Glimpses of the Moon - (Pushkin Press Classics) by Edith Wharton (Paperback)

About the Book

"Nick Lansing and Susy Branch are young and attractive, but penniless. Gracefully moving through New York high society, they have the right connections but none of the wealth. When they inconveniently fall in love, Susy devises a plan. They will marry and spend a year flitting across Europe, staying in the homes of their rich friends and living off honeymoon gifts until either one of them meets a better, richer prospect. But jealous passions and troubled consciences soon cause their idyll to crumble.--

Book Synopsis

A young couple's love is threatened by the destructive power of money, by one of the greatest authors of her age

In this beautiful novel, Edith Wharton perceptively describes the seductions and temptations of high society with all her trademark wit and irony.

Nick Lansing and Susy Branch are young, attractive, but impoverished New Yorkers. They are in love and decide to marry, but they realise their chances of happiness are slim without the wealth and status that their more privileged friends take for granted.

Nick and Susy agree to separate whenever either encounters a more eligible proposition. However, as they honeymoon in friends' lavish houses, from a villa on Lake Como to a Venetian palace, jealous passions and troubled consciences cause the idyll to crumble.

Review Quotes

"Wharton's unjustly neglected novel... a luscious, worldly, sensuous read, surely the equal of its most obvious offspring - Tender is the Night." - Boyd Tonkin, Independent

"This dark, beautifully-written and perceptive novel still feels fresh today." -- The Lady

About the Author

Edith Wharton was born in 1862 in New York, into a rich and socially prominent family. She began to write at an early age, although it was a habit viewed by her family as unsuitable for a woman of her social class. In 1885 she married Edward "Teddy" Wharton, a Boston banker. They lived a privileged life, but Wharton gradually grew dissatisfied with the roles of wife and society matron. The Whartons moved to Paris in 1907 and divorced in 1913. Edith continued to live in France, her beloved adoptive home, until her death in 1937.