Edith Wharton - Erotica Writer?

Indeed!

From a piece on AbeBooks' Reading Copy blog...

Wharton had an unpublished story, called Beatrice Palmato, which is, in passages, downright lurid in its pornographic – and highly taboo – detail. Assumed to be written when Wharton was in her late fifties, the story depicts an incestuous relationship in detail that would make anyone redden to their roots.

In her exploration of the fragment – of its meaning, its origins and the reason for its existence – Dean goes on to theorize that Wharton may have had some greater intention than shock, disturbance or titillation when she wrote the words.