The Reef (Everyman's Library CLASSICS)

Wharton, Edith

ISBN 10: 1857152018 / ISBN 13: 9781857152012

Published by Everyman's Library, 1996

About this Item

Everyman's Library; 1996. Hardcover with unclipped dust cover. Cover has some evidence of shelf wear to top edge and front top corner. Small indentation to spine. No previous owners names, inscriptions of book plates. This is NOT an ex library book.

Seller Inventory # 0106154

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Reef (Everyman's Library CLASSICS)
• Publisher: Everyman's Library
• Publication Date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1857152018
• ISBN 13: 9781857152012
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Everyman's Library

About this title

Synopsis

Edith Wharton's subtle variation on the theme of the eternal triangle features Anna Leath, a rich American widow living in France; her daughter's delightful governess, Sophy Viner; and the first love of Anna's youth, George Darrow, who has come back into her life. Hoping to be reunited with George, Anna finds the path of love does not run smooth. THE REEF first appeared in 1912 when Edith Wharton was just fifty and at the height of her powers as a writer. It is a beautifully written, highly characteristic and eminently readable novel by a writer whose popularity is increasing by the year.

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.