Crucial Instances

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1901 First edition, first printing, Garrison's binding A, without blindstamped single-rule frame to rear board. Publisher's grayish olive-green paper-covered boards, with front board ornately framed in gilt, front board and spine lettered in gilt, top edge gilt, and fore edge and bottom edge untrimmed. Near fine, with spine ends and corners very minimally worn to boards, and "American Baptist Publication Society" ticket to front pastedown. Overall, a wonderful copy. Garrison A5.I.a. Crucial Instances is Edith Wharton's second short story collection, published one year before her first novel, The Valley of Decision (1902). The collection includes seven stories: "The Duchess at Prayer," "The Angel at the Grave," "The Recovery," "'Copy': A Dialogue," "The Rembrandt," "The Moving Finger," and "The Confessional." Edith Wharton (1862 - 1937), one of the preeminent writers of the Gilded Age, wrote classic novels that depicted the cruelty and corrupting influence of the wealthy class like House of Mirth (1905) and The Age of Innocence (1920). While many of her works were set in New York City, she also excelled with more rural settings, in heartbreaking novellas like Ethan Frome (1911) and Summer (1917).. First Edition. Hard Cover. Near Fine. (Inventory #: EW086)