Edith Wharton set herself a stylistic exercise and produced the least forgiving book of her career. In the grip of a merciless New England winter, a silent farmer is bound to a querulous, ailing wife who rules from her chair — and to the young cousin who has come to keep house for them. Framed as a story pieced together by a stranger years afterward, the novel tells us from its first pages that something has already gone terribly wrong. This edition presents the complete and unabridged novel, newly typeset and illustrated with 30 full-page color plates.























