Offers a new approach to the life and work of Edith Wharton (1862-1937). Drawing on the recent discovery of many of her letters, the book examines the intricate network of relations between her life and art, her public reputation and private life. The author attempts to engage one of America's most prolific writers as both a woman and a writer, examining the place of a woman and the meaning of femininity and female sexuality in late-19th- and early-20th-century America and France. Particular attention is payed to Wharton's childhood and young adulthood in New York and Newport, her breaking away from America and the years of her residency in France, most importantly in Paris, where she successfully entered the closed society of French nobility.