The Reef is a romantic novel by American writer Edith Wharton. The story begins in a location in Paris and rural France, although most of the characters are Americans. American diplomat George Darrow still keeps in contact with his former lover Anna Leath, who was previously married. Darrow wants to resume their relationship, but he worries about her commitment. Sophy Viner is a woman who is an ambitious aspiring actress, Darrow met her but never got to know her thoroughly. Later in the story, Darrow makes an effort to convince Sophy not to marry Owen, who is Anna’s stepson. Darrow admits to Anna that he knew Sophy, she quizzes him out of concern for Owen. Sophy breaks off her engagement with Owen due to Darrow's influence. Read The Reef to know what happens next, will they get to marry each other?
Edith Wharton was born Edith Newbold Jones on January 24, 1862, at 14 West 23rd St. into a prosperous New York family. The only daughter and third child of George Frederic and Lucretia Rhinelander Jones, Edith spent a large portion of her early years in Europe, primarily in France, Germany, and Italy, where she honed her language skills and deepened her appreciation for the beauty of literature, art, and architecture. Although Wharton had a collection of her own poems privately printed when she was 16, she did not start writing seriously until after several years of marriage. The Valley of Decision, Wharton's debut book, was released in 1902. A novel of manners published in 1905, The House of Mirth, examined the stratified society in which the author was raised and its response to societal upheaval. She received a lot of positive reviews and attention for the book. She also became the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. At age 75, she died at Pavillon Colombe on August 11, 1937. In Versailles' Cimetière des Gonards, she is buried next to her close friend Walter Berry.
