Join Dr. Arielle Zibrak, Associate Professor of English at the University of Wyoming, to take a deep dive into who Edith Wharton was and how she came to be such a popular and well-regarded novelist. You’ll see the New York of Wharton’s time: a place of extremes between wealth and poverty, success and misfortune, hopeful optimism and bitter realities. You’ll gain an appreciation of the complex history of New York’s Gilded Age and Wharton’s relationship to its culture as both a participant and a critic.
Pilot Lecture: Edith Wharton’s Gilded Age New York

01: Edith Wharton’s Gilded Age New York
Join Dr. Arielle Zibrak to take a deep dive into who Edith Wharton was and how she came to be such a popular and well-regarded novelist. Tour the scenes and sights of the New York City of Wharton’s time—which functions as a central character in one of her best-known works: The House of Mirth. Along the way, you’ll come to appreciate the complex history of New York’s Gilded Age and Wharton’s relationship to its culture as both a participant and a critic.
Overview Course No. 90128