Plot introduction

Sainty, an aristocratic

Aristocracy (class)

The aristocracy are people considered to be in the highest social class in a society which has or once had a political system of Aristocracy. Aristocrats possess hereditary titles granted by a monarch, which once granted them feudal or legal privileges, or deriving, as in Ancient Greece and India,...

 heir, likes knitting and dislikes sports. He gets married after much goading from his mother, though his wife, Cissy, turns out to find him repugnant. She has an illegitimate son with someone else, who dies shortly after.

Literary significance and criticism

The novel received mainly poor reviews from readers and critics, although E.M. Forster deplored the lack of readership the book received.. Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton , was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer.- Early life and marriage:...

, who was a personal friend of Sturgis', nonetheless praised the novel. Describing it as "very nearly in the first rank", she tried in vain to have the novel published by Scribner's

Charles Scribner's Sons

Charles Scribner's Sons, or simply Scribner, is an American publisher based in New York City, known for publishing a number of American authors including Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kurt Vonnegut, Stephen King, Robert A. Heinlein, Thomas Wolfe, George Santayana, John Clellon...

 before it was picked up by Putnam

G. P. Putnam's Sons

G. P. Putnam's Sons was a major United States book publisher based in New York City, New York. Since 1996, it has been an imprint of the Penguin Group.-History:...

.

External links

• Podcast of an Edmund White interview about the book