The Hermit and the Wild Woman, and Other Stories

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wharton, Edith, 1862-1937

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource : multiple file formats

Place of Publication:

Salt Lake City, UT : Project Gutenberg,

Summary:

"The Hermit and the Wild Woman, and Other Stories" by Edith Wharton is a collection of short stories written in the early 20th century. The stories intertwine themes of solitude, spirituality, and the confrontation between the sacred and the mundane. The opening story, "The Hermit and the Wild Woman," introduces a hermit who seeks peace in isolation from the chaos of his violent past, only to encounter a wild woman who disrupts his tranquility and challenges his understanding of salvation and sin. The opening of the story focuses on the hermit, who lives in a cave after fleeing the violence of his childhood town, haunted by memories of horror and death. He embraces his solitude, engaging in religious practices and enjoying the tranquility it brings. However, his peaceful existence is shattered when a wild woman, fleeing from armed marauders, takes refuge in his cave. Their subsequent interactions reveal her complex past and the hermit's internal struggle between his spiritual convictions and his burgeoning empathy for her plight, setting the stage for a narrative filled with rich moral dilemmas and character development. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Contents:

The hermit and the wild woman

The last asset

In trust

The pretext

The verdict

The pot-boiler

The best man.

Credits:

Produced by Charles Aldarondo. HTML version by Al Haines.

Notes:

Reading ease score: 77.1 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read.

Release date is 2003-10-01