectural tastes. Then Wharton purchased 113 acres in Lenox, Massachusetts, where she built The Mount. When Wharton wasn’t traveling through Italy or France with Teddy, the couple resided in Newport, Rhode Island until 1901. Gigglewater via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 4.0 The Mount, Edith Wharton's home in Lenox, Massachusetts.

Edith Wharton designed her palatial country house in Massachusetts. He was institutionalized in 1912 and Wharton divorced him in 1913. Later, Teddy’s manic depression and embezzlement from her trust fund to buy his mistress a Boston apartment created more problems. In an early sign of incompatibility, their sex life apparently ended less than a month into the marriage. Teddy, who was 12 years older than his wife, was a Harvard graduate and sportsman who lived off his trust fund. In 1885, when she was 23 years old, Edith married Edward (Teddy) Robbins Wharton at Manhattan’s Trinity Chapel Complex. Edith Wharton’s 28-year marriage was a tumultuous one. For years, Wharton would only sleep in a room with a maid present and a light on. Not only did the typhoid fever she caught there nearly kill her, but the ghost stories she read while recuperating gave her terrible nightmares. In 1870, her family, whose fortune came from real estate, visited Bad Wildbad, a German spa town. Roseti, Beinecke, Public Domain // Wikimedia Commonsīorn Edith Newbold Jones on Januin New York City, Wharton toured Europe as a child with her parents and two older brothers. Edith Wharton as a young woman, circa 1889.

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