Edith Wharton Books in Order

The title story, "The Pelican," follows a widowed lecturer who feeds her child and her own pride by recycling the same improving talk. The other pieces in the volume continue Wharton’s amused yet pointed look at self sacrifice and self deception.

This volume pairs two contrasted stories: a chilling winter ghost tale in "The Triumph of Night" and the comic social satire "Xingu." Together they showcase Wharton’s range from supernatural unease to drawing room farce.

This themed collection gathers Wharton’s most atmospheric Gothic and ghostly fiction. Isolated houses, uneasy marriages, and inherited curses recur as she shows how the past clings to people and places.

A late volume of stories, *The World Over* ranges from New York and New England to Europe. It includes celebrated pieces such as "Pomegranate Seed" and "Roman Fever," in which apparently settled lives are overturned by a letter, a memory, or an evening’s conversation.

This slim volume presents the title sequence from *Artemis to Actaeon and Other Verses*, meditating on the myth of the hunter destroyed for an illicit glimpse. The poems turn classical stories into reflections on desire, punishment, and looking.

Published here on its own, the title story from *The Descent of Man, and Other Stories* follows a scientist whose supposed discovery makes him famous. Wharton uses his predicament to poke fun at intellectual fashion and moral spinelessness.

A dutiful granddaughter has spent her life guarding the memory of a once famous scholar in a decaying New England house. When a stranger arrives, her sense of purpose and sacrifice is quietly put to the test.

Set largely within the dim privacy of a confessional, this short story traces how a secret told in search of absolution can instead become a tool of power. Wharton explores the line between spiritual guidance and human manipulation.

In this Gothic tale, a Renaissance duchess kneels before a sculpted tomb built by her jealous husband. Legend says the stone figure may one day move, and Wharton turns that rumor into a story about confinement, vengeance, and the cost of beauty.

A varied sampler of novellas, tales, and sketches, this collection is designed for readers who want manageable pieces rather than complete novels. It highlights Wharton’s ability to compress a whole life or social world into a few pages.

In this reflective short story, an aging man looks back on the love he did not quite claim and the compromises that followed. Wharton turns a single encounter into a quiet study of regret and the stories people tell themselves about their lives.

This omnibus gathers a wide range of Wharton’s short fiction in one place. From early society pieces to late ghost stories, it showcases the consistency of her eye for motive and consequence.

Issued here as a stand alone, "Roman Fever" follows two middle aged American women chatting above the Roman Forum while their daughters sightsee. Their polite talk gradually reveals a buried rivalry and a secret that overturns one woman’s understanding of her life.

An early gathering of Wharton’s poetry, *Verses* includes occasional pieces, love lyrics, and meditations on art. The volume shows another side of a writer better known for prose.

Drawn from articles written at the front in 1915, this book records Wharton’s trips through wartime France. She visits towns near the trenches, hospitals, and ruined villages, offering a civilian’s clear eyed view of courage, devastation, and daily endurance.

This modern selection draws from Wharton’s several volumes of verse, choosing poems that range from light society pieces to grave reflections on war and age. It offers a concise introduction to her work as a poet.

Edited late in her life, *Ghosts* presents Wharton’s own selection of her most chilling tales, from "The Lady’s Maid’s Bell" to "All Souls'." The stories use haunted houses and apparitions to explore loneliness, bad marriages, and the past that refuses to stay buried.

Co edited with Arthur C. Rauscher, this book assembles Wharton’s finest supernatural fiction, sometimes alongside kindred pieces. It is aimed at readers who want the shivery side of her work gathered in one place.