The Fruit of the Tree (Virago Modern Classics) - Softcover

Wharton, Edith

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1844083535 ISBN 13: 9781844083534

Publisher: Little, Brown, 2006

Synopsis

John Amherst, clever, idealistic and poor, is assistant manager of a cotton mill and has the makings of a working-class leader. While visiting a worker in hospital he encounters a young nurse, Justine, compassionate and principled, a woman who shares his dreams and aims. But Amherst is fatally distracted when he meets Bessy. A widow of great wealth, Bessy is charming, beautiful - and the new owner of the mill. The lives of all three become strangely interwoven as Amherst is forced to choose between sense and sentiment, between his care for the working classes and his infatuation with Bessy - a woman made for passion, but not for its aftermath.

About this title

About the Author

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.

Edition details

• Publisher: Little, Brown
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1844083535
• ISBN 13: 9781844083534
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 652