The Reef
by Edith Wharton
1912/ 162 pages
rating – 8.5  classic US lit

I’ve read maybe a half dozen of Wharton’s novels and novellas and generally enjoy them – especially those with the pointed criticism of “society” in her era and the Gilded Age. The Reef was one of her earlier works, published just after the depressing Ethan Frome. I think her later works are much better, but they’re not happy books either.

The first 30 or so pages of The Reef were so completely boring with unnecessarily difficult language I almost quit, but when I got to Anna’s section, Book 2, page 36, I caught a very satisfying interest – and it seemed the reading was easier as well. Still, it took much longer than I expected a 165 page book to take, the end seemed to drag on and on, but Wharton, like her contemporaries, liked to make sure all the ends were tied.  >>>>MORE>>>>