List $17.95

Written by Edith Wharton - Performed by Derek Jacobi - Unabridged Fiction - 2 CASSETTES - 2 hours, 15 minutes

Publisher, Audio Partners (September 2000)

Listen to an audio clip NOTE: You will need RealPlayer Basic to listen. It's FREE !

A Cover to Cover Unabridged Classic. Cover to Cover is a British Line of unabridged classic literature featuring the highest quality recordings at value prices in handsome, collectable retail packages. The entire line carries the exclusive Royal Warrant from his Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales. In addition, the British Spoken Word Publishing Association has honored Cover to Cover titles as the Best Unabridged Classic Productions for an unprecedented three years in a row.

"There are only three or four American novelists who can be thought of as 'major' - and Edith Wharton is one." --Gore Vidal

The pathetic but perceptive Lewis Raycie is sent on a grand tour of Europe with instructions to collect great art. He returns with Italian paintings not yet recognized in America as Renaissance masterpieces. Appalled, his father disinherits him. Only after Lewis's death is the collection realized for its true value. Set in 1840s New York; originally published in 1924.

About the Author: Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was born in New York City into an older wealthy family. She was privately educated and traveled often in Europe. Her first popular novel was The House of Mirth (1905). Her next popular work - and still a minor classic - was Ethan Frome (1911). Perhaps her most admired collection of short fiction, Xingu and Other Stories, was published in 1916. The Age of Innocence, published in 1920, won the Pulitzer Prize, which was the first in fiction awarded to a woman. In 1925 she published her thoughts on literature, The Writing of Fiction (1925), and in 1934 her autobiography, A Backward Glance.

About the Performer: Derek Jacobi, a distinguished British actor, is recognized as one of the best of our time. He may be most famous for his portrayal of Brother Cadfael in the long-running Mystery! series on PBS-TV. But he has also starred in dozens of other films and TV productions from the 1960s through the present, as well as many stage productions of Shakespearean plays.