Tartarus Press

publishers

The Triumph of Night

by

Edith Wharton

 

Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was an American novelist and short story writer who, with The Age of Innocence, became the first woman to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Her short stories, like her novels, are keenly observed, and exhibit the influence of her friend, Henry James.

 

Throughout her career Wharton wrote ghost stories, and is a central figure within the genre in the twentieth century. When she collected many of her ghost stories together in Ghosts (1937) she put them under the 'special protection' of Walter de la Mare. Like him, she manages to evoke uncannily convincing atmospheres and characters, and in such stories as 'Afterward' the way in which the tale is told is so satisfying that one can only admire her craftsmanship.

 

Wharton's collection Ghosts is described by E.F. Bleiler as a 'landmark volume in supernatural fiction', and to this we have been able to add a number of other tales of the supernatural, many of which will be unknown to her readers.

 

Contents: 'Preface', 'The Fullness of Life', 'A Journey', 'The Duchess at Prayer', 'The Lady's Maid's Bell', 'Afterward', 'The Eyes', 'The Triumph of Night', 'Kerfol', 'Bewitched', 'Miss Mary Pask', 'A Bottle of Perrier', 'Mr Jones', 'Pomegranate Seed', 'The Looking-Glass', 'All Souls', 'An Autobiographical Postscript'.

 

Reviews

'...the fullest (and most attractive) collection...' Michael Dirda, barnesandnoblereview.com

'Readers of her ghost stories today can enjoy Wharton’s wry scepticism, and in the process, perhaps have their own creative muscles strengthened to face that which is ghostly about today’s world.' Ann L. Patten, The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies.