Series: Rediscovered Classics

Susy Branch and Nick Lansing are typical Wharton heroes: popular, attractive, and much poorer than their 'international set' friends. Like Lily Bart in The House of Mirth, the two depend on the largesse of more privileged acquaintances to get by. Recognising in each other a desire for the finer things in life, they decide to get married and, knowing that...

Throughout a single day in 1892, John Shawnessy recalls the great moments of his life—from the love affairs of his youth in Indiana, to the battles of the Civil War, to the politics of the Gilded Age, to his homecoming as schoolteacher, husband, and father. Shawnessy is the epitome of the place and period in which he lives, a rural...