The Reef (Everyman's Library CLASSICS)

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. About the Author Edith Wharton was born Edith Newbold Jones to George and Lucretia Jones in New York City on January 24 1862. Edith married Teddy Wharton 12 years older than she. They lived a life of relative ease with homes in New York Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Novels flowed from her mind in the years between 1900 and 1938. Indeed her novels became so popular with the general public that Ms. Wharton was able to live comfortably on her earnings the rest of her life. Edith divorced Teddy in 1912 having no immediate heirs and never married again. Instead she traveled extensively by motorcar helped untiringly with refugees in Paris during the first World War and only returned once again in her lifetime to the United States to accept the Pulitzer prize for her novel The Age of Innocence. She held salons where the gifted intellectuals of her time gathered to discuss and share ideas. F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway were guests of hers.Edith lived in two homes in France one in the north of Paris Pavillon Colombe and one at Hyere Ste. Claire. Her flat in Paris was at 53 Rue de Varenne. She retired to Pavillon Colombe and continued to write until a stroke took her life in August 1937. She is buried in the American Cemetery at Versailles. The inscription on her grave stone reads ""O Crux Ave Spes Unica"" which translates ""Hail o cross the one hope."" 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.