Afterward

Written by Edith Wharton

Narrated by Cathy Dobson

Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist and short story writer. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1927, 1928 and 1930. Among her most popular and terrifying tales are the many masterly ghost stories which she wrote in her early career.

Afterward is a dramatic story of the most mysterious ghost of all. When Ned and Mary Boyne move to a remote and unrenovated manor house in Dorsetshire, their list of desired features includes a resident ghost. Their friend Alida Stair confirms that there is indeed a ghost, but "you will never know it until long, long afterward."

Ned and Mary keep a look out for the ghost at first, but there is no sign of it. Or is there? As the foundations of their comfortable and prosperous life slowly begin to crumble, the import of a figure they once fleetingly glimpsed on the driveway begins to dawn. And then a strange and very terrible event takes place ...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Red Door Consulting
• Release date: Oct 10, 2014
• ISBN: 9781467697613

Edith Wharton

EDITH WHARTON (1862 - 1937) was a unique and prolific voice in the American literary canon. With her distinct sense of humor and knowledge of New York’s upper-class society, Wharton was best known for novels that detailed the lives of the elite including: The House of Mirth, The Custom of Country, and The Age of Innocence. She was the first woman to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and one of four women whose election to the Academy of Arts and Letters broke the barrier for the next generation of women writers.

Reviews for Afterward

[Virginia · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Evokes a palpable sense of dread, with a satisfying ending explanation in ghost terms. Also ties in with impressions of Americans in England, and since its an American writer, is crafted with a lot more sympathy than I’ve seen from some Golden Age crime writers.

[Jenn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The writing is good, but the narrator is... strange. It's like she's trying a little too hard to read it "spookily."

[maydacat_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Atmospheric and appropriately eerie, this story will give you the shivers. An American couple are seeking a retirement country house. The husband wants to have a ghost in his home, and this, I believe, falls into the category of “be careful what you wish for because you may get it.” It’s a classic Victorian ghost by the wonderful Edith Wharton.

[la2bkk · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The central theme of the work is interesting - the mounting of tension as a wife discovers and gradually learns more re a lawsuit against her husband arising from money gained from a mining investment. (No small matter as the earnings formed the basis for the couple's early retirement to a remote English villa).However, I personally did not find the ghost aspects of the story either particularly interesting or unsettling.