Book description
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'I want - I want somehow to get away with you into a world where words
like that - categories like that - won't exist. Where we shall be simply
two human beings who love each other, who are the whole of life to each
other; and nothing else on earth will matter.'
Newland Archer, a successful and charming young lawyer conducts himself
by the rules and standards of the polite, upper class New York society
that he resides in. Happily engaged to the pretty and conventional May
Welland, his attachment guarantees his place in this rigid world of the elite.
However, the arrival of May's cousin, the exotic and beautiful European
Countess Olenska throws Newland's life upside down. A divorcee, Olenska
is ostracised by those around her, yet Newland is fiercely drawn to her
wit, determination and willingness to flout convention. With the
Countess, Newland is freed from the limitations that surround him and
truly begins to 'feel' for the first time.
Wharton's subtle exposé of the manners and etiquette of 1870s New York
society is both comedic, subtle, satirical and cynical in style and
paints an evocative picture of a man torn between his passion and his
obligation.
