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In Twilight Sleep, Wharton masterfully critiques the lives of the wealthy, showcasing her ability to satirize their excesses while revealing a surprising sense of compassion and even a touch of admiration for some of her characters. Each individual, no matter how minor, is brought to life with vivid detail. Yet, beneath the surface of their bustling lives lies a profound emptiness and a pervasive sense of inauthenticity. This novel serves as a brilliant exploration of evasion and the hollowness of high society. - Summary by T. A. Copeland

Whether it is sex, drugs, or infatuation with the occult, Mrs. Manford and her extended family of socialites are determined to escape the pain, boredom, and emptiness of life through whatever form of “twilight sleep” they can devise or procure. Far ahead of its time, this Wharton classic employed modernist techniques such as an ever changing narration among the novel’s characters and a close examination of the characters’ self-identities and relationships with one another to tell a tale rich with irony and wit about the upper crust’s own undoing.

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.