The Reef book cover
Romance · English

The Reef

by Edith Wharton

The Reef, a semi-autobiographical novel that attacks the hypocrisies of New York society of which author Edith Wharton had long been a member, was praised by contemporaries as her best work since Ethan Frome.

About this book

The Reef, a semi-autobiographical novel that attacks the hypocrisies of New York society of which author Edith Wharton had long been a member, was praised by contemporaries as her best work since Ethan Frome. The novel challenged the morality of the times in the person of George Darrow, a diplomat who drifts into an affair with another woman after his proposal of marriage to widow Anna Leath receives a cool response. When The Reef appeared in 1912, reviewers found Edith Wharton's novel of American expatriates in France sordid and even shocking. George Darrow, an American diplomat, is in love with the recently widowed Anna Leath. On his way to visit her in France, he finds himself accompanying Sophy Viner, a young American he has briefly met in the past, on her way to Paris. A minutely rendered anatomy of social ambiguity, the implications of this Parisian prologue inform the remainder of the novel, as Darrow's, Anna's, and Sophy's lives become increasingly and intricately interdependent.

The Reef is presented here in English, with linked contents and a reading layout that adjusts to your screen.

Author
Edith Wharton
Category
Romance
Language
English

Keep exploring