Edith Wharton’s sensitively observed portraits of women’s lives a century ago resonate into the present day, captivating readers now as they did then. Threaded throughout her accounts is a rich seam of secrets and silences that reveals Wharton’s keen grasp of the realities navigated by women, and her astute use of withholding to tell their stories. This book explores her frequent marshalling of secrets and silences, presented as an integral part of her literary aesthetic, to cast light on her enduring interest in women’s experiences in private and public settings during the early twentieth century.

Isabelle Parsons is an honorary associate in the Department of English and Creative Writing at The Open University, UK, where she also tutors English literature. She has published scholarly articles on the works of Edith Wharton.