The Children (Annotated)

In The Children (1928), Edith Wharton turns her late-career irony upon the cosmopolitan "smart set" of the interwar years, tracing the fate of the unruly Wheater children, casualties of serial divorce, remarriage, and parental vanity. Through Martin Boyne's encounter with Judith Wheater and her improvised family, the novel blends social comedy, moral unease, and psychological delicacy. Its polishe...