Wharton wrote about New York society from inside it, and the three novels here trace the same argument at three lengths: a short tragedy in the snow, a 129,000-word satire of the marriage market, and the Pulitzer-winning novel about the cost of choosing correctly.
The order below is publication order. It is also a rough order of difficulty, because Ethan Frome is a novella that can be read in a single sitting and The Age of Innocence expects you to keep a large cast straight.
Word counts are for the editions here. The gap between Ethan Frome at 34,619 and The House of Mirth at 129,036 is the reason to choose deliberately rather than start at the top.
The House of Mirth (1905) made Wharton a novelist at forty-three; Ethan Frome (1911) was written as a deliberate contrast to the society books, a New England story of cold and poverty at 34,619 words; The Age of Innocence (1920) went back to the New York of her childhood and won the 1921 Pulitzer, the first given to a woman.
Read in order you get the range rather than the reputation: 129,036 words of New York, 34,619 of New England, 101,000 of memory. Ethan Frome is two hours and the others six and seven, so if you are testing whether you like her, the novella is the cheapest test and the least like the books she is famous for.
Where to start
Ethan Frome — Two hours, one narrator, one house, one bad decision. It is the cheapest way to find out whether Wharton’s cold eye is something you want more of.
Edith Wharton in publication order
Numbered by the date on each book page. Word counts and reading times are for the text on this site.
| # | Year | Title | Form | Words | Reading time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1905 | The House of Mirth | Novel | 129,036 | 7 h | Published in 1905; her first bestseller. |
| 2 | 1911 | Ethan Frome | Novella | 34,619 | 2 h | A short New England story, 1911. |
| 3 | 1920 | The Age of Innocence | Novel | 101,000 | 6 h | Published in 1920; awarded the 1921 Pulitzer Prize. |
| All three | 264,655 | 15 h |
How to read Edith Wharton
- Shortest first. Ethan Frome is 34,619 words and about 2 hours; The Age of Innocence 101,000 and 6 hours; The House of Mirth 129,036 and 7 hours.
- Two New Yorks. The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence are both set in the city’s drawing rooms, twenty years apart. Ethan Frome is rural New England and shares none of their furniture.
- Prize and bestseller. The Age of Innocence won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize; The House of Mirth was her first bestseller, in 1905. Reading them in that order puts the prize after the practice.
Every title above has a page here with chapter summaries, the word count, reading time and free EPUB, AZW3 and KEPUB files.
Edith Wharton’s shelf · Classic fiction · All authors · Books by decade.