Tales of Men and Ghosts collects ten short stories previously published in Scribner's Magazine and The Century during the years 1909 and 1910: "The Bolted Door," "His Father's Son," "The Daunt Diana," "The Debt," "Full Circle," "The Legend," "The Eyes," "The Blond Beast," "Afterward," and "The Letters." Set in Europe and New York City, the main characters usually are men--artists, dilletantes, or businessmen--and their friends, proteges, and hangers-on. Frequently, the unnamed male narrator also is a character in the story. Only two stories, "Afterward" and "The Letters," feature women as obviously central characters, although the peripheral female characters in the stories sometimes play important roles.
Edith Wharton (born Edith Newbold Jones; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and interior designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper class New York "aristocracy" to realistically portray the lives and morals of the Gilded Age. In 1921, she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Literature, for her novel The Age of Innocence. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1996. Among her other well known works are The House of Mirth and the novella Ethan Frome.