Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all
time
Newland Archer saw little to envy in the marriages of his friends, yet
he prided himself that in May Welland he had found the companion of his
needs--tender and impressionable, with equal purity of mind and manners.
The engagement was announced discreetly, but all of New York society was
soon privy to this most perfect match, a union of families and
circumstances cemented by affection.
Enter Countess Olenska, a woman of quick wit sharpened by experience,
not afraid to flout convention and determined to find freedom in
divorce. Against his judgment, Newland is drawn to the socially
ostracized Ellen Olenska, who opens his eyes and has the power to make
him feel. He knows that in sweet-tempered May, he can expect stability
and the steadying comfort of duty. But what new worlds could he discover
with Ellen? Written with elegance and wry precision, Edith Wharton's
Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece is a tragic love story and a powerful
homily about the perils of a perfect marriage.
Commentary by William Lyon Phelps and E. M. Forster