Twilight Sleep, a gothic satire of Jazz Age New York, was an instant best-seller when it was released in 1927. Quintessential Edith Wharton, it is stylish and sharp, at turns scathing, hilarious and melodramatic, but also deeply and surprisingly human. In a modernist twist, the story is told by three distinct narrators—19-year-old Nona Manford, her unflappable socialite mother Pauline, and Nona’s father and Pauline’s second husband, divorce lawyer Dexter Manford. All are trying to save the marriage of Nona’s half-brother, Jim Wyant, and his wife Lita. And in doing so, all are confronting their own fears and frustrations and devising ever more outlandish means of escape.
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“A brilliant and penetrating study of life in the upper social circles of New York…its people all fully and sharply characterized, its story managed with the most praiseworthy dexterity, and the whole seasoned with the acid of Mrs. Wharton’s keen satire.”
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New York Evening Post (1927)