{"product_id":"2940014378963","title":"EDITH WHARTON Authoritative Collected Works (Special NOOK Edition) All Major works of Edith Wharton incl. THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, ETHAN FROME, THE HOUSE OF MIRTH (Pulitzer Prize Winner for Fiction)","description":"EDITH WHARTON Authoritative Collected Works (Special NOOK Edition) All Major Works incl. THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, ETHAN FROME, THE HOUSE OF MIRTH (Pulitzer Prize Winner for Fiction)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEXCERPT\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNo expense had been spared on the setting, which was acknowledged to be very beautiful even by people who shared his acquaintance with the Opera houses of Paris and Vienna. The foreground, to the footlights, was covered with emerald green cloth. In the middle distance symmetrical mounds of woolly green moss bounded by croquet hoops formed the base of shrubs shaped like orange-trees but studded with large pink and red roses. Gigantic pansies, considerably larger than the roses, and closely resembling the floral pen-wipers made by female parishioners for fashionable clergymen, sprang from the moss beneath the rose-trees; and here and there a daisy grafted on a rose-branch flowered with a luxuriance prophetic of Mr. Luther Burbank’s far-off prodigies.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the centre of this enchanted garden Madame Nilsson, in white cashmere slashed with pale blue satin, a reticule dangling from a blue girdle, and large yellow braids carefully disposed on each side of her muslin chemisette, listened with downcast eyes to M. Capoul’s impassioned wooing, and affected a guileless incomprehension of his designs whenever, by word or glance, he persuasively indicated the ground floor window of the neat brick villa projecting obliquely from the right wing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The darling!” thought Newland Archer, his glance flitting back to the young girl with the lilies-of-the-valley. “She doesn’t even guess what it’s all about.” And he contemplated her absorbed young face with a thrill of possessorship in which pride in his own masculine initiation was mingled with a tender reverence for her abysmal purity. “We’ll read Faust together ... by the Italian lakes ...” he thought, somewhat hazily confusing the scene of his projected honey-moon with the masterpieces of literature which it would be his manly privilege to reveal to his bride. It was only that afternoon that May Welland had let him guess that she “cared” (New York’s consecrated phrase of maiden avowal), and already his imagination, leaping ahead of the engagement ring, the betrothal kiss and the march from Lohengrin, pictured her at his side in some scene of old European witchery.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe did not in the least wish the future Mrs. Newland Archer to be a simpleton. He meant her (thanks to his enlightening companionship) to develop a social tact and readiness of wit enabling her to hold her own with the most popular married women of the “younger set,” in which it was the recognised custom to attract masculine homage while playfully discouraging it. If he had probed to the bottom of his vanity (as he sometimes nearly did) he would have found there the wish that his wife should be as worldly-wise and as eager to please as the married lady whose charms had held his fancy through two mildly agitated years.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTABLE OF CONTENTS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE TOUCHSTONE\u003cbr\u003eTHE VALLEY OF DECISION\u003cbr\u003eSANCTUARY\u003cbr\u003eTHE HOUSE OF MIRTH\u003cbr\u003eMADAME DE TREYMES\u003cbr\u003eFRUIT OF THE TREE\u003cbr\u003eETHAN FROME\u003cbr\u003eTHE REEF\u003cbr\u003eTHE CUSTOM OF THE COUNTRY\u003cbr\u003eBUNNER SISTERS\u003cbr\u003eSUMMER\u003cbr\u003eTHE AGE OF INNOCENCE\u003cbr\u003eTHE GLIMPSES OF THE MOON\u003cbr\u003eFALSE DAWN\u003cbr\u003eTHE OLD MAID\u003cbr\u003eTHE SPARK\u003cbr\u003eNEW YEAR’S DAY\u003cbr\u003eTHE MOTHER'S RECOMPENSE\u003cbr\u003eTWILIGHT SLEEP\u003cbr\u003eTHE CHILDREN\u003cbr\u003eHUDSON RIVER BRACKETED\u003cbr\u003eTHE GODS ARRIVE\u003cbr\u003eCRUCIAL INSTANCES\u003cbr\u003eTHE DUCHESS AT PRAYER\u003cbr\u003eTHE ANGEL AT THE GRAVE\u003cbr\u003eTHE RECOVERY\u003cbr\u003e“COPY” A DIALOGUE\u003cbr\u003eTHE REMBRANDT\u003cbr\u003eTHE MOVING FINGER\u003cbr\u003eTHE CONFESSIONAL\u003cbr\u003eTHE DESCENT OF MAN AND OTHER STORIES\u003cbr\u003eTHE DESCENT OF MAN\u003cbr\u003eTHE OTHER TWO\u003cbr\u003eEXPIATION\u003cbr\u003eTHE LADY’S MAID’S BELL\u003cbr\u003eTHE MISSION OF JANE\u003cbr\u003eTHE RECKONING\u003cbr\u003eTHE LETTER\u003cbr\u003eTHE DILETTANTE\u003cbr\u003eTHE QUICKSAND\u003cbr\u003eA VENETIAN NIGHT’S ENTERTAINMENT\u003cbr\u003eTHE HERMIT AND THE WILD WOMAN AND OTHER STORIES\u003cbr\u003eTHE HERMIT AND THE WILD WOMAN\u003cbr\u003eTHE LAST ASSET\u003cbr\u003eIN TRUST\u003cbr\u003eTHE PRETEXT\u003cbr\u003eTHE VERDICT\u003cbr\u003eTHE POT-BOILER\u003cbr\u003eTHE BEST MAN\u003cbr\u003eTALES OF MEN AND GHOSTS\u003cbr\u003eTHE BOLTED DOOR\u003cbr\u003eHIS FATHER’S SON\u003cbr\u003eTHE DAUNT DIANA\u003cbr\u003eTHE DEBT\u003cbr\u003eFULL CIRCLE\u003cbr\u003eTHE LEGEND\u003cbr\u003eTHE EYES\u003cbr\u003eTHE BLOND BEAST\u003cbr\u003eAFTERWARD\u003cbr\u003eTHE LETTERS\u003cbr\u003eXINGU\u003cbr\u003eTHE CHOICE\u003cbr\u003eCOMING HOME\u003cbr\u003eTHE TRIUMPH OF NIGHT\u003cbr\u003eKERFOL\u003cbr\u003eAUTRES TEMPS ...\u003cbr\u003eTHE LONG RUN\u003cbr\u003eHERE AND BEYOND\u003cbr\u003eMISS MARY PASK\u003cbr\u003eTHE YOUNG GENTLEMEN\u003cbr\u003eBEWITCHED\u003cbr\u003eTHE SEED OF THE FAITH\u003cbr\u003eTHE TEMPERATE ZONE\u003cbr\u003eVELVET EAR-PADS\u003cbr\u003eCERTAIN PEOPLE\u003cbr\u003eATROPHY\u003cbr\u003eA BOTTLE OF PERRIER\u003cbr\u003eAFTER HOLBEIN\u003cbr\u003eDIEU D’AMOUR\u003cbr\u003eTHE REFUGEES\u003cbr\u003eMR. JONES\u003cbr\u003eA BACKWARD GLANCE","brand":"Collected Works of Edith Wharton","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47171761373424,"sku":"2940014378963","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940014378963_p0.jpg?v=1763607225","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940014378963","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}