The Reef - Softcover

Wharton, Edith

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1444654098 ISBN 13: 9781444654097

Publisher: Read Books, 2009

Synopsis

This early works on 'The Reef' is a fascinating novel of the period and still an interesting read today. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900's and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Edith Wharton was at the height of her enormous literary powers when she published The Reef in 1912, and everything about this novel suggests a mastery so complete that it can achieve nothing higher. The plot, which tells of the drastic effects of a casual sexual betrayal on the lives of four Americans in France, is expertly turned, suspenseful, continually compelling. An assured, unhurried dramatic instinct governs the great moments of confrontation and revelation. The central characters, two of whom are innocents and two of whom are burdened by experience and tinged with desperation, are perfectly delineated: their relationships to one another are constructed with a classical feeling for harmony, proportion, and balance. And the entire novel is imbued with a clear-eyed wisdom about both the possibilities and the limitations of human love. Wharton would go on to write splendid books after completing The Reef, but nowhere does she display a finer command of her art than she does here.

From the Back Cover

Anna Leath, an American widow living in France, has renewed her relationship with her first love, diplomat George Darrow. But on his way to her beautiful French chateau, Givre, where he hopes to consolidate their marriage plans, Darrow encounters Sophy Viner, who is as vibrant and spontaneous as Anna is reserved and restrained. Sophy's subsequent employment as governess to Anna's daughter means that her fate becomes inextricably entwined with that of the family at Givre. And what to Darrow is a forgotten interlude becomes the reef on which the lives of four people are in danger of foundering.

Edition details

• Publisher: Read Books
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1444654098
• ISBN 13: 9781444654097
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 429