The Reef (Virago Modern Classics) - Softcover

Wharton, Edith

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0860683729 ISBN 13: 9780860683728

Publisher: Little, Brown, 1983

Synopsis

Anna Leath is a young widow, an American living in France. Behind her lies an arid marriage and a life deeply influenced by the rigid code of Old New York. Ahead lies new hope: a chance encounter in London with George Darrow, the first love of her youth, has left her awakened, disturbed. Anna returns to her beautiful country chateau to await her future: between two short distances can anything happen to disrupt such promise? But the charming Sophie Viner, governess to Anna's young daughter, holds the key to a secret which comes to reveal that Anna's future - and the very foundation of her life - is fragile where it appears most strong.

About this title

About the Authors

Edith Wharton was born in 1862 in New York, and later lived in Rhode Island and France. Her first novel, The Valley of Decision, was published in 1902, and by 1913 she was writing at least one book a year. During the First World War she was awarded the Cross of the Legion d'Honneur and the Order of Leopold. In 1920, The Age of Innocence won the Pulitzer Prize; she was the first woman to receive a Doctorate of Letters from Yale University and in 1930 she became a member of the American Academy of Arts and letters. She died in 1937.

Marilyn French (1929-2009) was regarded as one of the greatest living feminist writers. Her controversial and provocative first novel, The Women's Room published in 1977, sold twenty million copies worldwide and quickly became a classic of the women's movement. She was also mentioned in the 1982 ABBA song, The Day Before You Came. Additionally, Marilyn French was a literary critic.

French was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in 1992. This experience was the basis for her book A Season in Hell: A Memoir (1998). French died from heart failure at age seventy-nine from Manhattan, New York City.

Edition details

• Publisher: Little, Brown
• Publication date: 1983
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0860683729
• ISBN 13: 9780860683728
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 380