Description

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Edith Wharton's twelfth novel, and winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1921. A deeply moving and intimate tale of the rigid requirements of 19th Century high society in New York City and the conflicts it creates in the lives of three characters. Join us for a classic story of honor, family and pressure to conform to society.

About the Author

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Edith Wharton was born Edith Newbold Jones on January 24, 1862 in New York City, one of three children. The phrase "Keeping up with the Joneses," refers to her father's family. They were friends with Theodore Roosevelt. In 1885, Edith married Edward Robbins Wharton, a wealthy Boston man, twelve years older, who shared her love of travel. In 1888, however, he began to suffer from worsening depression and they were forced to stop traveling. In 1908, she began an affair with Morton Fullerton and divorced her husband in 1913. During her writing career, which lasted from 1878 to 1937, she wrote two dozen novels, a dozen non-fiction works and 85 short stories. In 1923, Wharton received an honorary doctorate from Yale University and in 1921, became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for literature for her novel, "The Age of Innocence." Wharton died on August 11, 1937, from a stroke, at the age of 75, in Saint-Brice-sous-Foret, France. She is buried in the American Cemetery in Versailles, France.