Bunner Sisters

Wharton, Edith, 1862-1937Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.9

Word count: 172K words
Chapters: 18

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today. Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton. Author: Wharton, Edith, 1862-1937. Language: English. Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature. Release Date: Jul 2, 2008

Editor's review

Bunner Sisters is one of Wharton's longer and more unusual novellas, telling of two sisters who scrape a living from a small needlework shop and of their struggles and emotional entanglements in lower-class New York life. Unlike the upper-class society subjects Wharton often wrote about, this work turns its gaze to small shops, neighborhoods, and artisans, focusing on how poverty gradually erodes people's choices and dignity. The novel's pace is unhurried, but its details are solid, and the characters' hesitation, misunderstandings, and self-deception are written with subtle power, leaving a heavy aftertaste at the end. This electronic edition is the Project Gutenberg English public-domain text, with no translation or annotations, and is suitable for readers able to read the English original; for those who wish to study Wharton's writing on class and women's circumstances, this is excellent supplementary material. It is not suitable for readers seeking light entertainment or strong plot, nor for beginners who rely entirely on a Chinese translation.

Who it's for

A good fit for

English-language readers who like Wharton's work and want to see her write about lower-class subjects
Literary readers concerned with women's circumstances and class issues
Self-learners with good English who can accept slow-paced realistic fiction
Literature students who need novella-length material for close reading

Not a good fit for

Readers with weak English who need a Chinese translation for support
Casual readers who prefer light endings and fast-paced plots
Readers expecting Wharton-style upper-class social satire

Reading tips

First understand the sisters' livelihood and relationship, then note how economic pressure changes their judgment.
While reading the middle section, record the characters' hesitation and self-persuasion when making decisions, and appreciate Wharton's subtle technique.
After finishing, look back at the key turning points and consider which details had already foreshadowed the ending.
If time is limited, read it in two or three sessions, and after each session take a few minutes to sort out changes in the characters' circumstances.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

How is this different from the upper-class society novels Wharton often wrote?

This work focuses on a small needlework shop and artisans' lives in lower-class New York, attending to poverty, women's livelihoods, and emotional choices rather than drawing-room socializing and marriage games. It still shows Wharton's fine grasp of psychology, but the subject matter is closer to everyday struggle and the tone is heavier.

How difficult is the English original?

Overall it is the language of late 19th- to early 20th-century realistic fiction; the sentences are not especially difficult, but there are old-fashioned expressions and period background. Readers with university-level English reading ability who are willing to look up words can finish it; those who rely entirely on a Chinese translation will need to find a translation separately.

Does the electronic edition have annotations or an introduction?

The Project Gutenberg edition mainly provides the public-domain text and usually contains no modern annotations, introduction, or translation. When background material is needed, it is advisable to consult Wharton's biography and criticism, or to read alongside an annotated print edition.

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About the author

Wharton, Edith, 1862-1937 Author

Edith Wharton (Wharton, Edith, 1862–1937) was an American novelist, with 44 works held in this collection. She depicts with fine brushwork the manners and moral dilemmas of New York high society from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century. Her representative novels The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth both focus on women's struggles among marriage, class, and selfhood; Ethan Frome, set in rural New England, presents tragic fates in a repressive environment. Her style is calm and restrained, revealing through everyday details the conflict between individual psychology and social convention, and her works combine irony with sympathy. Beyond novels, she also wrote nonfiction such as The Decoration of Houses and ghost-story collections such as Tales of Men and Ghosts, showing diverse subjects. Public information is limited, and biographical details fall outside this introduction; yet judging from the works held here alone, her sustained attention to social class and gender roles makes her a voice not to be overlooked in American literature.