Certain People
by Edith Wharton
A collection of six short stories. The book begins with Atrophy a careful examination of intimate despair in a close social setting, where Nora Frankey bravely tries to visit her seriously ill lover Christopher, but to speak out against the polite rejection offered by her authoritarian sister, Jane Aldiss. The latest story, Mr. Jones, references Poe's "Purple Letter" using a variation of the central epistolar device, and also manages to shift into aspects of Poe's own life story, particularly his marriage to a young cousin.
