Edith Wharton

From New York to Europe, the apartments of the nouveau riche to ancient French estates, Edith Wharton tells the story of Undine Spragg, a girl from a Midwestern town with unquenchable social aspirations. Though Undine is narcissistic, pampered, and incredibly selfish, she is a beguiling heroine whose marital initiation into New York high society from its trade-wealthy fringes is only the beginning of her relentless ambitions.

American author Edith Wharton is renowned for her merciless satires of marriage and money, set in the upper-class milieu into which she was born. Included here are a superb selection of her novels, short stories and plays, recorded for BBC Radio - as well as two programmes exploring her life and work. Includes: The House of Mirth, Madame de Treymes, The Reef, The Age of Innocence, The Custom of the Country, Ethan Frome and The Shadow of a Doubt.

Also includes Great Lives: Edith Wharton - Naomi Wolf joins presenter Matthew Paris to talk about Wharton and her work and In Our Time: Edith Wharton - Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Wharton's novels of America's Gilded Age.

Lewis Raycie is sent on a Grand Tour of Europe with instructions from his father to acquire a collection of Old Masters. When Lewis returns with a priceless collection of Renaissance masterpieces instead of the Raphael that his father wanted he is ridiculed by his family and disinherited by his father.

Lily Bart, 29, a beautiful impoverished New York girl, needs a rich husband to support her expensive habits and safeguard her place among the social elite. As a girl who has been on the marriage market for too long, she becomes vulnerable to gossip and slander.

Tina is a young woman caught between the mother who adopted her, Delia, and her true mother, plain, unmarried ‘aunt’ Charlotte. Tensions finally come to the surface on Tina’s wedding day.