Along with their acclaimed novels and short works of fiction, Henry James and Edith Wharton both extensively explored the genre of the ghost story, enormously popular throughout much of the 19th century. In nearly all of their ghostly tales, James and Wharton explore the inner depths of the human psyche and the all-too-human emotions of fear, abandonment, passion and loss.

Carl is joined by returning guest Dr. Emily Orlando, author and professor of English at Fairfield University, for an in-depth look at examples of the ghost story from both Henry James and Edith Wharton. Carl and Emily delve into James' techniques of horror and suspense in his masterpiece "The Turn of the Screw" and how Wharton explored the ambiguities and challenges of marriage and abandonment in several of her stories including "The Lady's Maid's Bell", "Afterward", "Pomegranate Seed" and perhaps her own masterpiece -- "All Souls".

Orlando was also featured in the Gilded Gentleman episode -- Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence

Stories of the Gilded Age so often focus on the world of adults and more often on the highest layer of elite society. Of course, there was much, much more to the story of America's social and economic growth at the end of the 19tth century that involved those of the middle and lower classes - and also included children.

Listener favorite Esther Crain, author and creator of Ephemeral New York, joins The Gilded Gentleman for a look at the world of children during the Gilded Age. As she shared in the episode "Invisible Magicians: Domestic Servants in Gilded Age New York" with writings by actual servants, Esther has uncovered documents written in children's own voices that capture their world and reality.

From a 12 year old boy in Gilded Age Harlem to a teenage girl on what would become Manhattan's Upper East Side, we can finally meet children who are both seen and heard.

Elizabeth Wharton Drexel was a quintessential ingenue of the Gilded Age. Eventual heiress to the Drexel banking fortune, elegant and sophisticated, Elizabeth married but was widowed unexpectedly. But she married again, this time to Harry Symes Lehr, a bon vivant and social playboy.

But she soon learned her life was to become a reality far from what she ever expected.

This episode tells the story of Elizabeth Drexel and Harry Lehr along with the world in which they lived. In 1935, after Harry's death, Elizabeth wrote what we would perhaps today call a "tell all" memoir -- King Lehr and the Gilded Age -- recounting the challenges of her marriage but also the frivolity and froth of the Gilded Age from her own observances as an up-close participant.

Her observances are some of the most acute and incisive we have on the period.

Visit the Gilded Gentleman website for more information and episodes

This episode was edted by Kieran Gannon