Edith Wharton returns- spirited, brilliant, alive.
Wellington writer Philippa Swan trained as a landscape architect,
with degrees from Otago and Melbourne. Her nonfiction book, Life
(and Death) in a Small City Garden, was published in 2001 to
critical acclaim. In 2006 her award-winning short story 'Life
Coach' was selected for the NZ Book Month publication The Six Pack.
Another, more recent story was selected for the LitCrawl short
story competition. She has been a freelance writer for a number of
lifestyle magazines for over 15 years, including a columnist for NZ
Gardener and Cuisine magazines.
'Philippa Swan's is an original voice that is articulate, humorous
and disarmingly refreshing.' - NZ Books
"There's a story within a story as well, as her former publisher
(also long-dead, but don't ask!) has sent her a novella proposed
for publication, which features a modern woman volunteering at
Edith's old home, The Mount in Massachusetts, then visiting Italy
in Edith's footsteps. A most unusual story, if a little slow to
establish itself, but worth the effort." -- Good Reading
Magazine
"Philippa Swan's erudite homage takes a page from Wharton's
unheralded ghost stories: the author is resurrected in an anteroom
to the afterlife, and given a novella about a woman who works at
the Wharton museum in Massachusetts. Edith must decide whether to
publish or burn the work, revisiting her own writing in the
process. It may have the trappings of a ghost story, but the most
appealing element of Swan's novel is its submerged literary
appreciation of Wharton's oeuvre, delivered in tandem with lively
elements of biography, and shades of the wit and style for which
Wharton was renowned." --Sydney Morning Herald
In this wildly imaginative novel, Pulitzer Prize winning novelist
Edith Wharton (1862-1937), long dead, finds herself in a warm,
atmospherically lit drawing room, waiting to see who will join her
for the evening. . . . A refreshing, absorbing novel. . . . Wharton
is newly minted within these pages, finally broken free of the
constraints of the society in which she lived. --NZ Herald
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
