000			01226nam a2200193 4500
010			_a77088209
020			_a9780684182490
024			_a256703721
050			_aPS3545.H16
082			_a813.52
100	1		_aEdith Wharton
245	1		_aThe Reef
260			_bSimon & Schuster
300			_a384 pages
520			_a"I put most of myself into that opus," Edith Wharton said of "The Reef," possibly her most autobiographical novel. Published in 1912, it was, Bernard Berenson told Henry Adams, "better than any previous work excepting "Ethan Frome."" A challenge to the moral climate of the day, "The Reef" follows the fancies of George Darrow, a young diplomat en route from London to France, intent on proposing to the widowed Anna Leath. Unsettled by Anna's reticence, Darrow drifts into an affair with Sophy Viner, a charmingly naive and impecunious young woman whose relations with Darrow and Anna's family threaten his prospects for success. For its dramatic construction and acute insight into social mores and the multifaceted problem of sexuality, "The Reef" stands as one of Edith Wharton's most daring works of fiction.
650			_aLiterature
700	1		_aLouis Auchincloss (Introduction by)
999			_c4658 _d4658