"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."
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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A complex, subtle and moving story of the ways in which people torment one another and the awful power of retrospective jealousy (PENELOPE LIVELY )
--This text refers to the
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About the Author
Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was born in New York. After 1902 she went on to publish an average of more than a book a year for the rest of her life. THE AGE OF INNOCENCE won the Pulitzer Prize in the year it was published, 1920, and was made into a major film in 1993. One of America's greatest novelists, Edith Wharton died in France at the age of seventy-five.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is shot through with tragedy right from the first page. You know that nothing good will come of anything and it is heartbreaking watching these futile attempts at snatching happiness from the inevitable jaws of doom. I love Wharton but I didn't think that this was one of her best books. Sophie's choice of young man is misguided as he is patently a cad, and I felt no sympathy or liking for him. I much prefer her books set in the USA with the strict social mannerisms and rigidity with which her heroes and heroines do battle. That theme is here too but it seems much more confused and unsure of itself in France, like Wharton doesn't have the confidence of her own convictions to drive the story along. By the end I was just wishing they would hurry up and destroy each other so I could go to bed.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This excellent book is less famous than Wharton's masterpieces The Age of Innocence and The Custom of the Country, but it's no less intense than the former and no less elegantly plotted than the latter. In the opening chapters, one awkward misunderstanding leads the deeply flawed hero to make a tragic error, and the trap is set. The story then unfolds with a brooding power, as Wharton traces the interrelations of four characters bound together in a knot of their own making. The book is masterly in construction and beautifully written, with the dark personal drama offset by lyrical descriptions of rural France.
One caveat: the particular predicament which the book describes is determined by the social mores of its time: the action which initiates the drama would not have the same terrible impact in more liberal times. This may alienate some readers, but it shouldn't. Any reader capable of transposing him or herself into the mindset of the early twentieth century should be haunted by the power of one of Wharton's most gripping studies of emotion.
One caveat: the particular predicament which the book describes is determined by the social mores of its time: the action which initiates the drama would not have the same terrible impact in more liberal times. This may alienate some readers, but it shouldn't. Any reader capable of transposing him or herself into the mindset of the early twentieth century should be haunted by the power of one of Wharton's most gripping studies of emotion.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
You could say that "The Reef" has two themes -- that you have to risk great pain to experience great passion, and the questions of infidelity, love and class and how they clash.
It also happens to be the brilliant Edith Wharton at her most contemplative, since the entire dramatic storyline takes place in a love square at a rural French chateau. While "The Reef" is a slow-moving affair, the hauntingly poetic prose that Wharton employs -- and the painful questions it raises -- are worth immersing your brain into.
Charles Darrow has been reunited with his first love Anna, now a widow living in France. He plans to propose to her, but on the train receives a telegram telling him not to come until the thirtieth of the month. Angry and hurt (he's kind of a playboy brat), he salves his hurt feelings by escorting pretty Sophy Viner (Alicia Witt), a feisty young girl hoping to get a job on the stage, around Paris for awhile. Unsurprisingly, Sophy's vibrant personality leads to a brief affair.
A few months later, Charles and Anna have made up their differences, and their romance is back on track. But when Charles arrives at Anna's mother-in-law's chateau, he learns that her daughter's new governess is none other than Sophy. To make this whole scenario even more surreal, Charles' ex-lover is now engaged to Anna's stepson -- and both Anna and the stepson are unaware of what happened. But though Sophy and Charles try to keep their shared past a secret, the truth threatens to ruin all four of them.
Yeah, it sounds a bit like a soap opera in period dress. It's only because of Wharton's skill that, instead of a cheap tawdry story, "The Reef" becomes a languid, sun-washed study of sexual double-standards, class, and repressed emotion.... Read more ›
It also happens to be the brilliant Edith Wharton at her most contemplative, since the entire dramatic storyline takes place in a love square at a rural French chateau. While "The Reef" is a slow-moving affair, the hauntingly poetic prose that Wharton employs -- and the painful questions it raises -- are worth immersing your brain into.
Charles Darrow has been reunited with his first love Anna, now a widow living in France. He plans to propose to her, but on the train receives a telegram telling him not to come until the thirtieth of the month. Angry and hurt (he's kind of a playboy brat), he salves his hurt feelings by escorting pretty Sophy Viner (Alicia Witt), a feisty young girl hoping to get a job on the stage, around Paris for awhile. Unsurprisingly, Sophy's vibrant personality leads to a brief affair.
A few months later, Charles and Anna have made up their differences, and their romance is back on track. But when Charles arrives at Anna's mother-in-law's chateau, he learns that her daughter's new governess is none other than Sophy. To make this whole scenario even more surreal, Charles' ex-lover is now engaged to Anna's stepson -- and both Anna and the stepson are unaware of what happened. But though Sophy and Charles try to keep their shared past a secret, the truth threatens to ruin all four of them.
Yeah, it sounds a bit like a soap opera in period dress. It's only because of Wharton's skill that, instead of a cheap tawdry story, "The Reef" becomes a languid, sun-washed study of sexual double-standards, class, and repressed emotion.... Read more ›
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Yes, Wharton was just a tad mean and crude in writing the male counterpart of this book, but that's what makes this book so interesting. These characters had flaws! Actually flaws! I am so sick of reading books with perfect little characters with just one evil villian. This book shows you that no one is perfect, and everyone has a little evil in them.
A charming, poetic, lyrical, and beautiful book to read. Wonderful descriptions, vivid images, lovely constructed sentences.
The cover of THE REEF is also beautiful. The text and lay out enhances the story, the elegance of the past, the wrong and the right. The cover was also rather of a matte type of thing, not glossy, which reminds the reader of ceramic and the older days when they turn the pages and old the book open.
Another lovely read by my favorite female author of the 20th century, Edith Wharton.
By Renee Slater
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Though I have admired some of Wharton's work I found this too overtly, and unsuccessfully, Jamesian. The characters are trivial and their development inconsistent. There is a great deal of repetition and pointless complication arises from her search for subtlety. This edition, which I bought because it was the cheapest, has flaws which in the end made me wonder if the novel itself had been completed or if the final chapters, as reproduced here, were experiments at an ending.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This was a text-only publication where the text was often wrong. Words were conflated or wrongly hyphenated, chapter and section breaks were not clear, text ended in the middle of a line.......it was hopeless to try to read it and I bought another copy.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
A 'brief encounter' has far reaching consequences
Much unfair criticism has been levelled at the Reef in that the moral dilemma faced by the four chief protagonists which forms the main thrust of the novel is an insubstantial... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Molly Marsden
4.0 out of 5 stars
I think I missed the point!
I read this book because Jenefer Robinson discusses it in "Deeper than Reason". I enjoyed the experience, there is a feeling of locality and a sympathy with characters I can pick... Read more
Published on 22 Feb 2007 by Ben Basing
1.0 out of 5 stars
Dry + Narrow = Darrow?
Try as I may, I can't understand why Mrs. Wharton is so sympathetic towards the heroine's lover, George Darrow. Read more
Published on 9 Mar 1999
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