【美国人物志】伊迪丝·华顿 (2/9)

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伊迪丝·华顿（Edith Wharton, 1862年1月24日－1937年8月11日），美国女作家。作品有《高尚的嗜好》、《纯真年代》、《四月里的阵雨》、《马恩河》、《战地英雄》等书。
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Like many girls her age, Edith wrote stories. In one of her childhood stories, a woman apologizes for not having a completely clean house when another woman makes an unexpected visit. Edith's mother read the story. Her only comment was that one's house was always clean and ready for visitors. Edith's house always was. Edith spent much of her childhood in Europe. She was educated by special teachers, and not at schools. If Edith's family feared anything, it was sharp social, cultural, and economic change. Yet these were the things Edith would see in her lifetime. The end of the Civil War in 1865 marked the beginning of great changes in the United States. The country that had been mostly agricultural was becoming industrial. Businessmen and workers increasingly were gaining political and economic power. Edith Wharton saw these changes sooner than most people. And she rejected them. To her, the old America was a victim of the new. She did not like the new values of money replacing the old values of family.